Archive for the Category »The Designer «
Hi Karlyn,
I recently did some restoration work for a member of Pola Stout’s family, consisting of two suits, an Adrian and an Irene, that were part of Pola’s personal wardrobe. I thought you might like to share photographs of Pola Stout’s custom Irene suit, along with the original PSI swatch card labeled “Irene – Fall 1948″, a studio portrait of Pola wearing the suit c.1948, and an original length of the sample yardage done in the reverse colorway.
Pola and Irene were longtime friends and Irene had this suit custom made for Pola in 1948 from her own hand woven textile. Pola Stout treasured the suit and wore it for many years, having it re-fit and the lapels cut down sometimes in the late 50′s.
Enjoy,
Bret
All Artifacts Courtesy of Pola Stout’s family. Photographs courtesy of Bret Fowler
What a fabulous suit! Many thanks to the Stout Family and Bret Fowler for sharing. Visit the gallery to view more Irene’s from Bret’s personal collection.
What a great time! I was invited by Greg to visit Raleigh Studios, in Hollywood California, for a tour of where he’s been working on the set of The Closer. Author and Designer, Greg LaVoi – our gracious Host for the day – has been an admirer of Irene’s for years and snaps up vintage Irene Lentz designs whenever he can. He has collected a wonderful Irene ensemble there at the studio and they suit “Brenda”, played by actress Kyra Sedgwick, so well.
Greg offered me the opportunity to photograph his Irene Collection and I’m so excited to share them with you here. My photos are of just a small portion of his collection, but show you some of my favorites from the visit. Thanks again to my friend Greg, who gave my family and I this memorable day in LA.
Click on the thumbnails to see a larger photo of each.
Photo credit: TNT, The Closer, Fashion File Blog, Author Greg Lavoi
Designer, Greg LaVoi, has been dressing Kyra in Irenes for some time now and has built up quite a nice collection from what I hear. I have been invited to come down to the studio to view this collection and I’m so excited!
So Tuesday, I’m headed off to Hollywood! I have been enjoying Greg’s blog files at TNT for a while now and so look forward to meeting Greg in person. I hope to take some photos that I can share with you here next week.
Meanwhile, head on over to TNT’s “The Closer” site, to read up on Greg’s Fashion Files where you’re sure to see more mention of Irene and photos of Kyra wearing Irenes. Also, don’t miss Greg’s newest blog, titled “Hemm-ing and Haw-ing” – a delightful interview and inside scoop of the weekly guest stars on The Closer.
If you are a Hollywood fan like me, you will get a kick out of Greg’s witty and wonderful weekly writings. Check them out! More on my Hollywood visit with Greg next week!
A few weeks ago, I posted the photos of the beautiful gowns from Winifred’s Irene collection. Winifred offered to share some more detailed photos of these gowns, so we could see some of the up-close, hand-sewn work Irene’s designs entail. It’s not often we get the chance to take a deeper, more investigative look (so to speak) into Irene’s handi-work, so when Winifred offered to share with us, I was thrilled and hope you enjoy as well.
Thanks again to Winifred for sharing photos and insight into the detailed work of Designer Irene.
From Winifred:
.. I can tell you, and from my experiences in sewing and tailoring, the majority of the work that was done on each of these dresses was done by hand. It was not easy to capture this kind of work up close because it was all hand sewn and meant to be invisible to the eye, even on the inside.
The cocktail dress the hem was re-done at a later time but, the dress is lined and has a hand sewn zipper (only Couture houses do this kind of work). The lining on the blue cocktail dress is all hand sewn on the inside. The cap sleeves were cut with an inverted “V” and again the lining was tailored around the sleeves and hand sewn as well. I do not know if Irene had personally worked on the blue cocktail dress but, she must have hired very dedicated employees to do this kind of tailoring.
As for the ivory and purple gown everything was hand sewn as well. There is even a lining that comes up from the bottom of the gown to the middle and then there is no lining. And that lining was all hand sewn in which is extremely hard to do with velvet. There are eight hooks and eyes in the gown to allow for the fanning of the bow and for the bow to hold its shape. Just simply brilliant Couture work done! Even the gathering in back was all hand sewn and each gather measures the exact same in width and length. This must have been a very time consuming gown to make but, again Irene’s amazing focus and attention to detail are present throughout the gown.
Click to view:
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