Friday’s Fashion Plate
1817 Walking Dress
Today we have a walking dress from La Belle Aseemblée, 1817.
Green Walking Dress, 1817
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1817 Green Walking Dress
The Fashion Designer’s Directory of Shape & Style
Thursday’s Book Review:
The Fashion Designer’s Directory of Shape and Style
by Simon Travers-Spencer & Zarida Zaman
Book Cover ~ © 2008, Quarto Inc.
Rating
4 stars = Satisfactory
Description
A visual guide to the main aspects of fashion design. This book includes a myriad of mix-and-match shapes and style elements for blouses, sweaters, dresses, skirts, shorts, pants, coats, and jackets.
Guard Your Lingerie!
Tuesday’s Tips & Tricks
Guard Your Lingerie!
We’ve all had a blouse or dress whose neckline simply wouldn’t stay in place. Every time it shifts, your bra straps peek out, causing embarrassment and awkwardness. What can be done? Well, you can try safety-pinning the straps to your shoulder’s seam allowance, but this can leave holes in delicate fabrics.
A better solution is to install lingerie guards. This is a time-honored technique used in vintage fashions and couture garments.
Crimson Pisa Dress
Sunday’s Someday Project
Crimson Pisa Dress
Several years ago, I came around the corner at the Masters of Florence exhibit in Memphis and found myself face to face with a gown from 1560. The dress is extremely old and the materials are quite worn with age. Nonetheless, I fell in love instantly! At the time, there was very little information available about this exquisite red velvet gown, but a colleague of mine, Anéa, has done a great deal of research into the history of the crimson Pisa dress. (Visit her website here, and scroll down for a detailed description of the gown.)
Crimson Pisa Dress ~ © Anéa
Corset Myths
We’ve just posted a brand new two-part article: Exploring the Myths of Corsets. Did women really achieve 13-inch waists? Did they remove their lower ribs in order to get a smaller waist? Were corsets truly painful and restrictive? Did women faint, swoon, or die because of their corsets? Do corsets deform the body? These questions and others will be explored in this article.
Exploring the Myths of Corsets, Part I & Part II
Enjoy!
18th Century Undergarments: pt III
Wednesday’s Project
18th Century Undergarments: pt III
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at the set of undergarments I made to go with my Robe à l’Anglaise: a shift, a pair of stays, pocket hoops, and petticoat. Today we’re going to look at two pieces that aren’t technically undergarments, but which are essential accessories for the stylish woman of the mid to late 1700s: the cap and the handkerchief.
First, a well-dressed lady of the 18th century rarely ventured anywhere without her cap. For formal occasions, this might be nothing more than a scrap of lace pinned to her hair, but for casual wear, the cap was intended to cover the hair and keep it looking neat. They came in a wide variety of shapes and designs, but basic caps were white and generally made of linen.
Apologies!
It’s just come to my attention that two of our recent blog posts are receiving “Not Found” error messages when you click on either the title link or the “Continue Reading” link. (Last Thursday’s book review: Tidings From the 18th Century, and Sunday’s Someday Project: 1869 Jade & White Dress.) I have no idea what’s causing the error message!
To temporarily fix the problem, I’ve removed the blog preview feature, so for the two posts in question, the entire blog post is viewable from the main page. This means you’ll have to scroll through the entire length of those posts before you can get to previous posts, but for now, that’s the only way I can find to make them viewable.
I’ve got technical support working on the problem, so hopefully we’ll be able to fix this as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience!
Edited to Add: My clever technical support figured out the problem–for some reason, the two posts in question weren’t saved with the proper URL. They were given random numbers instead of the post title, and for some reason, that caused the link to fail. We simply edited the link to match the title of each blog post, and that seems to have fixed the problem.
Tidings From the 18th Century
Thursday’s Book Review
Tidings From the 18th Century: Colonial American How-To and Living History
by Beth Gilgun
Book Cover ~ © 1993 Scurlock Publishing
Rating
5 stars = Shiny!
Description
Written as a series of letters to a companion, this book discusses life in the 18th century in splendid detail. It touches on every subject necessary to the re-enactor, including sewing and keeping house.
18th Century Undergarments: pt II
Wednesday’s Project
18th Century Undergarments—Part II
Last week we began to examine the set of 18th century undergarments I’d made to go with my Robe à l’Anglaise. I made a shift, a pair of stays, a set of pocket hoops, a petticoat, a cap, and a neckerchief. We’ve already looked at the shift and stays; now lets see the pocket hoops and petticoat.
1869 Jade & White Dress
Sunday’s Someday Project
1869 Jade & White Dress
While browsing antique fashion plates one day, I came across this. See the dress on the right? I love the shape of the gown as it transitions from hoop to bustle. I love the color, that vibrant jade green. I adore the white overdress/apron/polonaise. In fact, I like everything about it—except for the high collar, because I get claustrophobic wearing high necklines.
La Mode Illustrée, 1869