We’ve opened up the Ivey Abitz archives and found over 90 rare samples that were used in look book photo shoots from 2009-2010. All are unique. Many are made in fabrics that sold out and cannot be obtained. Here are a few.
We’ve also posted samples on Pinterest and Facebook. Those are fun ways to view and share. But you can only buy the samples at IveyAbitz.com.
As a side note, we’ve just begun pinning on Pinterest. We’d love for you to join us by following us there. It would look very elegant to have your own board dedicated to Ivey Abitz!
Here are some Jacket-Over-Frock ensembles that were part of some recent orders. With different collectible antique or handmade buttons and handwork on the pleating, each ensemble is one-of-a-kind, made just for the person who ordered it.
Fitzgerald Coat Dress in Ribbed Weave over the Fennefleur Frock in the Washed Silk.
Fitzgerald Coat Dress in Ribbed Weave over the Fennefleur Frock in the Washed Silk.
Fitzgerald Coat Dress in Ribbed Weave over the Fennefleur Frock in the Washed Silk.
Fitzgerald Coat Dress in Ribbed Weave over the Fennefleur Frock in the Washed Silk.
Fitzgerald Coat Dress in Ribbed Weave over the Fennefleur Frock in the Washed Silk.
Fitzgerald Coat Dress in Ribbed Weave over the Fennefleur Frock in Herringbone Silk Linen.
Fitzgerald Coat Dress in Ribbed Weave over the Fennefleur Frock in Herringbone Silk Linen.
Fitzgerald Coat Dress in Ribbed Weave over the Fennefleur Frock in Herringbone Silk Linen.
Fitzgerald Coat Dress in Ribbed Weave over the Fennefleur Frock in Herringbone Silk Linen.
Fitzgerald Coat Dress in Ribbed Weave over the Fennefleur Frock in Herringbone Silk Linen.
It’s easy to get your own jacket over frock combination at IveyAbitz.com!
Ivey Abitz clothing is usually presented on a dress form, but this photo shoot provided special images for the home page of the website as well as newsletters. So this is a rare glimpse of behind-the-scenes real people – and dogs – interacting with the collection.
What are these beautiful dogs doing in this photo shoot?
The color pallette of this collection is based on the coloring of these two beautiful dogs, Wolfie and Artie. They are the objects of Cynthia’s love and affection. Their beauty and unconditional love is a source of inspiration. They are rescues from a puppy mill. (Shameless plug for animal rights – spay and neuter your animals and never buy an animal from a pet store!)
The main colors of Collection One 2012:
Wolfgang Grey
Arthur Brown
Following are outtakes from the Ivey Abitz Collection One 2012 photo shoot.
Personal service is part of what makes clothing special at Ivey Abitz. Here’s an example:
Recently a groom’s mother emailed us at Ivey Abitz to help put together a new ensemble for her son’s wedding.
A brief email exchange helped her narrow down which designs would work best together based on her favourites.
This left only the fabric selections.
Knowing this was an important event that required extra special planning, we put together a custom fabric swatch book to help her visualize the possibilities.
The personalized fabric swatch book confirmed her decision and helped her feel that much more confident.
Wearing an Ivey Abitz ensemble made just for her, we are sure she’ll be showered with compliments about her ensemble at the wedding – and not just because she’s the mother of the groom.
What’s the best personal service your wardrobe ever had?
We invite you to experience great personal service at Ivey Abitz.
Be sure to sign up for IA NEWS – the Ivey Abitz newsletter – to get special offers on these and other design/fabric combinations. You can also Like us on Facebook.
Spring pick #1:
Garments in Wolfgang Grey Ribbed Weave and Arthur Brown Ribbed Weave
The ribbed weave is a beautiful opaque fabric that breathes well for warmer days. It can be used in a single layering piece, like in a sleeveless Blanchefleur Frock, and it is perfect for a layering frock or jacket. Best of all, it travels well and hand washes beautifully. We have carried variations of this special fabric for five years now, and it gets better the more you wear it!
Wolfgang Grey Ribbed Weave
Spring pick #2:
Garments in Billowed Twisted Yarn Weave
Billowed Twisted Yarn Weave has a very airy quality to it. A perfect choice for a spring shirt — or even a frock that you’d like to wear well into the summer months. Its uniqueness is delightful. Hand washable and a great traveler.
Billowed Twisted Yarn Weave
Spring pick #3:
Garments in Wolfgang Grey Washed Silk
Wolfgang Grey Washed Silk is an absolute favourite because it can be worn year round. It’s a lightweight and opaque fabric that is completely breathable. I’ve worn this in 80 + degree weather, and it feels like I’m wearing a lightweight cotton. Hand washable and a perfect travel companion.
Wolfgang Grey Washed Silk
Spring pick #4:
Garments in Arthur Brown/Cream Checked Cotton Broadcloth
This is the go-to everyday cotton fabric for spring and into summer. A very low-key, yet put-together, kind of fabric choice. Easy care — just throw in a cold water wash on gentle cycle, and it should last for a lifetime with proper care.
Arthur Brown/Cream Checked Cotton Broadcloth
I hope this is a big help as you order your spring wardrobe. I encourage you to find your own favourites at IveyAbitz.com.
This is a great example of wearing an Ivey Abitz jacket as a shirt. The Blanchefleur Jacket in the Pewter Hand Woven Silk becomes a lighter weight piece that can easily be worn indoors. The curves in its bottom hem tie in beautifully to the curving movement along the bottom hem of the Addy Skirt.
The bias cut insets made of striped silk on the Addy Skirt make it the featured piece within the ensemble. The Leo Frock, gently peeking out at the bottom hem, makes an airy base for the look. It gives the ensemble depth without unnecessary bulk. The look is finished with a substantial Lucia Scarf around the neck to counter the wispy netting of the base frock.
Look No. 3 Fabrics
The Palette:
The Pewter hues here are wonderfully ambiguous. The Pewter Puckered Striped Silk and Pewter Hand Woven Silk have black threads going through the yarn dyed weave, even though it’s not easy to tell upon first glance of the fabrics. This makes it very easy to mix in black hues into the ensemble. Black shoes and accessories are very easy to wear with these Pewter hues, which is one of the most common colours in a wardrobe. This makes it so easy to blend these versatile pieces into your IA wardrobe.
The Pewter Washed Cotton Velvet is a dip-dyed fabric, so it has a wonderful variation of hues in it. The fabric gives you light and dark Pewter hues, as well as warm and cooler hues.
I love to mix the flounce of a feminine skirt with a more tailored and hint-of-masculine look. That’s the purpose of the Holkham Hall designs in a nutshell.
By making the designs in velvets and silks, suddenly, you have options of wearing them to work through the winter months and wearing them to special holiday occasions. They can all be dressed up or down by simply changing your shoes and accessories.
What works so well about this ensemble is that you can have many looks with just a few garments. Wear the vest fully buttoned or partially buttoned. Wear the shirt with or without the necktie. Wear just the shirt and skirt together. Wear the Elliot Jacket buttoned over the shirt. Mix in a pair of more casual trousers and flip up the Holkham Hall Shirt cuffs, and you’ve added an entirely new slant to your new holiday grouping.
The Palette:
Look No.2 Fabrics
The Sapphire hues vary greatly from deep jewel navy to lighter greyish blue tones. They all play well off of one another, which is partly what gives the ensemble such variety within the same hue.
I like placing more casual cottons alongside silks that are associated with special occasions. It tones down the idea of silk in an unexpected way and lets you have a smart looking everyday ensemble. Just one necktie in a striped cotton does the trick. Silk is an everyday fabric, in my opinion–especially when it goes through our special washings that soften and decrease the sheen of the silk threads. Since it’s a holiday collection, you have an even better excuse to add a silk garment to your Ivey Abitz wardrobe.
This Holiday 2011 Collection ensemble features the new Holkham Hall Jacket, Trelawny Frock, and Lucia Scarf. An Elliot Shirt and Jacket in Onyx French Netting is worn with the Trelawny Frock for coverage on the arms. It gives the ensemble a lovely combination of a lighter, airier, feel alongside the more substantive cotton velvet.
Featured Fabrics in Look No.1
The Palette:
Look No. 1 is subtle with a striking addition of the Lucia Scarf in the Emerald Textured Striped Silk. The scarf can be worn outdoors or indoors, allowing this pop of colour to be worn throughout the day with the ensemble.
Pewter Washed Cotton Velvet ~ Holiday 2011
Fabric Feature:
Our Pewter Washed Cotton Velvet is perhaps the most subtle show-stopping choice of the collection. The variation of grey hues in this dip-dyed fabric lends itself well to mixing and matching within many ensembles. This fabric is featured in the Holkham Hall Jacket.
Another subtle stunner worth mentioning is the Onyx Hand Woven Silk in the Trelawny Frock. It can be dressed up or down with simply changing your shirt/jacket and accessories. It’s an all-season weight that can be enjoyed year round.
Design Line-up:
Holkham Hall JacketElliot ShirtElliot JacketTrelawny FrockLucia Scarf
I love my Traipse shirt and its beautiful fabric of tiny knitted flowers (look closely) in a beautiful, rich black colour. It is so soft and cuddly.
It is the perfect piece to be wearing when one is visiting cuddly bears! More on the Traipse shirt in a moment. But first some background on the cuddly bears.
This May, I once again narrated a children’s show for the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. These concerts are for the youngest members of the NSO audience. (“Is there a concert for me? I’m only three!”)
The concerts are called “Teddy Bear Concerts” and the children are allowed to bring their stuffies with them. There is also an instrument “petting zoo” before the show begins, with musical instruments for the audience to play, touch, and hear. A very nifty idea, I think.
Teddy Bear Concerts come in differing programs but I like to think that our program is special, for it is the only one about bears! Through poetry, music, and visuals, we visit different bears in their native countries. The music illustrates the country. For example, “Waltzing Matilda “ represents Australia and “Reel O’ Tolloch” represents Scotland. We visit 6 countries and I, as the storyteller, use accents from each country for the poetry.
Huge pictures of the bears we are visiting are revealed as we arrive in Scotland, Peru, USA, the Arctic Circle, Bulgaria, Australia, China, and even outer space for a robot-like space bear!
The wonderful thing about this concert is that it appeals on many levels. Adults find it fascinating to learn that all the bears that we see through the program are endangered, and that there is only one bear native to South America – the Spectacled Bear. We know that Koalas are marsupials and not bears, but we don’t let too many facts spoil the image of those lovely creatures as the musicians play “Matilda” and we sing along!
I love doing these shows…so much fun! We worked very hard to make it fun and educational, and the audiences have truly enjoyed it. We did it for the first time last year at the Kennedy Center, took it on tour twice, and then once again this year at the Kennedy Center. There is talk of future performances and all of the concerts have, thus far, sold out!
It is a pleasure to bring music to children. Some even get up and dance. We go with the flow, and the musicians are a delight to work with as are our audiences. Some of the children who have heard this concert when we are on tour have never heard live music before (please see my previous blog entries).
The first year at the Kennedy Center, I wore my ever favourite Solomon Jacket in silk weave with a black skirt. [See Lynn-Jane’s bloggings from her 2010 NSO tour.] This year for the tour and the four shows in D.C., I wanted something new from the wonderful IA collection. I had to have a new piece that would travel easily and be easy to move and dance in.
Once again, I asked Cynthia’s advice, and, as usual, her suggestion was perfect. We decided that MY Traipse would be more of a jumper. That is one of the lovely things about IA designs: the flexibility and collaboration of CIA (Cynthia) and the patron. CIA? Isn’t that funny? I call her “Couturier Cynthia Ivey-Abitz.”
At my request, her seamstress made the shirt extra large and loose. I could roll up the sleeves for our “trek,” and I wore it for all four concerts and for a few concerts on tour. It worked beautifully. Cozy, comfortable and beautiful. A lovely black knit that looked perfect on stage!
A couple of the musicians remarked that they had not noticed the pattern on the weave until they saw the shirt closer, and that it was a perfect choice, as most of their wardrobe was in blacks and greys with touches of colour. My Scottish pin of feathers and thistle added the perfect bit of colour to my shirt/ sweater and was an appropriate piece for visiting Scotland.
So, that is how I “traipsed” around the world with CIA. Not undercover, but in the Family Theatre at the Kennedy Center. What a joy!
I leave you with a few lines of the poetry from the show. Adding a bit of a Chinese inflection (little ears cannot hear subtle differences in accents and there are so many in the show, thus I suggest them only). Lots of accent work and listening to tapes as I had to “get it right.” What more could one ask for? Great work, challenging work, neat stuff for children, super audiences, and a lovely new sweater.
Have you ever seen a bear so cute? He lives in China – a far commute. You may take a little snooze, While pandas play in tall bamboo!
My thanks to Paula for the lovely poetry and my colleagues, Lewis, Elizabeth, Paula, and Joe for the wonderful music.
I’ve been asked what inspires me as an artist. I like celebrating beauty that is intermingled with the unusual. Here is an example: The Dennis Severs House in London.
The house’s motto is “You either see it or you don’t.”
I admire examples of making everyday life a work of art. Simply existing from day to day was poetical for Severs. His mix of modern and old and not adhering to one particular time period is refreshing, inviting, and imaginative.
Dennis Severs Dining Room, Credit Dennis Severs House
The house is now a museum. For a glimpse and for directions, visit the website at: http://www.dennissevershouse.co.uk/
