All posts filed under: Admire

Pride, Prejudice & Pohutakawa Trees

Theresa was in town recently, and you know what that means! Dress ups! And photoshoots! For this photoshoot we wore Regency, because the pohutakawa (the New Zealand christmas tree) were in full bloom, and I think my 1813 Kashmiri gown works beautifully with the blaze of red blooms. Also it was too hot to think of anything that involved full corsets and layers of undergarments. This time we did something a little bit different, and Mr D came along and was our photographer, so (for once) we have lots of gorgeous photos of the two of us together. With two ladies in Regency wandering around a garden it’s impossible not to make Jane Austen themed commentary about the photos. In doing this I’ve realised an unfortunate problem with Austen: other than Lizzie and Jane from Pride & Prejudice, there are no sets of two females that a pair of friends would really be happy to be. Emma is insufferable, her friends silly. Fanny is a prig, her associates terrible. Anne is great but none of …

High heels for kings, empresses and Nana

Published by The Dreamstress

For my Historical Sew Fortnightly ‘The Politics of Fashion’ challenge I present a carry-on from my Art submissions. I’ve knocked off another little bit of Manet’s Nana’s outfit by making high heeled 1877 evening shoes. Like Nana’s shoes, mine feature very high Louis heels, a black velvet or suede ground (mine are faux suede), and gold decorations on the toes – I went for gold lace with gold beading. I made my shoes by taking a pair of 1990s shoes that had the right basic silhouette, and (most importantly) the right heel: a high Louis heel. Unfortunately, they were cut far too high in the foot, so I had to cut them down. Then I bound the edges (an endeavor that required pliers to pull the needles through, bent one and broke two) where I had cut them. Next, it was time for the lace. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any suitable gold lace in the stash because I de-stashed my 1990s gold bridal lace bits because (duh) they were 1990s gold bridal lace bits, and …

Hoopskirts in the Park

Published by The Dreamstress

Our first photo location for last week’s hoopskirt photoshoot with Theresa was a big park on the edge of the green belt in Wellington – the same park I used for the pet-en-l’aire photoshoot. I’ve long thought that the park, with it’s long, sloping green lawn interspersed with pohutakawa and eucalyptus trees, had distinct English pastoral possibilities. If Capability Brown had had access to pohutakawa he would have planted in them. They are the perfect representation of 19th century New Zealand’s complicated relationship with identity. For 11 months of the year they are elegant faux English oak trees, and then for one month of the year they break out in flaming red SOUTH PACIFIC WONDERLAND! colours. This is pretty much how New Zealand was for a good century: torn between being more English than the English, immensely proud of not being English and their new national culture, and not sure what to do with the Polynesian culture they were living side by side with. In any case, the pohutakawa lawn was perfect for a hoopskirt …