The Dreamstress

Well, if last week’s stripey Doucet Rate the Dress taught me anything, it’s that I can never predict how you will react to a particular garment!

I thought last week’s dress was awkward, blatant, incredibly boring for something that should have been bold, and really poorly done, especially in the bodice and the stripe transitions.  It’s only saving grace was a really lovely collar/neckline, paired with an unusual and quite modern sleeve.  A handful of you agreed with me, but most of you were extremely enthusiastic (in full caps with exclamation marks) about the  outfit, and brought the rating up to a sparkling 9 out of 10 (you agreed with me on the shoes though, as the rating goes up to 9.2 if it is paired with them!).

This fortnight’s theme on the HSF is ‘Art’, which leaves the field wide open for all sorts of fabulous ‘Rate the Dress’ options.  This week I’ve picked  a frock artist: one more known for painting elaborate gowns than for capturing evocative likenesses.

While not as famous as Tissot among the costuming community, Toulmouche also created sumptuous records of  the (possibly slightly romanticised) fashions of the 1860-80s.  Here we have his aptly named  ‘The Blue Dress’, which shows a girl in the titular frock impatiently checking the clock: someone is late for a rendezvous.

The gown has a shockingly low back, framed with a border of pale gold and a frill of delicate lace.  A hint of lace indicates that the front neckline is equally revealing.   The sleeves and peplum-tail of the skirt are also picked out in light gold.  There is a hint of Renaissance historicism in the white undersleeve.  A perfectly matched bow ornaments the model’s dark hair.

The bustled train is pulled back with a bow of the same light gold, revealing a lighter blue underskirt.

The heavy satin underskirt is trimmed with three rows of self-fabric ruffles, backed in the light gold.

What do you think?  Is the pairing of sweet hair bow, sophisticated neckline, sumptuous train and frilly skirt, plus historicism, just too much, or do all the elements build up to one glorious, harmonious outfit?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10.