pattern junkie

The Go Everywhere Man

Behold the GO EVERYWHERE man -- 1970s dude extraordinaire.  It makes me happy to realize that in the 1970s Simplicity felt that even an international criminal/super spy might need a pattern for an efficient, flexible wardrobe that allows him to blend in anywhere.  I bring you Simplicity 7943:

70s BUSINESS DUDE is our hero's main disguise, as signaled by the large pattern illustration.  The 'stache is tamed.  He's walking calmly.  But note how his left hand creeps toward his pocket...our first clue that he might be more than he seems.  He's ready to grab a weapon (I'm betting a ninja star) in an instant if the situation warrants.

CASUAL DUDE (bottom row, center) is business dude's natural counterpart.  Striped polo shirt, hands in pockets, one leg crossed.  The look screams casual, but check out those eyes.  He knows every exit in any room he's in.  He's alert to any sign that he's gotta go...he'll whip out one of his three passports and don his next outfit, which is...

BERMUDA BUSINESS DUDE (top row, left).  Swap out the pants for plaid shorts and don some sunglasses and long socks, and our international superspy is ready to attend to business in the tropics.  A few dozen bank accounts in the Caicos are required, after all, when your other persona is...

COLOMBIAN DRUG DEALER DUDE (top row, center).  Witness the straw fedora and briefcase.  I need say no more.

JAMES BOND SEDUCER DUDE (top row, right) is an easy persona to adopt with the right stylistic changes.  Add a turtleneck.  Put a wave in that hair and a smoldering look in your eyes.  The Continental has nothing on you now. Finally, we have...

GOLFING DUDE (bottom row, right).  Sadly, Simplicity really dropped the ball on this one -- any astute observer would see right through our hero's disguise.  Who wears a thick ski sweater with Bermuda shorts to golf?  (Only someone with bars of gold bullion or ammunition rounds strapped to their chest, that's who.) And either our guy has cankles, or he's chosen to hide his bankroll in his socks.

War of the Super Shirts

1970s culture wars, pattern style.

Super Shirts (Butterick 4337) vs. Embroidery Design (Simplicity 6380):


 

Organic gardening vs. mind altering experiences

Mother Jones vs. Rolling Stone

The Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun" vs. The Eagles' "Life in the Fast Lane"

Sorry, Super Shirts.  Ms. Embroidery Design is going to kick both your asses.

Surrealist Pattern Art

Here's a 1964 painting called "The Son of Man" by surrealist Rene Magritte:

In a 1965 interview, Magritte said of the painting:

...so you have the apparent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden, the face of the person...we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us.

And now here's Simplicity 4886, copyright 1966:

Wikipedia claims that Magritte's popularity began to rise in the 1960s, which really makes me wonder if Simplicity's pattern illustrator was directly influenced by the artist's work.  (If so, I like to imagine the illustrator snickering at his or her subversiveness, mocking the bourgeiosie as she/he snuck Surrealist art into something as middlebrow and mainstream as a sewing pattern for capris.)

Take a closer look at the pattern illustration and it gets more bizarre.  At first it seems the models are holding the line drawings to cover their faces, but that's not the case.  They're holding the drawings at chest level, meaning that THEY HAVE NO HEADS!  These are three headless bodies modeling capris for the women of 1960s America!  As much as you may want to "see what is hidden by what [you] see," you can't.  There's nothing behind the apple. 

Three headless women modeling clothing while holding pictures of clothing...if that's not a comment on fashion and consumption, I don't know what it.

Of course, it could all be an interesting coincidence...but wouldn't you love to pick that pattern illustrator's brain?  I know I would...

Doll for an August Moon

Check out this vintage 1970s Emilio Pucci pattern that Wendy of Patternstash has in her etsy shop:  (I know!  EMILIO PUCCI!)

Sigh...it's in a B36.  If it were a B34, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.  (I know, I know, I could grade it down...but given that I've got plenty of B34 patterns waiting for their moment on the sewing table, I've got to attempt some self control).

Of course, I'd have to make it in an outrageous Pucci print.  Maybe the same fabric used on this chair:

Of course, then I'd have to move to a fabulous Italian city.  Rome?  Florence?  And I'd need that chair in my living room.  Actually, I'd need a whole swinging space age pad.

Who am I kidding?  A dress like this demands even more.  I'd have to become a character in Mario Bava's 5 Dolls for an August Moon.  I'd spend a decadent weekend at a remote, hip beach house with three fabulously wealthy couples.  We'd do nothing but smoke, drink, steal each other's lovers and kill each other off.

See?  Tell me Edwige Fenech isn't wearing a Pucci scarf when she discovers something horrific on the beach right there...