The week before last I showed you quite a challenging garment: a Schiaparelli dress. Last week’s offering of a 15th century Florentine ensemble in pink was perhaps not challenging enough: everyone loved it, but not enough to start any really interesting discussions around it. I think it was just pretty, with not much to say, or as Daniel noted “pleasant, with no punch.” Still, it came out in a rash of 9s & 10s, with only two 8s, for a total of 9.5 out of 10, which is pretty much a perfect score these days.
I’ve shown a few weeks of fairly restrained, muted garments, so I wanted to show you something with lots of colour this week. Hence this dress in rich, vibrant peacock blue, paired with a russet, orange and gold brocade on more peacock blue:
Afternoon ensemble, 1885—88, American, silk, metal, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009.300.2033a-e
This dress is classic mid-late 1880s: saturated colour, bold patterning, asymmetry, a mix of draping and pleating, and a nod to the aesthetic movement with the ruching/smocking across the bodice and on the skirt panel. Oh, and a MASSIVE bustle, which I did not expect from the front view.
Afternoon ensemble, 1885—88, American, silk, metal, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009.300.2033a-e
And it comes with it’s own matching paletot out of the brocade fabric:
Afternoon ensemble, 1885—88, American, silk, metal, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009.300.2033a-e
Asymmetry is often unpopular on Rate the Dress, as are extremely striking, off the wall colour combinations. This dress is definitely punchy. How will it fare?
Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10.
Seems like I’m the odd one out on this one, but for some reason this dress doesn’t look cohesive to me! I like the blue and all the smocking detail, but the contrasting brocade seems a little jarring. It doesn’t blend with the design as much as it seems tacked on, like an afterthought. Maybe because the brocade is in stripes on the underskirt and a stripe as the waistband, it seems to break up the fluidity of the rest of the dress- they are a little too harsh for all that smocking and draping.
So for me… 4/10.
What amazing and wonderful colors. Imagine a raven-haired lady with beautiful posture wearing this! 10/10
I love the color and the lines. I think it “wants” a pendant necklace to unify it.
9.5/10
Another odd one out. 🙂 What bothers me about the dress is that it looks like it’s trying too hard. It has the brocade turn back collar lapels but also is high necked – which might look alright if the center front and high neck were brocaded as well. Instead, it looks like the seamstress/tailor was using scraps of brocade which doesn’t fit with the yards upon yards of blue silk.
If there was more of the brocade in the dress, I think it would work better. As is, it looks like someone spent a lot of time on the blue silk and then added the brocade at the last minute because it’s what s/he had in the stash that matched.
5/10
the asymmetry is unusual to my modern eyes, but it has some interesting elements. the deep blue contrasted with the orange embroidery is fantastic. 9/10
I’ve never done this before…
I love it.
10/10.
I love it. Or at least, I love the colours and the composition from the front view. The bustle unbalances it rather I think, so I’d give it 9/10.
I want one 10/10
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! I’m not such a fan of the side view, but I’m going to ignore that. 10/10
love it. gorgeous colours
10/10
Love the colour (love love love this shade of blue!!), trim, and neck line…don’t love the bustle in the back.
7/10