Do you know when I last published a Rate the Dress? July!?! How the heck did that happen. Somehow all of August and September and most of October just disappeared on me…
Last time: An 1880s dress of plum velvet with lots of beading.
A very mixed reaction to the last dress – rather like my own. Some of you loved it, some of you found it too fussy, and some of you loved elements, like the colour, but felt that the outfit was less than the sum of its own parts.
The Total: 7.9 out of 10
A fair rating for the mixed reception.
This time: A 1908 Paquin ensemble
It’s not quite the 1909 Paris fashions I showed a few blog posts ago, but hopefully this is close enough for you to enjoy the comparison.
Paquin, Paris London, Winter 1908, ‘Carloman’, sold by Augusta Auctions May 2017
Paquin, Paris London, Winter 1908, ‘Carloman’, sold by Augusta Auctions May 2017
Also up for comparison is how different an ensemble can look depending on lighting!
Walking dress and jacket by Paquin, Winter 1908
This Paquin ensemble was sold at auction back in 2017. In the auction photos it looks tomato red:
Paquin, Paris London, Winter 1908, ‘Carloman’, sold by Augusta Auctions May 2017
But there’s another set of photos of the outfit on the internet, and in them the ensemble appears as a dark merlot:
These certainly look like the same pieces. The damage to the fur and the delicate tucked net on the sleeves is the same.
Paquin, Paris London, Winter 1908, ‘Carloman’, sold by Augusta Auctions May 2017
It’s quite interesting to see how different the colouration makes the outfit look, and the different details that come into focus in the different lights.
The auction photos, as they should, show the garment as clearly as possible: stains, tears and all. Their job is to both show off the beauty of the outfit, but also its flaws, so the buyer knows exactly what they are getting.
Paquin, Paris London, Winter 1908, ‘Carloman’, sold by Augusta Auctions May 2017
The darker photos, on the other hand, are museum or collection pictures, and aim to show the outfit in the most attractive light possible, and to hide the flaws as much as possible.
Walking dress and jacket by Paquin, Winter 1908
I do wonder what colour I would say the dress was in real life!
Paquin, Paris London, Winter 1908, ‘Carloman’, sold by Augusta Auctions May 2017
Ridiculous side note: thinking of the tomato red of the one set of photos, and the wine of the others got me wondering. Could you make tomato wine? As the infamous Peeps wine post showed us, technically wine just needs sugar, yeast and time. Do tomatoes have enough sugar for wine? Presumably it would be awful, but how much worse could it be than Peeps wine? And in any case, I’m a teetotaller, so the respective awfulness of wine is completely immaterial to me!
That aside, what do you think of the outfit?
Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10
A reminder about rating — feel free to be critical if you don’t like a thing, but make sure that your comments aren’t actually insulting to those who do like a garment. Phrase criticism as your opinion, rather than a flat fact. Our different tastes are what make Rate the Dress so interesting. It’s no fun when a comment implies that anyone who doesn’t agree with it, or who would wear a garment, is totally lacking in taste.
As usual, nothing more complicated than a .5. I also hugely appreciate it if you only do one rating, and set it on a line at the very end of your comment.
I like the elegance of it , but l am not sure about the lace and net on the bodice. It looks to me like it needed lining, maybe with matching satin ? The lace to be honest , doesn’t work ,black might have been better for contrast
With a couple of tweaks , 8.5