The Ugly and the Supreme

I loved Lawrence of Arabia. It was the first film I watched more than once and I have watched it often. I love to watch it in winter because all the dessert shots make me feel warm. The worst part of the film for me is when one of the two Arab boys who befriend Lawrence and earn the right to serve him like squires, dies in quicksand.

I was young and I never liked adventure movies. I had rarely seen a quicksand death and it was dreadful to see. Worse was seeing Lawrence’s face (Peter O’Toole) as he watched helplessly as the boy dies.

The scene gutted me and that is how I thought I’d be feeling if I watched last night’s Trump/Clinton debate. I couldn’t watch it; I experienced it through the filter of Andrew Sullivan’s live blogging:

“It’s incredible to me that this ranting, incoherent bigot is actually a nominee of a major party in the U.S.”

“He’s actually doubling down on the war crime of “taking the oil”. Again: no American presidential candidate has ever advocated plunder as a goal in foreign policy. No Western leader has supported such a thing in modern times. The fact that he is still repeating the need for such a war crime is all by itself disqualifying for a Western leader.”

I sewed between refreshes of Andrew’s blog and as I finished the dress, I looked out the window at an absolutely stunning sunset that reminded me of how insignificant and temporary Trump is.

I have not an iota of trust in HRC. She’s a machine to me; a figurehead of a consortium unlike Obama who gives me the impression of being his own man — a true independent thinker and leader.

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Meanwhile, on the sewing table… Today I will start my experiments with tissue paper and Fortuny folds. I am also going to look into other papers that have more and longer fibers that I know will be able to hold the folds.

There’s no way I can replicate in paper, the flow of fabric that Fortuny celebrated in his beautiful dresses. Here are some photos of Fortuny dresses. For me, they are the height of elegance still, trumping much of the faux glamour of today's Hollywood.