This carries on from the session before, where we went through the Marie Antoinette exhibition at the V&A. If you have not seen that one, watch it first.

At the end of the exhibition there was a section of couture and costume inspired by her, borrowed from the designers, and that is what I want to look at today. Less history this time, more construction.

I am still working from my kitchen, because the garage is not ready. My builder’s wife broke her leg and had surgery, so everything has slipped again.

What We Covered:

• Started with Manolo Blahnik’s shoes for Sofia Coppola’s film, hand made in England using Lyon silks from Claremont and English embroideries from Stephen Walters. The brief from the costume designer was not to be academic about the period, just inspired by it, which is worth remembering when you work from a historical reference.
• Pointed out hand frayed edges again, on the shoes and later throughout the costumes. It appeared on the original gowns too. In silk it is a deliberate finish, not a fault.
• Looked at Galliano’s deconstructed corset dress for Dior, spring summer 2006 couture, whose collection was built around the French Revolution. It carries a pixelated effigy of Marie Antoinette taken from the V&A’s own 1773 portrait of her at seventeen.
• Explained what deconstruction actually means, since the word gets used loosely. A constructed look is symmetrical and resolved the way you expect. Deconstruction moves things: lining turned to the outside, a V neckline made asymmetric, elements relocated. On this dress it is the lacing.
• Broke the layers down: a chemise underneath, the corset attached over it, the top piece covering the body, and the skirt belonging to the under layer rather than the corset.
• Studied Galliano’s autumn winter 2000 gown based on an 18th century robe à la polonaise. One side of the skirt shows the queen in court dress, the other a revolutionary in a cap of liberty knitting beside the guillotine, and it is finished with a replica of the necklace from the 1784 diamond necklace affair.
• Moved to the Dior gowns made for the recent series, where the atelier used traditional hand sewing throughout. Clearly modern at first glance but full of period elements, and beautifully made.
• Took the tulle and lace gown apart visually, which is the most useful thing here if you make wedding dresses. Underneath is a stiffer tulle, then a finer layer over it, then the lace. That stack is what holds the shape and makes the lace stand away from the body.
• Worked out what is attached to what: the top piece joins the corset along with the tiered skirt layers, while the plain front skirt panel appears to be worn separately underneath.
• Looked closely at the boning on the heart shaped corset. Some of it sits in proper tunnels and some is simply stitched on top of the outside, which is not what you would expect and is well worth seeing.
• Went through Canonero’s costumes for the film, which won her an Oscar. Period detail with a carefully balanced palette of pastels and neons, shot almost entirely at Versailles, and the skirts noticeably more manageable than the real gowns.
• Admired one jacket in particular, in a pale lemon pink, and picked out the tiny stitches used to build its surface texture, along with bows that appear to be covered horsehair of the sort used in hat making, which is why they hold their shape so well.
• Finished on the Chanel gown Karl Lagerfeld made for Kirsten Dunst, photographed by Annie Leibovitz for American Vogue in September 2006, with tulle rosettes and wire and bead flowers.

Questions & Answers:

• Q: How do they get the lace to stand out like that?
• A: It is the layering. A stiffer tulle underneath, a finer one over it, then the lace on top. Learn that stack if you want structure without weight, especially for bridal.
• Q: Are those bows real horsehair?
• A: I think they are covered horsehair, the sort milliners use. That is why they keep such a clean shape rather than collapsing.

If you ever get the chance to see couture from the late nineties or early two thousands up close, take it. The budgets and the craftsmanship then were on a different level, and photographs from those years do not show the detail.

Next week I will pull together the strongest looks from the recent award shows and we can dissect how they were made.

Keep making things in the meantime. Use your hands, whether that is a garment, a painting or dinner. That is genuinely what keeps us well.