All posts tagged: menswear

Baroque & Rococo Out-takes

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week I was privileged enough to do a photoshoot with Mandi of A La Mode Photography  for Radio New Zealand.  The photoshoot will be featured on the Radio NZ website to coincide with a programme developed by Clarissa Dunn, who collaborated with me on the Grandeur to Frivolity talk. The day was just fantastic – three gorgeous models, and Clarissa as an (also gorgeous) advisor and model all in my 17th and 18th century outfits, hair and makeup fully done. Mandi took a whole series of formal studio portraits while I madly ironed and laced and did hair while all the models who weren’t in front of the camera helped.  She’s posted a sneak-peek of the shoot on her website, and now I’m even more excited about seeing the rest, if that is possible! After the formal studio shots it was time for fun.  We ventured out into the streets of Petone, and I captured a series of very un-serious and un-historical, but totally fabulous, images of the models blending modern life and historical …

Rate the Dress: Gentleman in Red, 1760s

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week’s 1840s plaid-ish dress was like a woman who is technically not the least bit beautiful, but who is so clever and witty with her looks that she tricks people into thinking she is more attractive than her more classically arranged sisters.  The illusion divided you into those who were completely taken in by the subterfudge, those who saw it and admired her more for it, those who looked straight for the true aesthetic and missed the wit altogether, and those who saw and dismissed the clever screen and cast your vote for the academically prescribed aesthetic.  Which is right?  All of them, and none of them!  They are what make the world interesting.  And together mush all the sharp ups and downs of the ratings into a respectable but not exactly brilliant 6.9 out of 10. Last week one of the main complaints from the latter two camps was that the colours of the dress were too dull. I hope this is bright enough for you. Celebrated Italian painter Pompeo Batoni depicts Edward …

Terminology: What is a chesterfield coat?

Published by The Dreamstress

The chesterfield is a man’s overcoat with simple vertical seams, no side-back piece, and a velvet collar, usually in grey with black. The velvet collar is the defining feature of the chesterfield (as the fitted waist has since been lost) and is said to be based on the black strips that supporters of the old regime sewed on their jackets after the execution of Louis XVI in 1793.  This last bit, while quite romantic and appealing, is, alas, probably apocryphal. According to The Encyclopedia of Fashion, the coat was named after Phillip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, .  This seems somewhat improbable, Stanhope died in 1773.  As the first known use of the term was in the 1840s, it seems likely it refers to a 19th century Earl of Chesterfield, perhaps the 6th Earl of Chesterfield, who cut a bit of a swath in London the 1830s and 40s.  There are certainly references to it as a Lord Chesterfield coat, indicating a link between the Lord and the coat. The Chesterfield was interesting as …