Laibach + Bach!

Lookie lookie! Not reading Russian, I don't get an awful lot out of what seems to be the only Laibach community on Livejournal, so I can't check the source or say much about the credibility of this piece of information; it seems to be a direct quote from the band. The official site seems to verify it, though, at least to the extent that they did do a Bach-themed performance under this name in Leipzig last summer, although I can't find any mention of if and when the thing will be released as an album.

Anyway, I love Bach fugues, I love Wendy Carlos' electronic renditions of Bach and I love Laibach, so Laibach versions of Bach fugues sounds pretty close to music heaven to me.
Lovely.

Shoulders!

When you work around clothes, you will get the in my case rather daft question of what you think will be the "big thing" for this summer, or season, or what's "in" amongst "you young people" or whatever, with a certain regularity. I make clothes to measure and I sell vintage clothing, which means that I'm not really all that concerned with fashion. Fashion can be fun, sure, and of course I do a certain amount of "keeping up" with trends - just because, mostly, for inspiration, and for the pretty pictures. I'm not terribly interested in fashion. I love clothes and style, but I don't love fashion - my attitude towards it is mostly one of skepticism.

So when I get that question, I either try to bail out of it altogether - obviously, I'm not the right person to answer a question like that! - or, when pressed, just pull out some kind of general idea of what I think should be due for a recycling any time now. Lately, that idea has been shoulders. Big shoulders, padded shoulders - maybe not the American football gear variety of the mid- to late 80's, but some kind of emphasis on shoulders, slightly stronger shoulders, feels like it's long overdue for a rehash, after a good fifteen years of narrow shoulders and bad posture. I am attracted to high, defined puff sleeves myself, and they have been making their way into most of the garments I have made for myself the last couple of years.

Case in point: I got hold of some nice, black wool jersey a while back, and last week I finally got around to making this structured little sweater for myself. Those are tapered rolls, stuffed with fabric scraps and some wool I had lying around supporting the shoulder puffs.


I really like it. It has a tight little v-neck, which is obscured by my hand in this (crappy) photo, a small keyhole with button closure in the back, and it's deliciously warm and cozy. Has a bit of the 40's sweater girl going on.

So, yes. Shoulders. Padded shoulders. The people who ask me that question always look a little disappointed when I say that - maybe the world isn't ready for strong shoulders yet, just as a lot of people definitely don't seem to be ready for high waistlines (or, rather, wastlines that sit at the actual waist )... but I still don't understand how they can look at me and think that I could give a satisfactory answer to a question like that, so I digress.