All posts filed under: Admire

The NZSEHR 2019 in 1360s Medieval gowns thedreamstress.com

The 2nd Annual NZ Sew & Eat Historical Retreat

After the success of the 2018 NZSEHR, with food, and sewing, and pretty, pretty pictures, the Wellington historical sewing ladies decided we definitely needed to do it again in 2019. So we picked a sewing theme, and booked the adorable cottage we had last year, and spent our year sewing and planning and dreaming. And, once again, disaster struck – although this time the disaster was limited to us, and didn’t shut down the whole city! Instead of an overturned truck closing down the main road, the cottage had to cancel our booking, leaving us scrambling to find a suitable place at short notice, on one of the busiest weekends of the year. Happily, we found another cute cottage to rent. This time instead of heading up highway 1, along the Kapiti Coast, we headed out to the Wairarapa on highway 2, crossing the Rimutaka Hills, hitting Featherston (where the Time Travellers Ball was held) and turning towards the sea and driving down along between the hills and Lake Wairarapa. We were sad to loose …

Regency Ladies Reading

Fashion plates, like fashion magazines (and some corners of instagram…) today, sell not only aspirational fashions, but also aspirational lifestyles. There is a series of Costume Parisien fashion plates, stretching from the 1790s to 1820, that shows an fashionable lifestyle that I can very much see myself ascribing too… I call it Regency Ladies Reading*. 1810-11 was by far the high point of the style. The fashion illustrator hit on a post he liked, and built numerous outfits, all modelled by ladies intent on their literature, around it. *Somewhat inaccurately, because the fashion plates originated in France, and some predate the English Regency. I suppose I could call it ‘Empire Ladies Enlarging Their Minds’….

Lounging pyjamas inspired by a pair by Callot Soeurs at LACMA thedreamstress.com

The 1913 Lounging Pyjamas finally get a red carpet

Or, Leimomi find out why bifurcation never really took off in the 1910s… My Costume College Gala outfit didn’t get a lot of wear at Costume College because I was ill, so I really wanted another excuse to wear it. The Downton Abbey movie seemed like the perfect excuse – I certainly got enough Lady Sybil comments at CoCo! And it was a good excuse for the other Wellington historical sewists and I to go out dressed up. Our most extroverted member says that we need to stop hiding in the bushes and start wearing our dresses in public! We did a little searching, and found out that one of the Wellington theatres had not one, but two Downton themed events: an afternoon tea and an evening red carpet event. Unfortunately tickets for the one we really wanted: the afternoon tea, sold out before we found out about it. So we had to do the evening event. At least it would mean my outfit finally got a red carpet! But first…my outfit needed a little …