Last week I showed you a really frilly, over the top 1870s dress – but in a very restrained colour scheme.  Unsurprisingly, for most people whether they liked it or not came down to whether they are maximalists or minimalists, though some with more restrained  tastes conceded that it would look spectacular from a distance.  Surprisingly (to me at least) one of the things it got the most criticisms for was the black trim.  I thought the harshness of the contrast balanced the too-busy, too-sweet trim of the rest, but I was very much  in the minority (though not entirely alone) in liking it!  The dress came in at 7.6 out of 10. For this week’s Rate the Dress, let’s look at some very feminine menswear inspired clothes in the form of a fluffy, pastel-y riding habit: Let’s take a slightly closer look: Campeche’s luxuriously  attired horsewoman sports a white satin skirt, and a jacket and double-breasted waistcoat in robins egg blue satin, with white facings and self-fabric buttons.  Her cuffs and cravat are of …

Last week I showed you an 18th century fashion plate, and to a man (or lady) you agreed that it was terrible.  However, some of you thought it was so terrible that it became awesome.  And some of you thought it was a terribleness composed of lots of nice bits, just not together.  And some of you thought it was just terrible through and through.  So our galant nymph came in at 4.3 out of 10, which is the lowest rating we’ve had in at least two years!  Ah well, better to be memorable and terrible than not to be remarkable at all? This week, despite the HSF theme being Terminology, I was inspired by the upcoming theme #20: Alternative Universe, because there is something about this particular ensemble that strikes me as being quite out of time (and look, it’s even been sold by Time Traveller Antiques!), and also because I see it as being an interesting flip to last week’s frock. The late 18th century redingote inspiration of this late 1880s dress is …