Flameco Dress from Cartagena Spain

[catllar]

I live in France on the Spanish border and often go to Barcelona for an afternoon. I've been studying flamenco for 10 years now. Well done for the dress, which is a vintage Sevillana dress - the modern dresses are a lot lighter and don't have such heavy linings etc. Does yours have hidden pockets in the underskirt? The beat box you mentioned is a "cajon" and the clapping is called "palmas" and it is an art in itself. If anyone wants a rec. for a fabulous "genuine" flamenco wear shop in Bacelona, I would suggest "Flora Albaicin" just off the Rambla. It is tiny - no room for more than 3 people in there at any one time, but ask to visit the back room where it is an Aladdin's cave of flamenco dresses for all sizes and price ranges ( I have no connection with them, of course, I just adore the shop) They speak a little English. They have all the extra bits too - flowers, shawls, fans, shoes, castagnets.

[LARGIN]

hmmmmm.. All I am reading is about women. Aren't some of the best Flamenco dancers in the world men?

[Cruise Arizona]

I live in France on the Spanish border and often go to Barcelona for an afternoon. I've been studying flamenco for 10 years now. Well done for the dress, which is a vintage Sevillana dress - the modern dresses are a lot lighter and don't have such heavy linings etc. Does yours have hidden pockets in the underskirt? The beat box you mentioned is a "cajon" and the clapping is called "palmas" and it is an art in itself. If anyone wants a rec. for a fabulous "genuine" flamenco wear shop in Bacelona, I would suggest "Flora Albaicin" just off the Rambla. It is tiny - no room for more than 3 people in there at any one time, but ask to visit the back room where it is an Aladdin's cave of flamenco dresses for all sizes and price ranges ( I have no connection with them, of course, I just adore the shop) They speak a little English. They have all the extra bits too - flowers, shawls, fans, shoes, castagnets.

 

I'm still on the road, so it will probably a few days before I have time to post my pics, but Flamenco was a winner at the Anaheim dance competition. It must have been good vibes from you ladies.

 

Catllar, wow, the shop in Barcelona sounds great!. I havn't found any under pockets, so I'll have to look. My mom used to be an Azalea Tail Made in Mobile and they had secret pockets in their Pantaloons

 

And to our friend Largin, Jauquin jCortes is probably one of the best flamenco dancers, here's a clip.

 

OK and here's the great news. As mentioned before, we did really well today. Our flamenco class got a Platinum award, which is like getting an A. We won the Adult Age group. My solo on Wednesday also earned a Platinum. It was really fun, and I was so excited that I did so well. Lots of foot stomping too!

[catllar]

Well done, CA, makes you feel good, doesn't it? The pockets in the skirts are brilliant at Feria - you can safely get up and dance without having someone to guard your purse , you've all your stuff in your skirt!

 

hmmmmm.. All I am reading is about women. Aren't some of the best Flamenco dancers in the world men?

I think you are trying to wind us up, Largin, we're talking dresses, and I don't know many flamencos who wear dresses! My favourite is Pedro Cordoba and for something a little different, pushing the boundaries is Israel Galvan. Also it's been proven that the best male dancers in the world are men and, oddly, the best female dancers in the world are women- how odd is that????

[Cruise Arizona]

Is the Fieri, the festival that takes place in Seville, where all the families or groups have little tents set up for their own partie, and there is dancing dancing dancing?

 

I saw this once on a Rick Steve's Travel Video, and when I saw this dress it reminded me of the festival. You are right about it being vintage, the zipper is metal like and upholstery zipper, and the dress weighs 5 lbs.

 

We were so excited to do so well. We usually have a bigger group than just the three of us, so I think that motivated the three of us to step it up a notch. We couldn't rely on the stronger dancers to carry us, so we had to make sure we had it right ourselves. Our teacher was so excited for us.

 

For the the trio our costumes were very simple, long black skirts with ruffles, mine hot pink and the other lady's teal blue. The young man that danced with us wore a traditional costume of high waist pants, ruffled shirt, and long sleeved bolero jacket. We all had the flat top wide brimmed hats.

 

 

I'm done with Flamenco at the competition, but I have one more to go on Saturday, a Mexican Folklorico dance with a large group.

[catllar]

Feria is the Spanish word for PARTY, and yes, the most famous one is in Seville. I've been twice, but nearly every town or village will hold its own Feria (even Barcelona) They all take place just after Easter week and although Seville is the most famous, it's not the most democratic or friendly! With the exception of about three ( the Communist workers' union, the Firefighters and the Red Cross) all the little bars (casetas) are private, so all we poor tourists can do is peek in at the door - many have bouncers to ensure you don't try to trespass. I have also been to Jerez de la Frontera, Grenada and Barcelona. Barca is easiest for us, we trot down on a bus - about 60 of us,get changed into our frocks just before we leave the freeway and get there around 9pm and as all the casetas are public we just dance, dance, dance till 4am when we will have hot chocolate and churros and then get the bus back to France again. If you can dance Sevillanes you'll think you've died and gone to heaven! Here too, we have a large Spanish population and so we have Ferias here too, but of course they are much smaller! Don't you just love to dance?

[Cruise Arizona]

We learned the Sevillians last year, but I never got very good at them. We got the pasados right, but the steps in between were complicated.

 

It is my understanding that with Sevillianas your partner can be either a man or a woman, so in my case, since my husband doesn't dance I could dance with my daughter or a friend? Is that correct.

 

I'm gonna grab my camera and see if I can upload a pic from the card to the lap top and get it posted today.

[Cruise Arizona]

OK lets see if these pictures will load.

[catllar]

you've got the most important bit the pasada. This means you could dance with ANYONE - we could dance together and you'd be fine! Sevillane is based on a musical structure (as are all flamenco palos). There are as many variations of Sevillane as there are, say, jive for example. The first and second Sevillane seem to be more or less the same whoever you learn from. its that dratted third that messes your head, and the fourth is pretty universal. That said, the pasada is ALWAYS in the same place so you could theoretically dance the french cancan inbetween, as long you nail your pasada timing you're good to go. Sevillane was originally a courtship dance: 1st, the meeting, 2nd, the chat-up, 3rd, the quarrel and 4th the reconciliation. Nowadays its just danced for fun so, yes girls dance together (how many men can you think of in our culture that would dance this????). It can also be danced with shawl twirls, fans, in groups, in lines, in circles, squares - very very adaptable. I'm trying to load some pix too, but being blonde (!) it's a problem......

[catllar]

You look amazing, now how did you do the pix? My files are way too big. how can you reduce them? If I can get this down I'll send you some of us

wearing modern sevillane dresses (made by me)

[Cruise Arizona]

I used Photoshop to reduce my pic size, but it is pretty expensive. My daughter thinks you might be able to do this on photo bucket, but I am not sure as I don't use it. If you upload to a photo sharing sight you can also paste them as a link into the boards here using that little Mountain and Moon icon.

[Hoyaheel]

You can change the size of a photo in Windows photo viewer that comes standard on all ms products (I imagine Apple has something similar)

 

Or, (also on microsoft) From your start menu, Accessories/Paint, open the photo, click Image in the menu bar, then stretch/skew and choose the dimensions or % to shrink. Save as a smaller file (give a new name to keep the original as is)

 

These are the quick & dirty ways I edit photos to post on a message board...

[catllar]

H'mmn - right errr.... I THINK I'll have to swallow pride and ask OH to help here!. Thanks

[catllar]

I hope this works: if it did , I did it myself, if it didn't, it was his fault! I'm the blonde at the front in the first pic, by the way. The first pic is a Sevillane using shawl prop and danced in lines, quiet elegant music, so serious faces! The second one is also a Sevillane but danced in a circle - happy music, happy faces! I hasten to add I said I made all the costumes - but I didn't make the one shown in the second pic with the strange sleeves!

[Cruise Arizona]

Love the costumes, and everything. How fun!!! I'm off for the last day of competition, I'll have more time to write when we are done.

[Jane110]

Great story! Great dress!

And loved the pic of you dancing!

 

More pix please! Ole!

[Cruise Arizona]

Great story! Great dress!

And loved the pic of you dancing!

 

More pix please! Ole!

 

Jane, wondering if you could think of designers who have been influenced by the Flamenco style of dress? I imagine that the lines and typical fabrics have been incorporate into many collections.

 

My dress, I'm guessing was from the 80's because of the style of print on the fabric, but Its just a guess. Flamenco tends to use lots of Polka dots, which I know kind of come and go in style, but I can't recall ever seeing them paired with flamenco lines in high fashion.

 

Flamenco has become popular around the world with schools in the Americas and even Japan, so the influence is now world wide.

 

I'm off to bed, I've spent the last 6 hours riding scary roller coasters at Knotts Berry Farm, something that I am beginning to think for which I am to old.

[catllar]

Every year at the end of January, Seville hosts SIMOF, which is flamenco's fashion week, where all the major designers show. There are some fab photos etc on google. We try to go at least every other year so we remain on trend with our choices of costume fabrics and shapes.

[Cruise Arizona]

We do look at trends, but a few years ago when we did our Rosas Rojas Routine, we needed a lot of fabric for 10 dresses, we looked and looked for something with red roses from which we could make the dress for all of us. I am not sure how much our director paid but she found 2 big bolts of close out fabric, and it was enough for all of us. The fabric was black with big red roses and the style of dress was a drop waist at the hips with a full single skirt and and long sleeves with french sleeves at the end. They turned out very pretty. But not sure how stylish they were.

[catllar]

To be honest, if you're making costumes it's the general look on stage (and the cost) that counts at the end of the day, but if you want to be up-to date for the Feria, that's another thing entirely!

 

We buy our fabric by the roll as well - I just made 27 stretch lace leotards and 27 skirts! Was I glad to see the back of them!

[Jane110]

Jane, wondering if you could think of designers who have been influenced by the Flamenco style of dress? I imagine that the lines and typical fabrics have been incorporate into many collections.

 

My dress, I'm guessing was from the 80's because of the style of print on the fabric, but Its just a guess. Flamenco tends to use lots of Polka dots, which I know kind of come and go in style, but I can't recall ever seeing them paired with flamenco lines in high fashion.

 

Flamenco has become popular around the world with schools in the Americas and even Japan, so the influence is now world wide.

 

I'm off to bed, I've spent the last 6 hours riding scary roller coasters at Knotts Berry Farm, something that I am beginning to think for which I am to old.

 

I can't think of any one designer who's been influenced by flamenco. There are seasons when a certain style influences everyone, so I'm sure that there have been seasons where designers like Betsy Johnson, Isabel Toledo and others were influenced. I was in Paris last week and saw the Yves St. Laurent restrospective and some of his clothes looked dance inspired.

 

BTW, if you'd like some advanced sewing techniques, look at the CD's from www.kennethdking.com He's a couture designer, and teaches as well.

[iheartbda]

..............

BTW, if you'd like some advanced sewing techniques, look at the CD's from www.kennethdking.com He's a couture designer, and teaches as well.

 

Ah-haaaaaaa but......does he share his technique for THE BOLERO?;):)

[PennyAgain]

Beautiful dress on a beautiful lady!

[iheartbda]

Patiently waiting for pictures of you in the buy of the century.:):):)

[Jane110]

Ah-haaaaaaa but......does he share his technique for THE BOLERO?;):)

 

Hmmm....your memory is too good. :)

 

I don't know if he would share construction of a jacket that doesn't have seams. My guess is that he keeps that info to himself. Besides, it's probably one of those things that can't be taught anyway.