Godets a Go Go: Vogue 2066 by Federico Forquet
This Vogue pattern boasts that “FREDERICO FORQUET (For-Kay)--talented young Italian designer creates clothes with simple elegance.....” You may not have heard of him because he moved out of fashion and into interior design, but Forquet began by working for Cristobal Balenciaga and then opened his own salon in Rome in 1962. Despite much success through the 1960s, he shut the salon in 1972 and turned his hobby of decorating friends’ homes into a business.
You see here on this dress a remarkable set of bias-cut godets playing with proportion. Godets are a slice of fabric, shaped much like a wedge of pie, which are usually found at along the hemline of a skirt in order to create flare for easy movement. These too are at the hemline, but they are lengthened considerably and shoot almost to the bustline.The result is a dress that is almost all godets which are further emphasized by the 2-inch horsehair which stiffens the hemline. In addition, the entire dress is underlined, again to give it greater body, and he recommended “crisp heavyweight fabrics” for the fashion fabric. Seam binding stabilizes all the seam allowances of the dress before the godets are inserted.
Notice too how he refused to compromise the emphasis on the swooping lines of these giant godets, by setting the zipper into the side seam instead of creating a center back seam. All of which would have taken considerable skill as befits a couture garment.
Both the photography and the fashion sketch indicate that he felt the need to move some of the attention up from this interesting hemline towards the face. The photography has the model wearing a tall white hat and a large brooch near the shoulder, and the sketch has the model wearing a tiered, elaborate necklace. Notice too that both have white gloves, an indication that this pattern came out at a time when formality was still required for public clothing for all occasions, but sports or country life.
