The other day I was sorting out clothes for the Canadian Diabetes Association’s clothing pickup, when I came across recycled, and then again recycled, sweat shirts. Some people save egg cartons, bottles, margarine containers, and old tins, (the list is endless) for recycling. These items could be saved for themselves; curbside recycling pickup; or for friends’ projects. I save old and used arms and legs cut from sweat shirts.
This material is soft, and easy to sew together in new combinations- injecting creativity into a new favorite sweatshirt .
I keep a box in the basement of sweat shirts arms, a second box for legs and the third box is for cuffs, buttons, necks, waist ties and emblems. While watching T. V., I would cut off arms at the shoulders, and legs from the belt line. I would ask friends and family for their used sweat shirt tops and bottoms. “Don’t throw them away,” I would plead. “I will come over and pick them up!” For myself, I find the cuffs on my sweat shirts become frayed quickly. I would replace them with cuffs from the third box. I would cut off the cuff and then reattach the “new” cuff I had taken from the third box by stretching the material, pinning and inserting it back into the cuff.
This whole process could also be done for replacing thinning areas on the arms. I now have created a “new/used” sweatshirt. Mixing up the colours of the cuffs and arms allows me to change the colours, and replace worn areas. Try putting white arms into a red sweat shirt. Red and white—you are truly Canadian!
You have probably had many a spill on the front of your favorite sweat shirt.
I find that these stains never come out. (Forget it. I’ve tried and tried). From the third box, I would retrieve an emblem cut from another sweat shirt like a sporting team, golfing logo, or a bit of prose. This emblem can be sewn on a front of a sweat shirt to cover up those impossible stains that never wash out. Bravo! You now have a “new/used” sweatshirt.
When you get tired of your creations, repeat the process. This recycling can go on forever.
When you think you have had it with these extra “cut parts,” drop them off at a thrift store. They can be used again by other people for their creative projects. Try giving them as gifts, or at a garage sale under “Unique Clothing.”
Now that the arms, cuffs, fronts, and emblems have been taken care of, let me address the legs. Take one old sweat pant, and cut off the legs, one inch below the crotch.
Sew them up by hand, or on a sewing machine across the bottom of both legs. From the leftover leg material, cut strips the length you need, and sew attaching them to the waist, (criss-crossing is the best way) to make straps shoulder or hand lengths. Fantastic! You now have a purse or recyclable bag for purchases depending on the size of the sweat pants used. Try sewing a change purse using a saved drawstring from a collected waist tie.
Here is a kitschy purse made from recycled denim.
It costs nothing but your time and creative effort. Any left over leg material is now scrap material. This scrap material can be used for kitchen wash cloths, furniture dusters, or something I love to do, wrapping scrap pieces around a sponge mop. It’s a great way to get all those cob webs lurking at the top of the ceiling. It is certainly safer than standing on a chair.
It has been pointed out to me that I have been recycling from the recycled. That is true, and something I enjoy, and will continue to do. For the Silo, Blair Yager.
During the 12-year span of The Naked Truth, many of the world’s most alluring and enchanting actresses passed through the costume fitting room doors of costume designer Jean-Pierre Dorléac atelier.
Among them were Maude Adams, Jonelle Allen, Eve Arden, Belinda Bauer, Marisa Berenson, Joan Blondell, Ahna Capri, Kim Cattrall, Rosemary Clooney, Arielle Dombasle, Barbara Eden, Britt Eklund, Anne Francis, Eva Gabor, Erin Grey, Pamela Hensley, Olivia Hussey, Anne Jeffries, Maren Jensen, Carole Lawrence, Kay Lenz, Sondra Locke, June Lockhart, Sarah Miles, Anita Morris, Patricia Neal, Sheree North, Andrea Marcovicci, Yvette Mimieux, Donna Pescow, Eleanor Parker, Daphne Maxwell-Reid, Barbara Rush, Cybill Shepherd, Brooke Shields, Jill St. John, Jean Simmons, Laurette Spang, Camila Sparv, Stella Stevens, Ann Southern, Gloria Swanson, Liz Torres, Sela Ward, Lesley Ann Warren, Nancy Walker, Alfre Woodard and “Mae West.”
Forget about a painted façade, towering elaborate hairdo, ostentatious and chunky borrowed jewelry, an overly pushed up décolletage and a see-through spangled gown—the true magnificence of a movie star is in her demeanor and sincerity, not in the all-too-plastic manifestation. As has been stated many times, “beauty is only skin deep.” With all the cosmetic surgery and filler injections available now, that is hardly true any longer.
Deep beneath the surface of what everyone sees is where the true splendor of a person lies. It’s not in the eyeliner or false eyelashes, bright lip gloss, rouged cheeks, stiletto pumps or wearing something someone else has borrowed from a designer you never heard of … although in the ongoing Hollywood parade where everyone tries to out “glam” one another, it appears to be de rigueur.
Few of the true beauties ever subscribe to such theories. What made each of them unique and magnificent were their skills, goodness, kindness and attitude, above all.
Life Looks Better When You Do 1985
Many of the greats never wore anything but casual clothes when they went about their daily lives, sans make-up and glitz. Few were pretentious and none thought of themselves as better than anyone else. The ones that professed to be “the best” usually had the shortest careers in the long run.
Since costume designers are always the first to encounter an actor or actress, usually hired unseen through casting, their experiences are the bar by which those who have yet to work with these performers is measured. Depending on the first encounter, many artists are never hired again because of their lack of professionalism and ability.
In The Naked Truth, award-winning costume designer Jean-Pierre Dorléac’s entertaining chronicle of 12 years, readers will revel in the highly explosive stories that are filled with entertaining confrontations of every nature and, heretofore, untold tales of the glitter and tinsel capital’s drastic change that began in the early ’70s.
This often funny and quite fortuitous success story is filled with splashy tales and entertaining confrontations involving glamour, politics, graft, sex, scandal, and candid accounts of the glitter and tinsel capital’s assets being sold off by the new capitalist.
About the Author
Jean-Pierre Dorléac is no stranger to the film industry. His award-winning costume designs can be seen in Somewhere in Time, The Blue Lagoon, Heart and Souls, Battlestar Galactica, Quantum Leap, Knightrider, Airwolf, The Lot and numerous other award winning productions.
The Naked Truth
by Jean-Pierre Dorléac
Publisher: Monad Books
ISBN: 0974551111
Book and e-book available nationwide at independent and major book stores, Amazon.com or contact marketingdirector@thesilo.ca
He listened to Mike Oldfield. He saw the pictures on the albums and he read about ‘this thing called a Fairlight’. Which raised Klaus’ curiosity about this ‘Computer Instrument’. Fellow keyboardists told him it was a mission impossible, getting your hands on one. But Klaus managed to find the holy grail…
‘To me, It’s still fresh. I can use the Fairlight to create sounds no one’s ever heard before.’
”I was lucky enough to find a Series II, back in 2010. It’s quite a historical piece, for it used to belong to Synthesizer Studio Bonn, one of the only two Fairlight retailers in Germany. They bought it in 1982. It was their demo machine and It was kept in their shop until 1999. They went bankrupt, and the Fairlight was sold to a synth collector, who went bankrupt as well. He had to sell a lot of his equipment, including the Series II. I got it for a good price. But I do hope I won’t be the third one to go bankrupt.”
Klaus Himmelstein has been a music and science teacher on several German international schools for about twenty years now. He developed a special interest in electronic music, but originally he is a classically trained violin player. ”That’s how I started, at the age of 8. My parents took me to violin lessons, because they discovered I have perfect pitch hearing. I really love to play the violin and I still play it. Through the years, I got more and more interested in electronic instruments.”
Green screen, big box
”I remember getting my hands on a Yamaha DX7 for the first time, when I was about 12 years old. That was in 1986. I didn’t know what any of these knobs were for. I tried out the presets and I tried to tweak them, to get some other sounds out of it. Around that time period, I also heard about the Fairlight for the first time. I listened to Mike Oldfields’ albums and I read he was using a ‘Fairlight computer’. So I thought: ’What the hell is a Fairlight computer?’ And then, I figured out it was this funny machine with this keyboard and this green screen and a big box, pictured on some of his albums.”
He bought his first synth in 1991. ”A Roland D-5. Not to be confused with the famous D-50. The reason I bought it was because it is multitimbral. I already had an Atari ST computer. I used this set-up for making my first compositions. And, around that time, I started asking other keyboard players about the Fairlight. Some people didn’t know anything about it. But the people who knew about it, they’d be saying things like: ’Oh boy, that’s the holy grail…’, ’15.000 Deutsche Mark’, ’You won’t get your hands on one’ or ’That’s only for the big studios’. By the end of the nineties, Klaus had built himself quite a studio with a decent amount of vintage synthesizers. ”I started looking on eBay, checking for Fairlights. I’ve learned there are two types of Fairlight-ads: either the refurbished machines which cost a fortune, or just crap.”
Closing the deal
In 2010, an acquaintance of his – the guy from RetroSound, who publishes videos of pretty much every vintage synthesizer you can think of – notified Klaus there was a Fairlight for sale. “He knew I was looking for one, through my posts on forums. So one day, he sent me an e-mail. He knew there was one for sale, somewhere in the Eiffel area. A Series II, not in perfect condition, but good enough. He offered to put me in touch with the seller.
So, in the end, I went to this guy, checked it out, talked about the price and closed the deal. It was pretty easy going. I picked it up myself, for I don’t trust companies like UPS and DHL too much handling valuable packages. I had a huge car back in the day, a station wagon. I put lots of cushions and blankets in the back of the car. I wrapped it all up and drove back to my studio, which was located in the city of Münster. I set it all up and after that, people didn’t see me for quite some time, for I was in the studio all of the time.
I went through all the floppy disks. They contained a large collection of samples from Synthesizer Studio Bonn. They made their own samples, their own sounds. It was used for demo sessions. I checked out all the sounds; quite some unique stuff in there.”
Nothing like the real thing
”I was always fascinated by its sound. That was one of the reasons I wanted to have one. Not just for collecting purposes. I’m not treating it like some piece of history that sits in my studio, like some precious artefact, being polished every day. I really want to use it for making music.” Of course, it took some getting-used-to. Klaus: ”When you start to work with it, you’ll probably find out it’s quite difficult. For instance, the light pen isn’t as accurate as you think it might be; no drag ’n drop, no pull-down menu’s. But in the end, after a couple of days, I’ve found my way around it.
I also figured out, and this is a thing I learned from other users as well: after two or three hours working with the light pen, your arm gets really tired. And that CRT monitor, that green screen compared to todays monitors.… It isn’t too comfortable. But that sound, it makes it all worth while. I think the percussive sounds are the best in the world. And it’s that 8-bit sound… I don’t know why exactly, but I think it’s just the best. It’s unique. You don’t get that particular sound out of todays software. For instance, Arturia’s CMI V, it’s really nice, it’s a good reproduction. But if you want that original particular sound, there’s nothing like the original Fairlight CMI.”
Warm community
”I bought it back in 2010 and I have been using it ever since. It’s still in quite good condition, except for the CRT-monitor. It’s a little bubbly and not quite clear around the edges. But furthermore, the light pen is still working, one of the floppy drives still works, as well as the 8 voice cards. At the age of almost 40 years, it’s still a good machine. Together with Jean-Bernard Emond from France, I’ve made some modifications. For instance, we’ve replaced on of the floppy drives with an SSD-drive. Peter Wielk helped me out with one of the voice cards. I had a dead one. He had one in Australia, so he sent it to me.
I have two Emulators, and one of them just serves as a box of spare parts. I figured out there aren’t too many people familiair with repairing an Emulator. And it’s very, very difficult to get spare parts for it. With the Fairlight on the other hand, there’s a well grown community, pretty much world wide. You can get parts from France, from Australia, from the UK… There’s always someone somewhere in the world, with a great love for the instrument and lots of knowledge, who can help you out with any issue you might have.”
Inspirators
“In my studio, there are at least 25 keyboards and a whole lot of modules and other stuff. The Fairlight is a part of ’the orchestra.
I’m a big fan of Tangerine Dream, that is to say: their early work. Everything after about 1989 began to sound like pretty much everything else. They used cutting edge technology. But the funny thing is: they never used a Fairlight. According to Edgar Froese, they used a Synclavier, and Emulators. Their music comes close to what inspires me. Some people are comparing some of my work to Tangerine Dream. Others are saying it reminds them of Jean-Michel Jarre. The perception is quite different. I’m totally happy when people like my tracks. If they don’t? That’s fine with me. I’m working on my ideas and I’m enjoying the proces. That’s it. Sometimes, I get involved in some recordings, I made a couple of jingles for radio commercials and I once made a small movie score. Sometimes, I play keyboards and violin in bands. I’d prefer doing a little less teaching and a little more music production. The good thing about being a teacher: it’s a steady job. The bad thing about being a musician on the free market: you’re never sure of income. I prefer the more secure way. Teaching music actually is a lot of fun. Recently, we performed a few pieces with some students. I love teaching music to kids. But, I don’t take many of my synthesizers to school. My Moog Rogue is the only one I bring from time to time. They can tweak on pretty much every knob or slider; it doesn’t go out of order. But I’m not bringing the Fairlight to school. I don’t want to transport it too often.”
Final thoughts
“The Fairlight CMI, it’s a particular part of history. It has integrated sampling into modern music. Without the Fairlight, things would have happened totally differently. Back in the early 80’s, it was the latest thing to go on, the latest way to produce new kinds of music. I love that particular sound. For me, it’s still up to date. It’s not old-fashioned, it’s not vintage. For me, it is still fresh. In my opinion, I can use the Fairlight – as well as the Emulator – to create new and fresh sounds that have never been heard before. I’m convinced of that.” For the Silo, Mirjam van Kerkwijk. Read more about the Fairlight via For The Love Of The Fairlight . Have a fun Fairlight story to tell? Contact Mirjam at mirjam@fortheloveofthefairlight.com.
This material is soft, and easy to sew together in new combinations- injecting creativity into a new favorite sweatshirt .
