All posts tagged: 1830

Rate the Dress: An uber-romantic print for the romance era

Last week there were mixed responses to the 1912 dress with its daring mix of colours and drape and details.  Personally, I thought it was lovely, but not quite perfect – the bodice seemed quite awkward and clunky compared to the divinely sophisticated skirt.  I would give it an 8 out of 10, and apparently you collectively agreed with me, because that’s exactly what you gave it! This week I’m returning to a classic, uncomplicated silhouette, and a classic, uncomplicated colour scheme, to see if you prefer your fashions challenging and avante-gard or a little more sweet and simple.  I’m mixing it up by throwing in a not-quite-as-popular timeperiod; the Romantic era late 1820s. Romantic fashions are characterised by their puffy sleeves, poofed hairdoes, and nipped waist,  often combined with really boring fabrics in shades of dun and sand, but this dress from the MFA also has very romantic silk fabric strewn with carnations and roses in blue and pink on chocolate brown.  How sweet!  How simple! So what do you think?  Is this so …

Rate the Dress: Fancy dress for 1830

The Halloween run-up purple and black dress from last week was very divisive.  You either loved the dress, or hated it.  One thing you did agree on though: the fringe was not good.  Perhaps my anti-fringe stance has influenced all of you after all!  The pro-black and purple-ites won a slight victory, bringing the rating in at 6.7 out of 10 Last week I gave a taste of the season, and I promised a proper Halloween Rate the Dress for this week, but when I came to pick something, I realised what a mistake my promise was!  How was I ever to live up to last year’s Victorian Batgirl?  How was I ever to find something else that was said ‘Halloween’ so clearly, that was from a different period (because the whole point is variety), and that wasn’t so historical that the costume would make no sense from a modern perspective. So I thought about the timeless trends in costuming: things that make Halloween costumes Halloween costumes, and it boiled down to three things: scary, …