All posts filed under: 18th Century

Rate the Dress: Dance off, 18th century style

Last week I showcased a VERY pink, VERY 18th century influenced Worth gown.  Some of you were sure it was a fancy dress gown, and some of you were equally sure it wasn’t.  Some of you loved it, and some of you thought it was so dreadful it couldn’t possibly be a Worth.  Very mixed reactions!  The ratings evened out at 6.6 out of 10 – not terrible, but certainly not a glowing commendation of the House of Worth. This week’s Rate the Dress is a dance-off: these two lovely ladies each posed as a dancer in almost the same outfit, but with slightly different details.  Your job is to rate each dancer’s outfit, giving each of them a different rating (even if one is, for example, a 6 and the other a 6.5) Which will you find the prettier dancing frock? The first model has the advantage of youth.  She paired the  dun and pink frock with a lace border around the neck and sleeves, self fabric sleeves, a rose-trimmed hat with matching palest …

Rate the Dress: Élisabeth-Alexandrine in a perky hat

In case you’ve noticed that I haven’t posted anything for 5 days, it’s due to WordPress problems – I haven’t been able to start or edit posts.  After a desperate bit of ‘throwing away tons of stuff and clearing the cache and updating all the software’ I think I have it working again!  (I hope!)  So here is your slightly belated Rate the Dress… Last week’s Victorian Fairy Godmother dress might have impressed you a lot more if it was better displayed (once again, I’m still impressed at how good the auction house managed to display it at all – unlike a museum, they don’t have a finite collection and infinite amount of time to stye and document a garment), and if it wasn’t such a strange green-gold colour.  Many of you acknowledged that for the event, and for the person and age, it was probably a fantastic choice.  The ratings evened out at 6.8 out of 10 – reasonable, but certainly not a rave rating. This week’s Rate the Dress is inspired by the …

Terminology: What is matelasse or marseilles cloth?

As I’ve just finished a matelasse waistcoat,  it’s high time I (finally) finished my matelasse terminology post and added the term to the Great Historical Fashion & Textile Glossary! Matelasse or  Marseille’s cloth (sometimes shortened to marcella or called pique de marseilles) is also known as woven quilting, because it is a weave specifically designed to imitate quilting.  It looks like a fine quilt, or like a slightly bubbly, blister-y brocade.  Matelasse is sometimes patterned in simple geometrics, or (like my waistcoat), in elaborate foliate designs.  It can range from a heavy, bulky fabric, to a fairly light but still puffy and squishy crepe.  A very similar fabric (sometimes sold as matelasse, and it’s difficult to tell the difference on some examples), is cloque. From a technical standpoint: Matelasse  is a figured fabric made with either three or four sets of yarns. Two of the sets are the regular warp and weft yarns; the other sets are crepe or coarse cotton yarns. They are woven together so that the yarn sets crisscross.  When the fabric …