After last week’s lush excess of trim and embellishment, the garment I’ve chosen for this week is simple and restrained, relying on the cut and layout of the fabric for interest. Last Week:  a natural form era dress in red silk with rosettes and roses Some of you thought last week’s dress was holiday perfection. Others thought it looked like an over-dressed Christmas tree, and not in a good way. Interestingly, one of the things that came in for a lot of criticism was the way the skirt flared out from the hips. That’s a classic dressmaking trick to create the illusion of a small waist. The Total: 8 out of 10 (I personally thought the dress was just the thing for my favourite Christmas movie. Santa’s everywhere at once, and some of him landed on the dress…) This week:  an 1840s dress in striped silk The Metropolitan Museum of Art identifies this dress as a ‘visiting dress’, but I think a more correct description would be a formal day or dinner dress. Perfectly appropriate …

I’d intended this week’s pick for Christmas week, but it felt so right for this week you’re getting it early. I guess I’ll have to find something different and fun for next week! Last Week:  a blue velvet robe de style by Poiret There was much discussion about last week’s dress and whether it was back to front on the mannequin, with most people leaning towards a high likelyhood that it was indeed on backwards. So, the dress was backwards, and the ratings were divided: if I broke the high scores and low scores in half at 6, We’d have two ratings: one of 9, and one of 4. But since I do a mean rating…. The Total: 7.7 out of 10 Sometimes the mean does not reflect the mode! This week:  a natural form era in red silk with rosettes and roses Last week’s dress was all about simplicity and innovation. This week’s dress is anything but simple: It is, however, from another era that was all about experimentation and invention. The late 1870s …

Last week’s Rate the Dress was quite popular, although not everyone was on board with its colour. For this week’s Rate the Dress I’ve picked a very different dress, but one in the most-suggested alternate hue for last week’s frock. Last Week:  an 1882-3 day dress in fawn brown Last week’s dress was way, way, way more popular than I thought it would be! I just didn’t expect people to be in to fawn brown, all the pleats + lace, and the very unusual front pocket situation. But it turns out you just really, really like pockets. And some people even like fawn brown! The Total: 9.2 out of 10 A very elegant effort. This week:  a blue velvet robe de style by Poiret This week’s Rate the Dress is a robe de style by Paul Poiret. While the overall shape is typical of a robe de style, in typical Poiret fashion it combines unusual and inventive elements to give a twist to the standard shape. This take on the robe de style features multicolour …