All posts filed under: 20th Century

Watteau in Paradise

A couple of years ago I got a facebook message from the lovely Sadie.  She’d found a 1960s Hawaiian dress at an op shop.  Would I like it?  Oh sure, the 1960s did lots of Hawaiian stuff – it might be fun. Nope, turns out, it’s actually Hawaiian!  As in, the fabric is by a Hawaiian fabric company (who knew?  There were, and are, still fabric companies in Hawaii!), and the dress is made from a Patterns Pasifica (a short lived 1960s-70s Hawaiian pattern company) design. Sadly, the dress is  not from a Patterns Pacifica pattern that I own (my Mum bought me half a dozen when I was a teenager, and I’m gutted that I didn’t take better care of them), but it’s from that I’ve wanted to own for ages, because it’s very 18th century inspired, with those 1960s Watteau pleats. So obviously I was VERY excited about the dress! And it fits me!  (more or less.  It would help if I was 4 inches shorter and half a size smaller – as …

What a girl should wear, ca. 1907

I’ve been digging around in my stash of pages  from the Girl’s  Own Magazine, and came across these glorious evening gowns:   Aren’t the butterfly gathers across  the bust of dark one just delicious?  And the decorative band on the light one, ducking in and out behind the bodice and sleeves?  And those droop puffed sleeves!  Fabulous! I’m not sure about the merits of having a big circle on your chest though! And just so you can read the fabulously hilarious write-up (“nothing flops this years but our sleeves”), here is the whole page in large size.   I’m 90% sure this is from sometime between Aug-December 1907.  Unfortunately my Girl’s Own Magazine pages from 1905-7 are an incomplete set of loose pages.  I’ve put them in the best order I can, but some I just have to guess at.  

Rate the dress: girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes

This week’s Rate the Dress is going to be slightly truncated, because I’m away on a long overdue holiday, and (as per usual) I had a million things to do in the run-up to leaving, and didn’t get everything sorted.  And I have very limited internet while away. So no add-up of last week’s Rate the Dress for now. This week, I’m showing you a dress that takes a romantic classic: white dresses with blue sashes, and gives it a twist in white & ecru, with a bright ocean blue sash, and fringed neck ornamentation that reminds me of a flower lei.  The sea and sand colours and garland of flowers seems quite appropriate given my holiday (can’t tell you where yet, but there are going to be lots of exciting photos to show you!)! The beaded fringe amuses me, because it’s such a (mostly misplaced) cliche of ’20s fashion, but here we see it a decade earlier.  What do you think?  Would it sway and sparkle and add a bit of difference to gown? …