A tale of two Hollies

When I saw a picture of a Pierre Balmain 'Holly' dress on Kerry Taylor Auctions' Instagram, I assumed that it was the annual repost of the dress which I fell in love with in 2015. But it looked a little different, and when I read the text I discovered that this is another Holly dress, and it's in the Passion For Fashion auction this coming Tuesday (10 December).

The dress for sale, and the original image from L'Officiel

I still have all the images of the first dress stored away, so I thought that I would compare the two. (All images, apart from those of my own dress, are copyright Kerry Taylor.)

Front views

From this, it's obvious that the dresses are very different shapes. The 2024 version is longer, and looks less full-skirted. The short, bell-shaped, skirt appears to have been a feature of Balmain's 1955 dresses, as it also appears on the 'Medallion' dress sold by Kerry Taylor in 2022.

Why yes, I 'would' like to recreate the Medallion dress one day!

Of course this difference may just be because the client for whom it was made was a different shape from the owner of the 2015 version. However, the dress currently for sale has a narrower and deeper front neckline, and wider shoulder seams. The difference between the necklines is even more obvious at the back.

Back views

The differences are explained in the condition report on the Kerry Taylor website, which states that the dress has been heavily altered. The report speculates that the upper part of the dress may have been damaged, and the lower section used to make a new dress. If so, it has been very skilfully done, given that the embroidered leaves on the bodice go over the princess seams, as on the 2015 version.

The princess seams on both are nigh-on invisible

The embroidery is, rightly, described as "superb", but there is no doubt that it differs from the dress sold in 2015. This is perhaps best illustrated in the side view.

The side seam is more apparent

Unsurprisingly, I have never bought a dress from a couture house - the nearest I have come to that is watching Mrs Harris Goes to Paris - so I have no idea how much the client can influence the overall look of their purchase. But there is no denying that the embroidery on the two versions is very different. The most obvious variation is in density. It's apparent in the two images above that the leaves on the 2015 version are far more tightly packed, with some overlaps, and the berries more bunched. Of course, the more widely spaced leaves of the 2024 version may be due to it being made from the lower section, where there are fewer leaves. Equally, some of the berries may have been snipped off and redistributed.

Another difference is that all of the leaves on the 2024 version are a broadly similar shape and all, with the exception of those around the neckline, point downwards. The dress sold in 2015 had a number of different leaf shapes, and they were orientated in different directions.

The actual design of the leaves is different, too. On the 2015 version, the central spine is indicated by a slight gap in the embroidery, whereas on the 2024 dress it is embroidered in silver thread. Also, all of the 2024 leaves are made with one side in a more blue-based palette and the other side more green and gold, whereas in 2015 there were some leaves entirely in the cooler shade, and less densely embroidered.

Close-ups of the embroidery

I should add that none of this is in any way meant to denigrate the dress currently for sale, it's just that having spent far longer than is normal studying the dress sold in 2015, I was fascinated to explore the differences. The idea that there are different versions of the Holly dress out there pleases me immensely, as I feel that my version has elements of both of them.

My version - this remains my proudest sewing achievement

And yes, I did base my jewellery choices on the L'Officiel image!

Update, 10 December: Despite being unlabelled, heavily altered, and having an estimate of £200-£300, the dress sold for £2,400. Clearly I'm not the only one who loves the Holly dress!

Colour!

Woot! I have tried stranded colourwork, and it wasn't nearly as scary or complicated as I had feared.

I am absurdly proud of this

My local fabric and yarn shop has stopped stocking a particular brand of 4 ply, and was selling off the remaining stock absurdly cheaply, so I bought a few balls of that to practise with. I knitted a swatch with a few rows of stocking stitch as a base and then, armed with a YouTube video and my trusty copy of the Ultimate Knitting Bible by Sharon Brant, I launched into it.

The book recommended starting with a simple chequer pattern, so that you can concentrate on just handling the yarns rather than trying to follow a pattern as well, so that's what I did. It also illustrates various methods of holding the yarns in one or both hands, but I settled on a sort of hybrid method which would no doubt make knitting purists weep, but works for me. Hopefully, my technique will get better over time.

The video was Susan Crawford's second video for her colourwork KAL, and she demonstrated how she knits stranded colourwork in the round. Much of the information was equally applicable for knitting flat, and I found it really helpful. The main thing I learned was the importance of consistently passing one colour over the top of the stitches, and one colour over the bottom. It gives a neater finish, and stops the yarns from getting tangled. I did do this the wrong way round on one row of my sample - it's at the top, where there are two yellow strands close together.

Stranding across the back

The best way to keep the upper and lower stranding right seems to be to work with one yarn each side of you. But because I prefer to knit in a chair without arms, I had the two balls of wool balanced on my lap, which didn't work at all well. I considered putting them in my tie-on pockets, but those aren't really the right shape and size for the job. The basic idea was fine, though, so I have started making a new set of pockets just for holding wool. They are more shallow and open than my original pockets, almost like small baskets.

Pocket making in progress

I added a deep pleat at the centre, so that hopefully the ball of wool will stay securely in the pocket and not fall out.

Holding a ball of wool

Knitting-wise, the next stage is to try another practice piece, but this time following an actual pattern. There's still a long way to go before I'm at all proficient at this, but I'm excited to be adding another skill to my knitting education.

And then there were three

As you can see from my Ravelry projects page, my plan to only have one knitting project on the go at once has failed dismally! It's actually even worse than it looks, as my slate Wondrella with cable details is set to 'hibernating' status for the time being.

Oops!

In my (feeble) defence, I always take my knitting when I go to my mum's, and I could hardly knit her Christmas present in front of her! She asked me to make her a longer version of Express Line, so that bit isn't a surprise, but she doesn’t know what wool I'm using. It's Stylecraft Special xl Super Chunky, so essentially the same yarn that I used for my version, but without the viscose flecks which provided the tweed effect. Other than the length, it's the same size as mine, so I can just follow the notes I made previously. Mum isn't a fan of light colours (like me), so the yarn options were quite limited. Fortunately, she shares my love of blue, so I know that she'll like this shade, called 'Petrol'.

Upper back

Meanwhile, my Lothian shawl is coming along nicely. I have completed the first set of five 'routes', complete with the zig-zag effect.

My five route colours

Zig-zags and termini

As this was my Edinburgh-related 60th birthday present to myself, I would like to get it completed while I'm still 60, but with so many other things to do just now that is looking unlikely. Despite this, I've taken on another project! I decided to join Susan Crawford's Colourwork KAL as a way of finally tackling stranded colourwork. My current plan is to knit Poppy from A Stitch in Time volume 3.

Poppy

Only the yoke is patterned, so it seems like an good way of easing into the technique. Plus, the pattern gives full instructions for knitting flat, which is how I will knit it. I can see why knitting in the round is so popular, but because I was taught to knit in the Scottish manner (with the right needle held against your body by your right arm), I find it ridiculously hard to hold two knitting needles. I've tried, but just can't do it. When I do knit on circular needles, I end up with the right needle end either wedged against me in some way, held in my left hand, or resting on the work. There's a lot of plain stocking stitch in Poppy, especially as I may knit the sleeves first to get them done, so that will give me plenty of time to practise working with two (stash) yarns before I have to do it with the good stuff.

And what good stuff it is. I bought the kit from Susan Crawford Vintage, and the yarn is gorgeous.

The yarn kit

So far, I've only knitted the gauge swatch, but the yellow has a wonderful depth and variation, and the knitted fabric blocks beautifully.

Blocking the gauge swatch

It is so much finer than any yarn I've used before, though - this is going to be a long project. Still, a short-sleeved jumper is not something I'm going to need any time soon.

Tricks of memory

It's been one of those weeks where I've done a lot on various things, but not enough on any one thing to be worth a blog post. Instead, I'm raiding the archives and looking at a 40-year-old copy of Vogue Patterns. I've chosen 1984 because last week I was at an event related to the Liverpool Waterfront Transformation Project, and talking to someone about when I first came to the city in the early eighties - so the decade was on my mind. Although looking at some of the images now, they seem more alien to me than many of the illustrations in 1940s-50s issues. Even though I can remember many of the styles, it feels odd that I actually lived through that period.

Autumn 1984

In November 1984 I was a second year geography student, and most definitely not using Vogue patterns as they were well outside my budget. (For example, a Style blouse pattern from that year cost £2.25, while a Vogue blouse pattern cost £4.00.)

One thing which immediately struck me was that whereas in the 1950s and 1960s there were a lot of large advertisements for fabric manufacturers, complete with a list of stockists (usually department stores), by this time most of the advertising was for individual fabric shops.

Two of the fabric shop adverts

There are a couple of features on fabric brands: the much missed (by me at least) Viyella, and John Kaldor which, 40 years later, is still producing top quality fabrics.

Sadly not forever

I never knew the John Kaldor was originally an Australian firm

By 1984, Vogue patterns were clearly into the 'dress like a rectangle' years.

Why?

At least I like the shoes

The 'long skirt and flat shoes' combo was popular, too. I do remember dressing like this - at 1.63m/5'4" I must have looked swamped in fabric!

Worryingly familiar

I'm rather taken with the jumper in this illustration; I might need to look out for the issue of Vogue Knitting which contains it (because obviously, I am in desperate need of another knitting project!).

Promising

This jumper however I can definitely live without!

Bright and batwing and mohair oh my!

Skirts may have been long, but apparently trousers were not.

For that 'shrunk in the wash' look

After all these up-to-the-minute styles, it's rather a shock to turn a page and come across these.

Possibly aimed at older readers?

This issue also features Vogue's foray into patterns for interior décor. They are, to put it politely, not to my taste.

Frilled to bits

Readers were advised to "watch for more patterns in this series", which to me sounds more of a threat than an enticement! Certainly I won’t be rushing to hunt through later pattern books for them, although I do wonder how long this line lasted.

Something different

I have started work on a new dress. Hardly out of the ordinary for me, but there are a couple of things which make this one a little unusual. First, it's black. The only completed plain black item ever to appear on this blog is a skirt which didn't even get its own post, and my previous attempt to make a black dress, Butterick 7598, has languished in the UFO pile for ages. But suddenly, I felt the urge to make a new black dress after over a decade of not wearing the colour. Second, possibly inspired by the Bedazzled exhibition, I decided to include some sort of embellished element.

I couldn't find any fabric I liked on the roll in my local fabric shop, but then I spotted this remnant. It's embossed in a pattern of circles, and has a very slight sheen. Unfortunately, the pattern is not on the crosswise grain (a common issue with remnants, I find), so I am cutting out in line with the circles and hoping for the best.

The fabric with the grain aligned to my cutting board

The obvious thing with remnants is that you have to work with what you've got, and in this case, I don't have a lot. My first idea was to make another Butterick 6866 view B, but that skirt takes a lot of fabric.

I have less than 3m of fabric . . .

. . . and this pattern needs far more than that

Instead, I have just cut out the bodice pieces for now, excluding the facings as I'm going to line the dress. Once the bodice is made up, I will find a suitable skirt pattern for the fabric I have left.

For the embellishment, I'm using black sequins in satin and shiny finishes. So far, I've made buttons for the bodice using square sequins sewn in a chequerboard effect and wrapped over a base of scrap perspex.

I'm on a bit of a fancy button roll!

The plan is to make the lower curved section out of fabric the wrong side up and covered with round sequins. Unfortunately, it's a long time since I have worked with sequins, and I had forgotten just how long it takes!

Thread-traced pattern piece prepped for embellishing

My (limited) progress so far

Hopefully I will get faster as I get more practice.

New Look 6000, again

Finally, my sewjo appears to be making a cautious but welcome return. I've made a new dress - entirely unplanned and, for once, not in a vintage style!

It's a pattern from the 21st century!

When I went to the preview of the Bedazzled exhibition the other week, guests were encouraged to wear their most sparkly outfits. Unfortunately for me, the most/only sparkly thing in my wardrobe was the purple version of New Look 6000 view C with its beaded buttons.

The sum total of bling in my wardrobe

Given that I made it back in July 2012, I wasn't sure if I would still be able to get into it! To my amazement, I could, and wearing it again reminded me just how much I liked it. So much so that I decided on a whim to make a new version, using a stashed length of blue/grey fabric. It is suiting weight, slightly stretchy, and was part of a bundle of sewing stuff that I had bought in a charity shop because I wanted something else in the bundle.

New dress!

There isn't really a lot to say about the construction. I made the sleeves a little longer and omitted the cuffs as they are a nice feature, but bulky. Something which can't be worn with a jacket or cardi over the top was fine when I worked in a warm office - nowadays, not so much! I had also forgotten just how much New Look patterns run short on me; even though I had lengthened the skirt, it still needed a seam binding finish in order to make the hem as tiny as possible. Finally, I definitely need to learn how to do a full bust adjustment on a sheath dress, as it's undoubtedly snug in that area. Overall though, I'm happy.

#sewnshownseated

I'm particularly pleased with the button on the collar. I wanted to do some sort of beading again, but couldn't think what. Then I remembered this hair ornament which Dante Gabriel Rosetti used in several of his paintings.

Clockwise from top left, details from: Monna Vanna, The Beloved, A Christmas Carol, Mariana, The Bower Meadow

I drew a spiral freehand on some tearaway stabiliser (accidentally in the opposite direction to the original!), and sandwiched the fabric between this and a scrap of cotton to stop it from pulling out of shape. I sewed down a small cabochon at the centre, then couched a string of silver beads around this and along the spiral, and removed the stabiliser. Finally, I did single stitches in silver thread between the rows of beads, and arranged the end result over a large self-cover button. Because the fabric underneath blends into the dress, I feel that it gives a similar effect to the Rosetti ornament.

Close-up of the button

Finally, this unplanned project is another reduction on the Stashometer.

I'm amazed that I've used that much, tbh

It may only be a couple of metres, but with less than two months to go to the end of the year, I'll take any win I can get!

Bedazzled

Bedazzled, the new exhibition at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, looks at the lasting appeal of beaded and sequinned dresses through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first.

Old and new(ish) on display together

Some of the pieces were previously in the Shimmer and Shine exhibition at the Walker, but here they are displayed alongside newer additions to NML's costume archive; items originally owned by local businesswoman Leila Potter. Many of these are from the 1980s and 1990s, but some are almost contemporary.

Sequinned evening coat, 2021-22

The great joy for me is that none of the garments are behind glass, so it is possible to see (and photograph) them without reflections. This 1930 cape, for example, was impossible to study properly in Shimmer and Shine but here it is able to, well, shine.

Sequinned cape and velvet dress

Detail

These two 1920s dresses are displayed with a beaded dress hemline section which was sold ready to be made up into a dress, but never used.

Complete dresses, and a piece for a dressmaker

Early and late twentieth century pieces are displayed side by side.

1980s and 1920s

The notes for the c1925 evening dress on the left point out that the all-over design of glass beads would make it both very heavy and difficult to sit down in. The 1990-2000 jacket on the right, while less densely decorated, was doubtless more comfortable to wear.

Opulence v comfort

Unlike me, Mrs Potter clearly loved pink. Despite not liking the colour, I did admire the way the beading on this dress used large pearls to create a faux collar.

There is no separate collar on this dress

I did, however, struggle to find anything to admire in the jacket on the right. It's just not my taste at all. On the other hand, I was very impressed with whoever in NML's exhibitions team had the job of hanging all the paillettes to make the sparkly backdrops - it must have taken forever!

I did like the jacket on the left

The exhibition also includes information on how beaded clothes are made, and a small display of beaded bags and shoes.

I would love a pair of shoes with heels like these

Or any of these heels, for that matter

Going round the exhibition today I encountered several ladies, all about a decade older than me, who felt that the 1980s and later pieces should not be in a museum exhibition because they were not "old". Which was an interesting reaction. Yes, we could all remember when these clothes were the latest fashion, but plenty of other visitors could not. And surely that's the point of museums - to offer something of interest to as wide a range of people as possible?

Be dazzled at the Lady Lever

If you would like to visit and decide for yourself, Bedazzled runs until 26 January 2025.