All posts filed under: Learn

Terminology: What is blonde lace?

One of the most striking features of Queen Adelaide’s frock in this week’s Rate the Dress is her glorious blonde lace sleeves. Perhaps you’ve read a Georgette Hayer novel and come across a description of the heroine heading out to a dinner party in a dress trimmed with blonde lace and wondered what that meant? Maybe you already knew! If not, wonder no more. ‘Blonde’ is the term used to describe the natural colour of undyed silk, and blonde lace was originally the name for a specific style of continuous bobbin lace made in France (primarily Chantilly, Caen & Bayeux) from natural, undyed silk thread imported from China. While blonde lace was originally made from undyed and unbleached silk the name later came to refer to lace in a particular style made from silk thread, even if it was bleached white, or dyed black (and occasionally other colours). In 1902 an ad offers it in white or ‘butter’, and a fashionable 1895 tea jacket is made up in ‘black blonde lace’. Sometimes different shades …

Tell me about the early 14th century

Published by The Dreamstress

If you read my blog a lot you may realise that the areas between the 5th and 17th centuries are basically a costuming black hole for me. I’ve done barely any work in that period, and a correspondingly brief amount of research. I know about textiles from the ‘Dark Ages’ and Medieval period, but my knowledge of the clothing is pretty basic. But now I have a reason to tackle the Middle Ages – specifically the early 14th century in England. Think 1310-1330. (Sorry, can’t tell you what the reason is yet). I do know that sometimes the trick to knowledge is not actually knowing the stuff, but knowing where to find the information. I have a lot of leads, but I also know that there are a lot more out there. So, dear readers, who among you does late 13th and early 14th century costuming? What are your favourite resources for that period? Expand my knowledge! Update: I’m mostly interested in men’s clothes – commoners, lower grades of knights, jesters, mercenaries, and maybe a …

Saints heads

Published by The Dreamstress

These early 16th century reliquary busts of saints in the collections of the Cloisters both intrigued and repulsed me. I love the women’s serene faces, their elaborate hairstyles and meticulously rendered clothes. I’m amazed by how precise the carving is, and how vivid the colours some 500 years later. They are such beautiful, unique, examples of what was admired and desirable in women in late Renaissance Belgium. At the same time, I can’t get past what they are: reliquary boxes. Containers for holding human remains: the skulls and other bones of saints. There are little doors in the top of the heads so that they could open the heads on feast days. I presume that the bones were removed long before the busts made it to the Cloisters, but I still have trouble adjusting my beliefs on how human remains should be treated with the attitudes and customs of the Renaissance Catholic Church. It’s another example of how my aesthetic attraction to the past constantly makes me consider and question my modern beliefs and attitudes, …