1 - Dim the lights, grab the popcorn: #threadtalk is going to the (creepy) movies. 🎃🍿🥤
This special edition features a broad list of films that haunt, terrify & sometimes titillate--but always with style. Horror, musicals, cartoons (& odd Disney choices) we've got 'em all. 🔪
2 - NOTE: Inclusion in this list does not mean my personal approval of their director(s), creator(s), actors, producers, etc. Hollywood is nasty on a good day, & some of these films have not aged well.
These are pulled from *my* personal experience in horror films. So, YMMV.
3 - I'm beginning with ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968). Starring Mia Farrow as the mother of a the spawn of Satan himself, I definitely saw this movie way too young (thanks, Mom!).
The poster it fantastic, but it's Farrow's innocent pastel wardrobe that makes the fashion statement.
1 - 🎃 Welcome to #ThreadTalk! It's the spookiest month & we're jumping right in with a look at ghostly garb👻!
Thrills, chills & blood-curdling horrors await as we take a trip through history & ask the question: "Okay, but what would that ghost *actually* be wearing?" 🎃
2 - We're starting in Japan. Because Japan has the best ghosts & my favorite art. Yūrei (幽霊) are closer to a Western concept of ghosts, but spirits of all kinds are common through Japanese folklore.
This one is from the incredible Bakemono no e, dating from around 1700.
3 - The Yūrei are often depicted as women with long, black hair. By the date of this print, I'd say a kosode (a kimono precursor) would be a good match.
The colors are natural, pale, haunting. You see in the embroidered closeup, too, all the sea grass & shellwork. Just wow.
It's astounding how often spicy scenes get trashed in fantasy, but I find I spend way more time working them out--especially because they have to serve a lot of purposes.
For me, it's always an emotional/character moment. The reader is going to be REALLY paying attention now.
This is especially true in a romance, where the characters are coming together for the FIRST TIME.
It's got to have that emotional punch, and a lot of complexity. Otherwise it's like a bad fight scene. Lots of equipment/weapons, and bad choreography.
Personally, for me, *how* a character initiates intimacy, with whom, and in what way, is a big glimpse into who they are.
1 - It's time for #threadtalk! Today's topic, the Grand Dame of Damask: Anna Maria Garthwaite.
This silk icon has quite a tale, but so does her stomping ground of Spitalfields, London.
And beyond the frippery? The horrors of 18thC England: persecution, riots & taxes🕍🔪💷
2 - Anna Maria was born in 1688 in Lincolnshire, to Rev. Ephraim Garthwaite & Rejoyce (rad name). The family was well to do & Anna Maria would have had a basic education. She showed early artistic prowess, like in this 1707 cut-paper work of a village w/remarkable detail.
3 - I mean, look at the incredible detail on this. Each and every tree has a different shape & leaf pattern, far beyond basic representation. The little horse and rider, the delicate horns on the deer. Painstaking work here that foreshadows the skill of an artist, to be certain.
Buckle up, though. There is a distinct lack of dazzle today.
We're meeting the makers & laborers of apparel history--& how they lived & died for their craft.
2 - In Asia, & China specifically, silk became one of the first real fabric blockbusters for trade during the Han Dynasty, beginning the Silk Road.
Traditionally, weaving was left to women while men farmed & sold, and this continued as trade grew.
3 - Francesca Bray puts it simply in "Textile Production & Gender Roles":“The growth of the textile industry involved new forms of organization of production that made men the skilled workers and marginalized women.”
This is by no means unique to China. It's the story of fabric.
1 - Hey folks! It's a surprise #threadtalk on the medieval theme of the moment: #TheGreenKnight! I just had to come out of hibernation to talk about what I saw in the theater.
Velvet! Crêpe! CROWNS! Pentagrams! I've got you covered. Well, at least *partially*. 📗🪓
2 - Yes, we're starting with that cloak & color choice. Keeping things spoiler-free here, Gawain is seen wearing a golden velvet cloak very early on.
It's quilted, so nice & warm. It's golden, but also a bit ochre--yellow can mean golden, but also... well, cowardice, y'know?
3 - Velvet is a perfect choice for the nephew of Arthur. It's HELLA expensive (as we've covered; links later). This is SILK velvet. Not polyester crap from the 70s. And it takes skilled labor beyond reasoning to make.
But it also *absorbs light*. I feel like this is essential.