Inspiration from haute couture sewing movies

Hm. Just after I finished my first post on energy and inspiration, I read an article about exercising. (In a way it's frightening how much I like to work out these days. And read about it.) Anyway, it said something like this: you don't wait for inspiration to brush your teeth, you just do it. So don't wait for inspiration, just go to the gym and do it. Could the same thing be said for creative work like writing, painting - or sewing?

I gave it a try today. It's raining, I have a full day just to myself and can do whatever I want, and I just feel a bit blah. Not tired, just uninspired. So after my second cup of coffee and catching up on blogs I went to work on the peacock dress. I decided to keep it without sleeves, but still felt a bit blah.

So I decided to do what I normally do - watch my favourite video on haute couture sewing from Dior. It's more or less 7 minutes in heaven and always sparks my inspiration. Today even more so, since I found a whole movie - 50 minutes! - of making outfit no 5 for the Dior haute couture show of spring summer 2011. It required 500 hours of work, and is such a crazy beautiful work of art.

Focus is all on the sewing and craftsmanship in the ateliers, and I think it's so much better than the movie Dior & I, even though it was better than I expected. I loved the references to Christian Dior! I still don't like Raf Simons collections for Dior - they are too minimalistic for me -  but I gained much respect for him. I did have a hard time understanding why he needed to cover the whole setting in flowers though. Sure it was striking and luxurious, but it also felt like a terrible waste. The amount of money spent could probably support a smaller country. And why all that opulence on the decor instead of on the clothes? It made me miss Galliano's extravagance before he screwed up.

Another fascinating look into the ateliers in Paris is Signé Chanel. It's from 2005 but is still so good. I bought it on DVD last year, and it's truly fascinating. Karl Lagerfeldt's extra-ordinary mind and never ending flow of ideas, the workrooms attention to detail and patience with Kaiser Karl's all whims, and most of all how they manage to do it on time... This mini-series really shows how much clothes can be when it comes to art, skill, craftsmanship. It's a far cry from polyester fast fashion for 10€...

Are there more videos that really goes behind the seams?

PS. And for the inspiration? Didn't really work as planned. I sat in awe over the Dior atelier for almost an hour, then stared at my fabrics and just couldn't decide what to do...