All posts tagged: extent garments

Wow madam…those are some shoes

Some vintage items really challenge our cultural perceptions of an era.  Take these boots. We think of the Edwardian women as status and propriety bound carryovers of the Victorian era, clad in layers of white and pastel frills, and encouraged to be eminently retiring and delicate and feminine.  These boots turn all of that on its head.  They are feminine, that’s for sure, but there is nothing retiring, pastel, or frilly about them! They are so loud, and high, but the lack of ornamentation is also very elegantly restrained.  And the curves!   They are basically the shoe version of Camille Clifford’s figure! Can you imagine the sensation that Camille would have cause if she had worn these?  My legs certainly don’t have the right curves to pull them off! I wonder who did wear them, or what market they were intended for?  Perhaps they were the sort of shoes that ‘nice’ women would never consider. Hehe, turn-of-the-century slapper boots!

Rate the Dress: Chanel does trousers

Julia of the Perfect Victorian Figure says that I do too many frilly uber-historical dresses for ‘Rate the Dress’, and challenged me to post a 1930s Chanel trouser suit for your perusal. There aren’t actually that many 1930s Chanel trouser suits out there, so hopefully this one will meet with your approval as a suitable interesting ‘Rate the Dress’, although it might not meet with your approval as a suitable elegant and sartorially fabulous ensemble. Between the 1930s photograph and the detail of the extent blouse and jacket, what do you think of the ensemble?  Imagine Diana Vreeland in it, with a black ribbon around her neck, and a red rose tucked into it, as V&A’s blurb describes. Fabulous?  Or Frumpy? Rate the Dress on a scale of 1 to 10

Rate the Dress: 1870s colours

A few of you liked Maria Theresa’s masque frock last week, but most of you were rather lukewarm, with the main complaint being that the patterns were too busy and aggressive, and the whole thing didn’t go together. It rated a 5.9 out of 10. This week, our rate the dress is a bit toned down pattern-wise, but not colour-wise. Yep.  That’s quite some colour in quite a combination.  What do you think? Rate the dress on a scale of 1 to 10