All posts filed under: Textiles & Costume

The P.D. Corset Manufacturers box

Published by The Dreamstress

I’ve had an image from this corset box as my avatar for years now, but have never properly shown you the box.  So here it is! I came by this box in a rather interesting way.  It all started when I bought a beautiful early 20th century fan off of TradeMe (eBay for NZ).  I paid for my win, and awaited it with great anticipation.  My parcel arrived wrapped in layers and layers of bubble wrap and brown paper and tissue – very safe!  When I unwrapped it all, it revealed this box.  A corset box!  So exciting!  What an amazing surprise! Unfortunately, when I opened the box, the surprise wasn’t nearly so good.  There was no interior bubble wrap or tissue paper, and the fragile fan had rattled around in the much-too-big-for-it corset box, and a number of the sticks were broken!  Much sadness ensued. Luckily the seller was very honourable and we came to a mutually amicable settlement regarding the damage to the fan.  So I didn’t get a pretty fan out of …

Why I don’t give valuations for textiles

Published by The Dreamstress

As a textile historian I receive frequent requests to give valuations and appraisals for textiles that people own or are thinking about buying.  In every case I politely decline the request, and direct the query elsewhere.  Usually that is the end of the story, but recently someone got very angry and rude about this, and attacked me for being ‘stupid’ for not doing appraisals.  Weird! So I thought I had better explain why I don’t give valuations for textiles, and won’t tell you what you should pay for a textile. The first reason is professional and ethical.  I was trained as a museum professional, and that is where my career began.  International standards of museum ethics, most notable the ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums, direct museum professionals not to give appraisals to private individuals (see CEM 5.2).  This is primarily because museums hold items for their societal value, not for their monetary value. While I am now self employed, I choose to continue to adhere to the code of ethics I was trained in, …

Terminology: What is a tea gown?

Published by The Dreamstress

I just finished (well, soft finished – I still want to go back and do some unpicking and improving) a ca. 1900 tea gown. I’ll be telling you all about the process of making shortly, but first I want to start where I started when I began researching tea gowns: with the question, what exactly is a tea gown?  How can you tell if a garment is a tea gown, rather than say, a wrapper or an afternoon dress? For a general idea, let’s start with Emily Post: Every one knows that a tea-gown is a hybrid between a wrapper  and a ball dress. It has always a train and usually long flowing sleeves; is made of rather gorgeous materials and goes on easily, and its chief use is not for wear at the tea-table so much as for dinner alone with one’s family. It can, however, very properly be put on for tea, and if one is dining at home, kept on for dinner. Otherwise a lady is apt to take tea in whatever …