"As Elizabeth Lawrence often said, 'To understand a designer, you have to get into his mind; to understand a dress, you must allow it to tell you what it is all about.'"
--From A Dressmaker Extraordinaire by Betty Kirke.

Also, a very interesting article here. O! The things to learn at the Costume Institute.

Kirke wrote Madeleine Vionnet, full of beautiful photos, observations and, brilliantly, PATTERNS of MV's work. This is the kind of work I want to do, and the challenge of taking patterns from clothing that was not only cut on the bias to begin with but also had been worn, conforming to bodies and shifting shapes over the decades is daunting, but exciting. I feel the same about Marie Anna's clothing; so many different little pieces, and how do you figure the sleeves? I suppose you look at contemporary patterns. Or maybe find Janet Arnold's notebooks? Look for the grain, the grain! At least I'm not dealing with crepe or jersey. And anyways, that's just a fantasy for now....

But the above quotation best describes where I am in my thesis right now. I can read all I want about the middle class and Simmel's contemporary ideas about fashion, but I just need to look at these garments. I'm going home as soon as I can to start that very basic task of cataloging and choosing pieces....so exciting!