Lusiana Fashion

Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave is a painter by training, but textiles and costumes are her muses. Her central project has been to recreate exquisite, life-size historical costumes entirely from paper. De Borchgrave creates a world of splendor from simplest rag paper. Painting and manipulating the paper, she crafts elaborate dresses inspired by the rich depictions in early European painting or by the iconic costumes in museum collections around the world. She masterfully works the paper to a desired effect. With her trompe l'oeil gowns, she invites her viewers to explore her imaginary world and to create their own illusions.
The artist's exhibition Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle Borchgrave is on view February 5 to June 5, 2011, at the Legion of Honor museum San Francisco. The museum is the first to offer an overview of the artist's most important bodies of work: from Renaissance costumes of the Medici family and gowns worn by Marie-Antoinette and Madame de Pompadour of Papiers a la Mode to the creations of the eccentric early 20th-century artist Mariano Fortuny.

Papiers a la Mode

Madame de Pompadour, paper dress inspired by a painting from 1755

Detail

Marie-Antoinette, paper dress from 1776

Elisabeth 1, court dress, 1599

Robe Worth, 1881

Paper dress inspired by the French stylist Frederic Worth

Splendor of the Medici
Eleonore de Tolede, 1522-1562

Detail

Anne de Medicis, 1616-1676

Isabelle (1540-1557) and Catherine (1593-1629) de Medicis

Detail of Isabelle de Medicis paper dress

Maria de Medicis, 1555

Detail

The world of Mariano Fortuny
Robe Delphos Bleue, 1920-1930

Detail

Robe Delphos Rouge, 1920-1930

Newest creations
Neapolitan woman, 1635

Detail

Courtesy Isabelle de Borchgrave and the Legion of Honor museum, San Francisco

As we mark the sesquicentennial of each southern state’s secession, it might seem like the year ahead is shaping up to be wall-to-wall Civil War. But there’s so much more in the way of ‘Anniversary Journalism’ for us to rehash over the next twelve months. Here’s a look ahead at what we’ll be looking back on, in 2011.

Events are arranged by month, regardless of year, to reflect the order of expected media onslaught.

Above is a Civil War recruiting poster from 1862. I couldn’t hold it for next year—by then we’ll be on to the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

January 17, 1961

I know. You’ve heard the phrase “military industrial complex”

enough this year, to last you a lifetime. But if you haven’t watched

the actual clip, you MUST.

January 20, 1961
John F. Kennedy inauguration.

January 28, 1986
It's hard to believe that it's been 25 years since
the Challenger exploded.

February 4, 1911
Centennial of Ronald Reagan’s birth.

March 1, 1961
The Peace Corps is established. Poster, above(date unknown), Help Peace the World Together.

March 25, 1911
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire is depicted in this detail of History of the Needlecraft Industry, 1938, by Ernest Fiene.

March 26, 1911
Numerous festivals and events are planned for the centennialof the birth of Tennessee Williams. Above, covers designed byAlvin Lustig, for two of Williams’s plays .

April 17, 1961
The Museum of Playa Giron at Matanzas, Cuba, commemoratesthe failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba by exiles and the CIA 50 years ago.

April 26, 1986
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster.

May 11, 1811
Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker are born in Siam.

May 14, 1961
The Freedom Riders bus is firebombed.

May 23, 1911
The first Indy 500 was held at the Speedway on Memorial Day.

May 24, 1941
Bob Dylan, here on a “poster dress” from 1967, turns 70.

July 2, 1961
Hemingway’s death, by self-inflicted gunshot wound,
rated a front-page New York Times obit.

July 3, 1971
Jim Morrison dies in Paris at the age of 27. At the time of his death there were reportedly as many as 20 paternity actions pending against him. (Wikipedia)