Figure 1 – Armani waisted, a study of floded cloth. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

Hmm! It is a miserable rainy day in Massachusetts and as a result instead of venturing out into the woods I chose instead to walk at the local mall. The photographic pickings there are slim, but I did take the image of Figure 1 with my IPhone. It continues my study of folded cloth. This is actually the waist of a beautiful Armani dress in a store window. What drew me to it was the gorgeous slate blue color, although in the end, I chose the sepia toned black and white mode for the final; so that it would emphasize the folds, the tones, and the shadows. And then there is the texture and the feel of the fabric. It is the quinessential tone-on-tone.

I am for some reason reminded of the famous 1940 paper by Jane Richardson and Alfred L. Kroeber studying the trends in women’s fashions over the course of three centuries “Three Centuries Of Women’s Dress Fashions: a Quantitative Analysis,” which I read in college. There you have the essential point that cultural anthropological understanding may be enhanced by quantitative analysis – that secrets yield to measurement and numbers. Who would have thunks it? And what Richardson and Kroeber found was that, in general, there is an approximately one hundred year cycle to any given fashion parameter like waist line. That they swing or oscillate between extremes over the course of a century.

It seemed enough profundity for a Saturday morning. And it also seemed (seamed?) high time to get back to doing what I should be doing. But photographically I am pretty satisfied by the effect, and by the glory of folded cloth.