Author: The Dreamstress

Ladies Home Journal, June 1910 thedreamstress.com

Some social commentary on corsets, 1910

I bought the June 1910 issue of the Ladies Home Journal (it was the American Fashion Number!) when I was in the US, and thought I should share this fascinating piece of corset related social commentary from it with you: And if you can’t quite read that one: So many layers! The anti-tightlacing message, right as longline corsets came into fashion. The message that corsets should be looser, without even a hint of a suggestion that they should be left off. The weird overtones about fertility. The use of ‘man’ and ‘girl’. The idea that women dress for men. The mansplaining…

Rate the Dress: Aubergine Aestheticism, ca 1880

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week’s 1950s Jantzen playsuit attracted either very high ratings, or quite low: there was only one 8 amongst the ratings, and not a single 7! It lost a few points amongst the high ratings for not matching at the waist, and a most of the points in the low ratings simply for being strapless and/or a playsuit. But there were more high than low in the end, and it came in at 8.5 out of 10 I wonder two things about the playsuit: first, were people going to like, or dislike, the non-pattern matching at the waist (I looked at it for a long time, and realised that there is no way it could have matched as it’s an un-balanced print and the seams on the bodice and pleats on the shorts don’t line up, so came to the same conclusion as SueAnne – you couldn’t match the stripes, but a belt would make the non-matching look right, as it did with the skirt, where two mis-matched wrongs really do make a right!), and …

Gather Ye Rosebuds CoCo 2017 Gala Gown thedreamstress.com

Gather ye Rosebuds… a 1916 crinoline evening dress

Published by The Dreamstress

And here it is! My 1916 crinoline revival evening dress: Officially, it’s been dubbed the ‘Gather ye Rosebuds’ dress – I felt I needed to make it before I was too old to get away with this look, it’s trimmed with roses, and there was lots of gathering (my gosh was there so much gathering. I gathered, and gathered, and gathered some more….). Unofficially….it’s the Jellyfish. I assembled all the pieces, put them together, put the dress on, looked at myself, and said “Oh dear, I’ve made a jellyfish!” I have mixed feelings about the Jellyfish. I really enjoyed wearing it. It was very bouncy, and I bounced a lot (lots of people took videos of me bouncing and spinning in it, but so far I’ve only seen one and I can’t figure out how to download it!). And I knew it was far from perfect so I didn’t feel the need to be precious about it. But…I know it’s far (so far…) from perfect. It started out really thought-out and precise and beautifully finished, …