All posts filed under: 20th Century

Art Deco wardrobe planning

This year, for the first time ever, I’m going to Napier’s Art Deco Weekend. I’ve tried to go in the past, but things have come up. But this year, unless something happens in the next 5 days, it’s actually happening! Three days of 30s clothes and dancing! Being crazy and ambitious I’m planning a specific wardrobe. It’s based around the idea of what a well-off girl from Hawaii would have taken for a trip to Napier to visit family in early 1933*. So all my clothes will be from the very end of the 1920s and the early 30s. I’m going with a red, white & blue theme, to organise my design and keep my accessories down. I’ve got a pinterest board with inspiration. But don’t think it will be all patriotic and nautical red, white & blue! Here is my fabric pile: I’m hoping to make two evening dresses, one out of white lace with black lace that looks like this: With this: And one of blue lace in a cut very similar to …

Finished projects: Madame O’s Cymbidium Orchid Corset

Published by The Dreamstress

Here is Madame Ornata’s Poison Ivy/Cymbidium Orchid corset. I do believe the photos say it all with this one. Anything you want me to add? Oh, what I should add is that I have seen Madame O in her corset, and she knocks the socks off of these photos. She looks exactly like the ideal late Victorian beauty. She is Ah-MAZE-ING. She makes the corset. If you are really lucky she’ll do a photoshoot in it.

Elise’s gift: the white cape-stole

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week I showed you the most exciting of the garments that Elise gave me. This week I’m being mean and showing you the simplest, least-exciting garment. Well, it may be simple, but sometimes the simplest things are the best. I think this little cape-stole is adorable. The cape is very cleverly made. It’s made from two pieces of fabric, with part of the back extending further, and the other part curving up around the neck. The extension is gathered to the neck-part to add back fullness: The lining is cut in exactly the same shape as the outside, and also gathered at the upper back seam. I think it is late ’30s, but I’m not entirely sure. It’s such a classic style it could really be from any timeperiod. While it is charming and dressy, I suspect this would have been a very cheap garment when it was made. It’s made from a very short pile fabric which is somewhere between a faux fur and a synthetic velvet, and lined in an inexpensive synthetic …