
Glamour Girl
Okay, I am totally stealing this idea from my friend Meg Fairfax Fielding, who does the beautiful blog Pigtown Design. But I love toiles so much that when I saw her latest post, I started oohing and aahing, and was reminded of my lifelong attachment to these whimsical, elegant, light-hearted prints that work so well on everything from tablecloths to pillows to skirts and blouses and dresses.
Meg’s latest is called Subversive Toiles, and if that isn’t enough to get a toile-loving gal’s heart racing, I don’t know what is. Here’s one of the pictures she reproduced:

And here’s another:

Sorry the images are so small. You can see much bigger views on Meg’s blog.
Now to compare, here’s a pretty standard toile:

Which makes the “Subversive Toiles” so dang creative!
Look at this vintage dress from Dorothea’s Closet in a lovely, romantic, ultra-feminine toile:

And there’s even a modern-day version from Chadwick’s (well, it used to be sold by Chadwick’s anyway):

I’m always on the lookout for these kinds of dresses on eBay, especially the 1950s ones with urban designs of stick figures in Paris, Rome, New York. They’re timeless, yet so much fun.
And I was delighted to find this website, where they actually custom-design new toiles based on whatever locale you want: Town Toiles.
But for Toile d’Annapolis and even Toile de Baltimore, hon, head on over to Pigtown Design!
Parting shot: Here’s burlesque performer Dita von Teese in a killer vintage-reproduction toile dress:
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/11/10 at 04:13 PM

