I have a lot of little vintage notions and things, and sometimes I feel like I could just spend all day sorting them and staring at the pretty packaging. Did you know that here in Portland we have a craft supply thrift store? (!) I have such a weakness. Anyway, I came across these bright …

Now that Negroni is out there, I wanted to share some inspiration we’ve collected for little details you can add to spice up a guy’s shirt. First, I’ll start with some cool details from retro menswear company Original Penguin. I love the dark contrasting underside of the collar on the double nugget shirt above, and …

Perhaps it’s the impending holidays, but I’ve been studying a lot of fancy details lately, particularly lace and illusion necklines. I thought I’d share some images from someone I consider the queen of the illusion gown, midcentury designer Peggy Hunt. These images were lovingly collected by Peggy Hunt’s granddaughter, Jacqui. Isn’t that wonderful? You can …

Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973)  Italian Elsa Schiaparelli created simple wearable clothing with elaborate or eccentric trimmings and details. She was known for unusual, sometimes trompe l’oeil effects. In fact, her first design was for a black pullover depicting a white bow as if tied around the neck.* Once disparagingly called “the Italian artist who makes dresses” …

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (1883-1971)  French   Prudence Glynn, a fashion journalist, described Coco Chanel’s style as functional chic, which is completely accurate, seeing as her clothes came from the desire to dress herself in comfortable functional pieces without extraneous details. Practicality was the genesis of her style, in the ease of putting on a man’s sweater, the …

Madeleine Vionnet (1877-1975) French Madeleine Vionnet trained in the well known fashion houses of Callot Soeurs (Callot Sisters) and Jacques Doucet. While there she discovered a way to work with fabric that sealed her destiny.  Her influence is now seen in every slinky, body-skimming dress. She developed a style of three-dimensional cutting, using the three …

Paul Poiret (1879–1944) French   Originally, apprenticed to an umbrella manufacturer, Paul Poiret would sketch and create small dress models using the discarded silk scraps. His clothing career began in earnest with a position at the House of Worth under Charles Worths’ sons Gaston and Jean-Pierre. There he was expected to create the practical clothes while …

Fashion by Christopher Breward is an academic, critical, and thoroughly researched history of western fashion in the last two centuries — but, more than that, it’s an examination of how fashion came to be deemed worthy of critical study. I was fascinated throughout by the questions Breward raises: how does fashion reflect culture? How does …

(source: design*sponge) I adore browsing websites like The Selby or Design*Sponge for sneak peaks into studios of artists and designers. So perfectly chaotic, so profoundly organized. Looking around my own space, I seek to project my creativity into my surroundings in hopes of becoming immersed in the concepts that float within my brain. One thing …

We recently watched 3 Coins in The Fountain and while I found the film rather silly, the wardrobe of the three main characters were quite stunning. The film takes place in Rome and centers around the lives of three American secretaries living there. Just look at that two-toned green beauty above! It has precious little …

Charles Frederick Worth (1825–1895) English France is the birthplace of fashion, and the very first couturier that created a following and was known by name was based there. However, Charles Frederick Worth was not French, but an Englishman. A salesman of shawls, ready made coats, fabrics, and trimmings in England, at age 20, Worth moved to France …

This gorgeous dress from allencompanyinc is so inspiring. I love the seafoam color (one of my favorites), the sheer fabric, and of course those lovely lovely loops. These would be very easy to create: just a bit of bias tape stitched by hand or machine to the surface of a dress in a looping pattern. …

Bonjour! I’m Rachel, the newest editorial intern over at Colette Patterns. Boy, am I excited to be here! Sarai and I will be cookin’ up vintage inspired tutorials for all of you lovely sewists. Shall we begin? One of the most special aspects of vintage clothing are the unique little details and unexpected embellishments that add …

Did you guys see these images from Jeanne Lanvin’s private library on The Selby this past week? Truly inspiring. See all of the images over at the always-amazing site, The Selby.

These are the fascinating results of our recent poll on where you find your sewing inspiration. A number of you also said in the comments that sewing blogs are another major source of inspiration (which I was thrilled to hear, of course). The two biggest sources of inspiration were raw materials and vintage clothing. We …

Since we’ve been talking about inspiration lately, and since the worldwide fashion weeks have just wrapped up, I’m curious to hear from you guys: Where do you get the most inspiration for the things that you sew? So I made this little poll for you: What are the top three place you find inspiration? And …