All posts tagged: WWI

Rate the Dress: A dress for the summer before the war

Last week fabulous fabric triumphed over something-missing styling, little tassels which creeped most of you out, and truly terrible gloves to deliver a very impressive 8.8 out of 10 for the butterfly ballgown. Today’s Rate the Dress is a tiny bit late because I purposefully scheduled it that way to give yesterday’s post a little time in the spotlight, and even later because I chose a last-minute RTD substitution for reasons. Picking an alternate RTD was easy, because I just stuck with the theme of my recent posts on the ideal WWI figure, and my original idea for an all-one-colour, not super exciting fabric gown.. So let’s look at an evening gown designed to flatter one of those ‘ideal’ WWI era figures: This peach on peach confection features the small, slightly raised waist of 1914, with a draping, gathered bodice which would sit nicely over a low, soft bust (and is rather fighting with the high, stiff bosom of the mannequin its displayed on), and a chiffon over-tunic to the skirt, which would flow over …

Gossard Corsets ad, The Designer Oct 1916, thedreamstress.com

The Ideal WWI era figure: Part I

Published by The Dreamstress

As a celebration (slightly belatedly) of the release of the Scroop Rilla Corset, over the next few weeks I’ll be doing a series post about the ‘ideal’ figure from 1913 to 1921 – the period covered by the Rilla corset. I’ll be covering how the figure ideal changed from 1914 to 1921, how corsets and other undergarments were used to achieve the ideal figure and ‘correct’ the less than ideal figure, and how to wear a 1910s corset if you are ‘large above the waist’, and how to fit the Rilla to your figure. Of course, in any era, beauty is in the eye of the beholder: what the ideal figure is depends on who is describing it, so there are lots of variations. Part of the reason I really love the 1914-1921 period is that it covers a vast range of fashionable silhouettes within that 7 year range, even within a single year, and with so many different waistlines, necklines, skirt silhouettes and overall ‘looks’, there is a mid-teens style for every body. To …

The Anzac Day Wearing History 1916 skirt

Published by The Dreamstress

April 25, Anzac Day, honouring anyone who has served in New Zealand’s armed forces, is probably New Zealand’s most widely commemorated holiday. Waitangi Day is just awkward and slightly anger or guilt inducing. Almost everyone does something for Christmas, but New Zealand is a mainly secular nation, and few people really celebrate or commemorate it. Boxing Day is an excuse for sales, Guy Fawkes an excuse for fireworks, and New Years an excuse to get drunk (or set off fireworks – hopefully not both!). Easter is just a really awesomely long weekend – with the benefit or drawback of closed shops, depending on your views. But Anzac Day is marked by almost everyone I know, regardless of their religion, politics, ethnicity, or age. Every news presenter, shop assistant, and person on the street wears a poppy, and almost everyone I know has, at least once, gotten up to go to the dawn service, if they don’t make an annual event of it. Sporting events in New Zealand and Australia have moments of silence before the …