All posts filed under: 20th Century

Swing Noir! Windy Lindy 2013

It’s that time of year again: the season when I lay aside historical costuming for a little while and turn to vintage frocks and dance until my feet hurt.  In other words, it’s Wellington’s Windy Lindy weekend. This year the theme for the big ball (and more or less the weekend as a whole) was ‘Noir’, which I was SUPER excited about as I love film noir and neo-noir and Guy Noir.  In fact, I love them all so much that I’ve been campaigning for a Noir theme for two years. I had visions of femme fatale costumes, all tilted hats with little face veils and broad shoulders and dark sequins, and even got one patterned up, but unfortunately I was sick in the run-up to Windy Lindy, and it fell the weekend after exams and projects were due at Massey University, so I was too busy sleeping or answering student emails to whip up anything fabulous. Instead, I resorted to my wardrobe – it’s not like there isn’t enough in it! Friday night was …

The 1924 Hula Goddess dress

After a bit of modification to my design idea, and some hemming-while-wearing the dress fun, my 1920s green dress is done. I’d originally planned to make the dress entirely out of the amazing green silk, but it was a little overwhelming en-masse and I ended up breaking it up slightly with a shoulder strap and sash of gilt linen (the same stuff I made my silver stays out of, only gilt gold not silver) The design was mostly based on a process of basting things and draping until things looked good.  The dress ended up looking like a lot of frocks and sketches from 1923-24: very low waistline, low calf length, asymmetrical draping, low straight-or-asymmetrical neckline. I’m calling it the Hula Goddess dress, because I spent a lot of time dancing around the house in it after my post on hula dancing, and the draping is both very pa’u/sarong/lavalava-y, and rather Grecian.  I feel like it’s exactly the dress that a 1920s Hollywood starlet would have worn to a fancy party in Honolulu. A rather …

Rate the Dress: ’20s geometry & lace

Last week the initial reactions to Princess Wilhelmina’s green and pink brunswick were so positive that I thought for a while that we might set a new rating record for an 18th century dress.  And then the naysayers arrived and compared it to duvets and watermelons.  Personally, I think looking like a watermelon can only improve anything, but the variety of tastes is what make the design world such a wonderful thing!  So, with a few less-than-enthusiasts about green and pink and watermelons and hoods and growing things, Wilhemina only came in at 8.6 out of 10, which is still very good! Since I’m on a ’20s kick, this week’s Rate the Dress is a green ’20s number.  You may even recognise it from my ‘Green’ inspiration post. I think this dress is interesting because ’20s frocks are usually geometric, or lacy, not both together.  This frock combines the two, and uses the striking latticework applique to emphasise the lack of body shaping fashionable in the mid-20s. What do you think?  Rate the Dress on …