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Tuesday, June 5, 2012


La Fem Sophistique is a dress shop in Sacramento CA that only sells vintage designer clothing. They loaned this dress to me so I could make a graphite drawing of it. When it was finished, I sent the dress back along with the drawing and it now hangs in their shop.

Designer earned wide acclaim for flaunt-it fashion
OBITUARIES : Eletra Casadei, 1953 - 2008
Eletra Casadei, the California fashion designer whose prom dresses put away the Sweet Sixteen look and moved into strapless, backless, slit-to-here styles, has died. She was 55.
She died Sept. 27 at her home in Pacific Palisades. The cause was brain cancer, her sister Andrea Casadei Best said.
One of the first Los Angeles designers of her generation to gain a national reputation for something other than swimwear, Casadei claimed Old Hollywood glamour as her inspiration and fantasy dresses at affordable prices as her niche.
She introduced her TD4 (To Die For) line in the late 1970s for customers ages 14 and up. Before long their mothers were wearing the clothes and she launched a second collection, Casadei, for them. By the early 1980s, a boom time for flaunt-it fashion, Casadei was in her stride.
"Padded shoulders, draping, appliques, sequins, Eletra's evening dresses were over the top and a lot of fun," Pam Roberts, the designer's former publicist, told The Times.
Throughout the 1980s, Casadei's collections were carried in some 7,000 boutiques and department stores, most of them in the U.S. Prices ranged from about $100 to about $400.
A former fashion model, she wore her own designs and added a few accents, such as plum color streaks in her hair and iridescent fuchsia nail polish.
Dresses from her collections turned up on sitcoms and soaps as diverse as "Golden Girls," about four older women rooming together, and "Dynasty," about Denver socialites with glitzy tastes.
Casadei's best advertisements were the two fashion-music videos she created in the mid-1980s, modeled after the music videos that aired on MTV. Instead of costumes, she used dresses from her latest collection.
"Eletra pioneered fashion-music videos," Janet Orsi, another former publicist, said this week. "The idea was to capitalize on the music video phenomenon and marry it to fashion. Designers got to show their clothes in a new genre. It was a change from the typical fashion show."
Casadei's videos played in stores and wholesale showrooms as well as on MTV. She played the lead in "Adventures of the Countess," a mystery made in the style of a silent movie with scary mood music.
Her other video, "Prom Night," with a soundtrack of Steve Winwood music, shows girls at a dance that gets a lot more exciting when guys in black leather show up.


Casadei was born July 5, 1953, in the east San Francisco Bay community of Hayward, where she won the title "Maid of Hayward" as a teenager. She graduated from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, majoring in business administration. Her first job, as a store buyer, was frustrating. "She was always wishing she could change the way the clothes were designed," Casadei's sister said.
She taught herself the skills of fashion design and opened a business office in downtown L.A.
Casadei scaled back her operation in the '90s but became known for her remakes of the most popular celebrity dresses at the Academy Award shows. Her version of the vintage Valentino gown that actress Julia Roberts wore in 2001 sold for $169.
Most recently she designed under the Casadei by Eletra Casadei label and owned a boutique in Pacific Palisades where she sold her ready-to-wear styles and made custom-order clothes. She continued working until a few weeks ago.
Casadei's only marriage ended in divorce. In addition to her sister, she is survived by her son, Nico Casadei Roe; her mother, Verna Casadei; and another sister, Janelle Brunelli.
A memorial service is planned for 3 p.m. Oct. 11 at Corpus Christi Church, 887 Toyopa Drive, Pacific Palisades.
Tree Dwellers

Vanity

These two painting were accepted into The 6th Majestic National Juried Exhibition, 2012.
Vanity received an Honorable mention.

June 29-July 20, 2012
Majestic Galleries, Nelsonville, Ohio


Sugar Cookies

This painting was accepted into the 2012, 101st Exhibition of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts.

May 25-July 14, 2012
Mystic Arts Center, Mystic Connecticut

10” X 12”
Oil on canvas board



Measure Twice, Cut Once

The center of interest in the oil painting is the Advance-sewing pattern. Advance was the pattern company for J.C. Penney’s, 1930-1965.  On the envelope, below the words “Advance Pattern” are the words “Tailored Dress”. This, along with the number 2530, dates the pattern to the 1930’s. During this time almost all suits and dresses were belted and the sleeves were wide or full. The shirtwaist dress was introduced in 1932.

I placed the fabric on a cutting board and used a measuring tape for design and color. I cut out and pinned two pattern pieces on the fabric to make it look like a woman was going to cut this pattern out and make this dress.

Oil on canvas board
14" X 18", framed
$756.00, plus shipping

Leighann Foster, foster3@gvtc.com

Website, www.leighannfoster.com
Find new and archival work.

Website, www.artistswhoteach.org
Artists Who Teach
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Blog, www.leighannfoster.blogspot.com
Find drawings and paintings on SALE.


Mail Order Dress

This dress belonged to my husband’s mother, Eva. It is of a sheer material and from the 1920’s - 1930’s. It has a long flared skirt with a ruffle at the hem, short sleeves, a sheer gathered trim around the collar and a loose empire waist.

I don’t know how she got the dress or where she wore it so I created a story that maybe she ordered it through a mail order catalog. I wrapped it up in brown paper, added a mailing label, and tied it with a string. Then I unwrapped it and added a coat hanger like she was ready to put it in the closet after she tried it on. Then maybe something interrupted her and she lay the dress down on the paper and tossed the string over the paper and dress and went to take care of what distracted her from hanging the dress up.

At the time there would have been no need to take a photo of this ordinary scene much less paint a picture of it but now I find every reason to paint and document a garment that is 80+ years old that belonged to my mother-in-law.

Oil on canvas board
13" X 15", framed
$585.00, plus shipping

Leighann Foster, foster3@gvtc.com

Website, www.leighannfoster.com
Find new and archival work.

Website, www.artistswhoteach.org
Artists Who Teach
Find an instructor and see great artwork.

Blog, www.leighannfoster.blogspot.com
Find drawings and paintings on SALE.