Warm and Human

Visiting the Rene Grau Dior Illustrations reminded me of Mrs Harris and her quest for Dior.

'It would not, it would never be the same again. But then neither would she.
For it had not been a dress she had bought so much as an adventure and an experience that would last her to the end of her days. She would never again feel lonely, or unwanted. She had ventured to a foreign country and a foreign people.... She had found them to be warm and human, men and women to whom human love and understanding was a mainspring of life. They had made her feel that they loved her for herself.' Paul Gallico Mrs Harris Goes To Paris

ruffles

So today's post was planned just in case yesterday was a 'certain breed of Tuesdays'. We may need something to make us smile today.

Flowers for Mrs Harris

Mrs Harris a lady after my own heart. A lover of dresses and flowers...

'As long as she had flowers, Mrs Harris had no serious complaints concerning the life led... These bright flashes of colour satisfied her. They were something to return to in the evening and something to wake up to in the morning.'

@

'Here were streets that were nothing but a mass of azaleas in pots, plants in pink, white, red, purple, mingling with huge bunches of cream, crimson, and yellow carnations. There seemed to be acres of boxes of pansies smiling up into the sun, blue irises, red roses, and huge fronds of gladioli...'

@
'All the beauty that she had ever really known in her life until she saw the Dior dress had been flowers. Now, her nostrils were filled with the scent of lilies and tuberoses. From every quarter came beautiful scents, and through this profusion of colour and scent Mrs Harris wandered as if in a dream.'

@
'dark, deep red roses by the dozen, cream white lilies, bunches of pink and yellow carnations, and sheaves of gladioli ready to burst into every colour from deep mauve to palest lemon. There were azaleas, salmon coloured, white, and crimson, geraniums, bundles of sweet-smelling freesias, and one great bouquet of violets...'

violets

Mrs Harris Goes To Paris

What does Mrs Harris see when she arrives?

@
'They came in satins, silks, laces, wools, jerseys, cottons, brocades, velvets, twills, broadclothes, tweeds, nets, organzas, and muslins-

Dior Venus

They showed frocks, suits, coats, capes, gowns, clothes for cocktails, for the morning, the afternoon, for dinner parties, and formal and stately balls and receptions.

@
They entered trimmed with fur, bugle beads, sequins, embroidery with gold and silver thread, or stiff with brocades, the colours were wondefully gay and clashed in daring combinations;

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the sleeves were long, short, medium or missing altogether. Necklines ranged from choke to plunge, hemlines wandered at the whim of the designer.'

Dior Spring 2010
'armfuls of frilly, frothy garments in colours of plum, raspberry, tamarind, and peach, genetian-flower, cowslip, damask rose, and orchid...'

Dior Fall '08

Mrs Harris Dreams of Paris

The relaunch of this novel and it being Paris in July meant it had to be read and read now. Which passages spoke most to me? Why the dresses and the flowers. So today it's dresses of the imagination.

'One was a bit of heaven in cream, ivory, lace and chiffon, the other an explosion in crimson satin and taffeta, adorned with great red bows and a huge red flower.'

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' There was rhyme or reason for it, she would never wear such a creation, there was no place in her life for one. Her reaction was purely feminine. She saw it and she wanted it dreadfully... She could only stand there entralled, rapt, and enchanted, gazing at the dresses...'

Dior Spring 2007
' She was...engrossed in these living creations of silks and taffetas and chiffons in heart-lifting colours...'

@
'...beauty, perfection, the ultimate in adornment that a woman could desire. Mrs Harris was no less a woman than Lady Dant, or any other. She wanted, she wanted, she wanted a dress from what must be surely the most expensive shop in the world, that of Mr Dior in Paris.'

@
' The more she tried to think of other things the more the Dior dress intruded into her conciousness, and she lay there in the darkness, shivering and craving for it.... she could... imagine it hanging there. The colour and the materials kept changing, sometimes she saw it in gold brocade, at other times in pink or crimson satin, or white with ivory laces. But always it was the most beautiful and expensive thing of its kind.'

Dior Spring 2010