All posts tagged: Worth

Jeanne Samary and her dress

Interestingly, while numerous paintings of the late 1870s and early 1880s show women in low cut, almost sleeveless natural form evening gowns, like the one worn by Jeanne Samary, and fashion plates also show this style of gown, very few examples these gowns have survived. Were they cut apart and modified for later styles?  Did they become so soiled at balls that they were not worth saving?  Did women tend to have only one evening gown, and a selection of reception dresses (the ones with low square necks, and 3/4 length sleeves) ?  Is it because wedding dresses were reception dresses, not ballgowns, and wedding dresses represent a disproportionate amount of the extent historical garments? Whatever the reason, I can only find one extent ballgown for every 10 reception dresses, so here are the ones I can find.   I’m infatuated with the orange/goldenrod colour of this dress, and the bodice is very similar to Jeanne’s dress in some ways.  And the skirt, well, how can you not love metal embroideries of daisies!?! Looking at …

Train + bodice = thrift/versatility. But is it accurate?

While making the Juno dress, I had a bit of a conundrum with the bodice and train. There was no way to make my original bodice look just like the inspiration bodice. So, making a virtue of necessity, I had the idea that I could make a second bodice that fit me perfectly, and looked just like the inspiration bodice.  Then I could add additional hooks to make the skirt waist smaller, and the Juno dress would fit a wider variety of models. But then I encountered a problem.  I’ve been studying similar late 1880s gowns for a while, and wondering if the trains actually attached to the bodices rather than the skirts. Doesn’t the train look as if it might extend from the bodice rather than being part of the skirt? The theory is sound: it would be much more comfortable to have the weight of the skirt coming from the bodice and hanging off the shoulders rather than hanging from the waist.  Additionally, attaching the train to the bodice opens up the possibility …

Juno: a goddess in the garden

This is the individual photoshoot I did of Vanessa looking simply stunning in the Juno dress after last Saturday’s talk. She looked fabulous, it was so fun to have the time to hang out with her, and, for just that final bit of awesomeness, she brought along the amazing Shona of In the Heyday, giving me the opportunity to get to know one of my vintage idols.  So exciting! That train!  And I love that a few leaves ended up on it! What a fabulous profile I actually love the contrast of the gloves, and wonder if the garland would look good with white roses, instead of blue, for another pop of colour. One of the ‘tweaks’ I want to do is adding the bertha that is on the inspiration dress. I think it will add just the right bit of interest to the upper bodice back. For now, a corsage helps. Possibly my favourite image from the session She looks so cool and composed, despite the heat in the greenhouse Beauty and the (absolutely …