Finding Ferny Dale

It was early when the three little elves left their home in the Elvin Forest to go looking for Misty's cousin. The sun had barely risen above the horizon, but they knew if they didn't make the most of the daylight, they may never find Ferny.

When they reached The Ridge (which was really just a moderate mound of grass) Hollow climbed high in an old tree to see if he could see Ferny, but he was nowhere to be seen. And so he climbed a little higher. "Ah hem" he heard, looking all around and seeing no-one, he climbed even higher still. "Ah hem, are you looking for someone? Or are you just climbing all over my limbs for fun?" 

Only then did Hollow realise, it was the tree that was talking to him. "Sorry Mr.Tree, we are looking for Ferny Dale, have you seen him?" he asked. "I don't know a Ferny Dale, so how would I know if I had seen him", the tree replied in a very deep voice. "By the way, I am not Mr.Tree, I'm an Ent and my name is Longbough".

It was then, as he was decending from the Ent, that Hollow saw Ferny hiding below. "Oh there you are!" he decalared. Ferny looked up at him, slightly pink in the face and feeling very embarassed by his situation.

 

Ferny had found a small leaf on the ground with which he managed to cover himself, so he didn't appear to be completely naked. He was pleased they had come to rescue him, but didn't know what to say or do. However, he managed a little smirk in acknowledgement of Hollow's comment.

Misty was very annoyed with Ferny and chastised him for being so stupid to lose all his luggage, even though she did feel a little sad he had been robbed of all his belongings, apart from his specticals and bow tie.

Poor Ferny felt such a fool and really didn't want to come around from behind the Ent at all.

"Stop messing about Ferny, we need to get you home so we can visit the tailor and purchase some new clothes for you", said Misty in her sternest voice. She knew she needed to be forcefull with her cousin or he'd never come from behind the Ent.

Then Mossy tried coaxing him, "You don't have to be embarrassed, it's not like you got robbed intentionally. I mean no-one wants to stroll around in their birthday suit, even in the Elvin Forest."

Finally Longbough chimed in, "I really don't now what all the fuss is about, after all I loose all my clothes every Autumn and no-one cares about my nakedness". After being encouraged by Misty, Mossy, Hollow as well as Longbough, he agreed to go home with them.

So the four little elves said their goodbyes to Longbough and headed home to Beechwood Hall, via the village tailor of course.

-oOo-

Hope you enjoyed this episode. Big hugs, X

The Love Is Catching

Hollow Log, Misty Dell and Mossy Rock live in Beechwood Hall, deep in the Elvin Forest and were expecting Misty's cousin to arrive today. However, he lost his luggage enroute, was then robbed of his clothes, has no money to catch a bus and even if he did, he's too embarrassed to be seen naked. The only thing he managed to save was his bow tie and spectacales. So now they are on their way to rescue him.

Hollow: "Will you please stop kissing me!"

Misty: "But I like kissing you,  you're very sweet to help me and my cousin."

Mossy giggles.

Hollow: "Look here Misty, you can hold my hand if you like."

Misty: "Okay, but I'd still rather kiss you."

Mossy: "Now you've both sorted that out,we had better get moving."
Hollow: "Yes Misty, we need to find your cousin, before he freezes."
Misty: "Well he's been very silly to lose his luggage!"

-oOo-

Now I wonder what's in store for these little travellers next . . . can you guess?

Have a great weekend, big hugs,

X

A Little BJD Love

Pippin was feeling a little poorly today, so Jazz insisted she take it easy. Pippin sat in the chair and put her feet up on the stool, then Jazz tucked her in with a blanket.

"Thank you" said Pippin.

Jazz replied with a smile, "You're welcome".

-oOo-

It's been quite a while since I took any BJD photos, so I quickly took these while I was in the mood. :)

Hope you are all having a happy dolly week!

Big hugs,

X

Cu-poche Hibiki Ganaha - A New Addition

I don't think I have ever spoken about any Anime Chibi figures on my blog before. I'm not a gamer, nor am I really into watching Japanese TV programes. Though I have always been a keen admirer of the Japanese street fashion and Anime art.

I also like the tiny Chibi figures which I have been tempted to purchase from time to time. I've even designed and made some Chibi teddy bears (many moons ago).

But oddly enough, I have only ever owned one cute and lonely Nendoroid Petit. I guess this is mainly due to the fact he constantly looses his head and is a real bugger to stand. Frustration and loss of patience is a rather large reason for me to never purchase another of anything! Perhaps the larger ones maybe better, I really don't know.

Secret Character: Lion Magnus (Also known as Leon Magnus) is a Nendoroid Petit, and an extremely popular character in the Tales of Destiny series and its sequel ToD2.

A cold-hearted, brooding young prodigy of a swordsman from Seinegald, Lion is the youngest master swordsman to become a captain of the Kingdom of Seinegald.

He is closely associated with Hugo Gilchrist and lives in his manor located in the city of Darilsheid. Although he shows a cold exterior to his associates, he opens up to a maid in Hugo's house named Marian. He is also the master of the Swordian of Earth, Chaltier.

I also have one Figma girl . . . #112 Figma, Ayase Aragaki, she's quite old now, but I still enjoy looking at her each day.

Series: Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai

Manufacturer: Max Factory

Price: ¥2,667 (Before Tax)

Release Date: 2011/10

Specifications: Painted ABS&PVC non-scale posable figure, stand included, approximately 135mm in height

Sculptor: Max Factory - Masaki Asai

Released by: Max Factory

Distributed by: Good Smile Company

From the anime 'Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai' comes a figma of Kirino's classmate, fellow model and close friend who cannot stand otaku - Ayase Aragaki!

She comes with a normal face, a disgusted face for when sees an otaku, as well as the yandere face she showed once in awhile. She also has her school bag and cellphone, so you can recreate her school life.

The handcuffs that featured in the 7th volume of the original novel are also included, as well as a poseable figma stand. Flexible plastic is used for specific areas of her body, which allows proportions to be kept without compromising posability.

Until recently, I was unaware of Cu-poche Chibis, but thanks to a recent post on Rachael's blog, I've had my curiosity aroused. I decided to see for myself if they were as good in real life, as they looked on her blog. So after a little browsing, I found this little one in Oz, for a really good price (AU$40 shipped, probably because it was old stock) and I allowed myself to indulge my curosity. :) 

Name: Hibiki Ganaha (我那覇 響 Ganaha Hibiki)

Voiced by: Manami Numakura
Manufacturer : Kotobukiya

Scale : Non
Material : PVC
Producer : Kento Ogawasara , Hidemasa Kiyohara
Series : Cu-poche
Original : The Idolm@ster
Release Date : Late June, 2015
List Price :4,536 yen about US$42.86
JAN code : 4934054183289
Item code : AD020

Hibiki looks great in her new deformed Cu-Poche Style, perfect for display at home or play on the go!

The Hibiki Cu-Poche may be small, but features fifteen points of articulation for a lot of posing options in a portable style toy. She even has magnets in the feet for extra stability! (This is something I would love to see Integrity Toys introduce with their dolls, so we could do away with those crazy doll stands.)

Hibiki's interchangeable face parts, hand parts and accessories, simply add to the fun of playing with her! Just between you and me, I can see myself adding one or two more of these cuties (afterall, they don't take up much space).

INTRODUCING HER STORY:

Introduced in The Idolmaster SP as a member of "Project Fairy", Hibiki is a highly energetic and cheerful girl hailing from Okinawa. Despite rivalries with the other idols, she remains friendly and happy, without becoming overly competitive.

Hibiki has an outstanding number of pets, which she happens to lose quite frequently; her pets include a mouse, a hamster (named Hamuzō in the anime), a gerbil, a parrot, a rabbit, a cat, a dog (named Inumi in the anime), a pig, a flying squirrel, and oddly enough, a crocodile. She also has a pet chicken (named Kokemaro), but apparently it is kept at her parents home in Okinawa.

Hibiki has tanned skin, long black hair tied in a wild ponytail and blue eyes. She usually wears hoop earrings, a white shirt with flannel sleeves and a blue-green in-shirt, as well as black shorts and brown sandals.

In The Idolmaster Dearly Stars, Hibiki is part of "765 Pro". Her three sizes also shrank, since she is the only character that happens to, some fans theorize that President Kuroi was lying about her measurements.

In Puchimas, Hibiki's Puchidol is called "Chibiki", who is very energetic and can summon strange animals to do her bidding, a power that goes haywire when she cries, bringing forth dangerous monsters.

The accessories Hibiki came with, her hamster Hamuzō and microphone with stand. Well that's me for today, hope you are all having a lovely dolly week!

Big hugs, X

Sir Cecil Beaton 1904-1980

Cecil Beaton is one of the most celebrated and distinguished British portrait photographers of the twentieth century and someone who's creativity and drive I have admired throughout my life.

An accomplished illustrator, painter, writer, costume and set designer, he is renowned for his portraits of well known faces from the worlds of fashion, literature, film and royalty. His long and varied career and his ability to attune himself to changing fashions enabled him to capture a diverse range of subjects on camera.

Marlene Dietrich - Cecil Beaton 1935

Beaton had a lifelong passion for the theatre, inspired by the plays he attended and the actresses he met in his childhood. He directed sets and costumes for 12 films and numerous plays, and his own play The Gainsborough Girls was performed at the Theatre Royal in Brighton in 1951. He first visited Hollywood in 1929 and returned many times over the years to capture the glamour of the big screen stars.

Audrey Hepburn, My Fair Lady - Cecil Beaton 1963

Amongst the celebrities captured by his camera, are fashion designers Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli and , artists Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali, screen beauties Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly and Ingrid Bergman, ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev and rock star Mick Jagger.

Cristóbal Balenciaga, Paris - Cecil Beaton 1962

Beaton’s career as a fashion photographer grew naturally out of his work as a society portraitist and flourished under the patronage of Vogue, first in London and Paris and by 1929, New York.

Vogue - Cecil Beaton 1954

The success he achieved in the 1930s reached its height when he was summoned to Buckingham Palace in 1939 to photograph Princess Elizabeth. The event was a great success in itself, with praise in the press for the photographs, but also the starting point for Beaton to become the Royal photographer of choice. It was he who photographed Princess Elizabeth in her uniform of Honorary Colonel of the Grenadier Guards in 1942, he who was chosen to record her coronation in 1953 and later the wedding of Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong-Jones.

Princess Elizabeth - Cecil Beaton March1945

In 1940 Beaton was appointed as an official photographer for the Ministry of Information. The portraits that he took at the time in themselves extended his range, beyond the glamorous and the grand to children and old men whom Beaton portrayed with clarity and sensitivity. In September 1940, Life carried Beaton’s portrait of three-year-old Blitz victim Eileen Dunne on its front cover.

Eileen Dunne in The Hospital for Sick Children - Cecil Beaton1940

Beaton remained in high demand as a photographer, but was keen to expand his practice beyond, and began to work as a costume and set designer on projects such as The Grass Harp (1952). A year later, he enrolled in a course at the Slade School of Fine Art, which allowed him to improve his painting and drawing. By the mid-1950s Beaton had firmly established himself within the field.

Artwork by Cecil Beaton, fashion designs and figure studies for - Jemma; The Divine

In 1963 Beaton met Kin (Kinmoit Hoitsma), a former Olympic fencer and a man thirty years his junior with whom he became romantically involved. His personal story is long and complicated, in some areas coloured by other people's judgment of him and he often found himself experiencing a sense of shame for his feelings.

Nevertheless, he was a talented man who left behind a wonderful legacy that influenced fashion photographers, portrait photographers and photojournalists alike. Beaton was not only influential to his contemporaries, but to his successors. Many of his photographs exude a timeless quality that could still grace a magazine cover today.

British Vogue September 1950, London-Paris Collection, cover by Cecil Beaton

Between 1955 to 1972 he earned many honours, awards and medals for his work. He published six volumes of his diaries while he was alive and was knighted in 1972. However, by the end of the 1970s, Beaton's health had faded and he passed away 18th January, 1980 just four days after his 76th birthday.

-oOo-

Now if you know of a movie with more glamerous costumes than these, please let me know! Anyone who has ever sewn a stitch, should be able to appreciate the amount of work that went into producing each one of them, and hopefully you might find some inspiration.

Ascot Scene from My Fair Lady by Cecil Beaton

SEE IT COME TO LIFE

in perfect monotone with gowns and millinery to die for!

-oOo-

I hope you have enjoyed this post as much as I did putting it together.

Big hugs,

X

Balenciaga - The Spanish Master of Fashion

Next month, my daughter and I are off to Bendigo, to view the "Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion" exhibition on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Having already seen the Chanel and Dior collections as well as the Krystyna Campbell-Petty Fashion Gift, we are both extremely excited to see this collection and can hardly wait.

The V&A holds the largest collection of Balenciaga garments and hats in the UK. Many pieces were sourced for the Museum by society photographer Cecil Beaton (scroll down to the end), who used his contacts to assemble a prestigious collection of 20th century couture. This exhibition examines the work and legacy of the influential Spanish couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga, with over 100 pieces crafted by him, his protégées and contemporary fashion designers working in the same innovative tradition.

Known as 'the master' of haute couture, Cristóbal Balenciaga (1895 – 1972) was a true fashion innovator and he radically altered the fashionable silhouette of women in the mid-twentieth century. With the methodical skill of an expert tailor, he created garments of fluidity and grace. Unlike many couturiers, Balenciaga was able to drape, cut and fit his own muslin patterns, known as toiles. His designs embraced women of all shapes, sizes and age. His clothes skimmed, rather than hugged a woman’s curves, which allowed comfort and full range of movement. He was respected throughout the fashion world for both his knowledge of technique, construction and his unflinching perfectionism.

Cristobal Balenciaga photographed by Boris Lipnitzki, circa 1927.

A woman has no need to be perfect or even beautiful to wear my dresses.

The dress will do all that for her.

Cristóbal Balenciaga

Balenciaga orange coat, Paris, 1954

Balenciaga alone is a couturier in the truest sense of the word.

Only he is capable of cutting material, assembling a creation and sewing it by hand,

the others are simply fashion designers.

Coco Chanel

Silk taffeta evening gown by Cristóbal Balenciaga, Paris, 1954

Haute couture is like an orchestra whose conductor is Balenciaga.

We other couturiers are the musicians and we follow the direction he gives.

Christian Dior

My favourite photo: Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn wearing a coat by Cristóbal Balenciaga, Paris 1950

The House of Balenciaga is still alive today, under yet another new creative director, (and there have been quite a few) but in my opinion, none who have followed in Cristóbal Balenciaga's footsteps have rarely done him or the House of Balenciaga justice . . . there will only ever be one 'Master'.

Cape dress by Nicolas Ghesquiere for Balenciaga, Paris Autumn-Winter 2006

Silk evening cape by Cristobal Balenciaga, Paris 1963

Comparing the two previous photos, I cannot see anything original about the design of the Ghesquiere cape, apart from the choice of fabric. Oscar de la Renta and Hubert de Givenchy have also been seen to be following 'the master' with whom they apprenticed.

-oOo-

Cecil Beaton:
Although best known as a photographer, he was also a fabulous illustrator and designer for stage and film.

Along with Edith Head (whose collection we saw in 2017), Beaton is one of my favourite costume designers. His designs for productions such as My Fair Lady were absolutely stunning, especially with the millinery featured in the Ascot scene.

Both My Fair Lady (1956) and Gigi (1958), defined the glamorous look of the era, as well as winning him three Oscars for costume and art direction.