All posts filed under: 19th Century

Rate the dress: a little girl’s frock, ca 1885

Last week Princess Louise Marie’s dress was not a hit – between the fur, the colour, and the addition of the lace it rated only a 5.6 out of 10. I’ve had this weeks post all ready for months, and then, just when I was about to launch it, the website where I had the photo stored experienced technical difficulties, so I can’t show you the dress until it restores. Grrrr… So…my backup plan is to show you an intriguing child’s dress from 1885. It’s got it all: velvet, lace, smocking, ruffles, pleats, and the earliest example of child themed cartoon fabric used for children’s clothes that I am aware of. All of this may not necessarily add up to a good thing though. What do you think? Check out the fabric: There are more views if you click through to V&A’s site. What do you think? Is it a charming mix of 1880’s frills and childhood innocence or a clumsy mash-up of completely different themes? Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to …

Shell in Japonisme

Published by The Dreamstress

I’m dreadfully overdue in posting images of Shell in my Japonisme dress (the talk was weeks ago), but in a way I’m glad. Because I waited to post these, I had the opportunity to get to know Shell both for her grace and poise as a model, and for her warm nature and wicked sense of humour. Of course, only her grace and poise are on show in this post. OK, maybe just a bit of the wicked sense of humour: In other news, I have recovered my photos from the road trip (yay!) so tomorrow I’ll be posting some of those.

Rebecca in Regency

Published by The Dreamstress

Rebecca was actually supposed to wear the Laurel dress for the talk on the 2oth of Nov, but I was so scatterbrained that day I tried to duplicate her and put her in two dresses, so she ended up in the Regency. You know what though? I think she looks lovely. I loooooove the back of this dress! And the hair ornamentations. Madame Ornata lent me the shawl for the talk. It’s a real Indian shawl embroidered with paisley designs. Not an actual Kashmiri paisley shawl, but should I ever be lucky enough to afford one I probably won’t let models trail it around for photoshoots! Rebecca is wonderfully elegant and graceful in this dress, and looks so tall and slim. And I’m terribly envious of her profile too. Look at that elegant nose! She was a little shy in front of the camera sometimes though. I had to tease her to relax. As a result, some of the best photos of Becca are the casual ones Madame O took.