crumb catchers

Okay. This may be frightening to some of you, so I'm just warning you ahead of time. Occasionally I will allow people a glimpse into the tangential nature of my train of thought...so just be forewarned...there is a point coming...eventually.

So I was over at a friend's house and her little girl, who is almost a year old...which I can hardly believe...was, to my delight, allowing me to hold her while she gnawed and mangled a graham cracker. Well actually...several graham crackers cause I kept giving them to her so that she would let me continue to hold her. Hey...bribery, food or otherwise is not beneath me. Anyway, when I arrived home...I started getting ready for bed and as I was changing into my pajamas, I took off my bra and to my surprise, an assemblage of graham cracker crumbs fell to the floor. After I quit giggling, I started to wonder if that's where the fashion term 'crumb catcher' originated. Just an aside...for anyone who may not be acquainted with the term, 'crumb catcher', it's used in kind of a cheeky way to describe any bodice that has a ruffled or pleated detail. But what I didn't  know was this little bit of mindless trivia...which will now be crammed into my cranium to be lost forever.

...sigh...I really despise getting older...

...anyway...what was I saying...uhmmmm...

...oh yea...trivia...

"Cumberbunds, also known as commerbunds, were traditionally worn with the pleats facing up. The purpose of this was to provide a place for the men wearing them to place tickets, papers or bills. The pleats provided a sort of pocket into which small items could be tucked. Some also claim that a cumberbund in the "pleats up" position functioned as a "crumb catcher" during meals. However, in modern society, the use of cumberbunds is completely aesthetic in nature." 

If my husband wore one of these on a daily basis, the folds would be filled with golf tees, loose change and some McDonald's french fries.

Anyway, when I think of 'crumb catchers' and fashion, I automatically think of the queens of crumb catchers, Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig...masterminds behind fashion house Marchesa. Here are a few of their gorgeous, sometimes over-the-top, variations on a crumb catcher theme from the Marchesa 2012 spring collection. If I ever wore one of these, the crumb accumulation would be such as to probably get me mugged in the parking lot by every woodland creature within a ten mile radius. Ah well...enjoy the beauty that is Marchesa! Miss Bea