All posts filed under: Rate the dress

Madame Ernest Ltd cinammon gauze silk and satin evening gown, circa 1910, sold by Kerry Taylor Auctions

Rate the Dress: Spiced peaches in the 1910s

Published by The Dreamstress

I’m on holiday, but the blog is not, and so far my holiday Rate the Dress picks have been a spectacular success.  Last week’s pick was tropical sea and flower gardens, this week’s is mango and sand – or, as the title says, spiced peaches! Last week: a Robe a la Francaise in sea blue floral silk The blue francaise was a tropical dream.  It received a warm and sunny reception, with no hurricanes of criticism lurking on the horizon. The Total: 9.8 out of 10 Divine! This week: a 1910s dress in peach pink and cinnamon silk Peach pink and coppery cinnamon brown were both very fashionable colours in the 1910s, and I’ve shown a few dresses of that era in variations of those shades over the years, to mixed reviews. This dress layers cinnamon silk gauze over peach satin, and combines them with gold metallic lace (also an extremely fashionable 1910s element) and ivory, all accented with embellished details in brighter orange and darker gold. The cut of the dress is as eclectic …

Robe a la Francaise, 18th century (probably 1770s), silk, Lot 550, sold by Whittakers Auctions, Fall 2016

Rate the Dress: a Francaise as blue as the Hawai’ian ocean

Published by The Dreamstress

This week’s Rate the Dress pick is thematic: it’s a francaise (be prepared for all the francaise posts…),  it’s as blue as the ocean around Hawaii, and it’s covered in a lush array of flowers worthy of any tropical garden. Will it make you feel like you’re on vacation at Versailles and Waikiki at the same time, or will it leave you cold? Last week:  a late Regency era evening dress The star-shaped-sequins covered evening dress didn’t inspire an outpouring of commentary and interest, but most of you who rated it agreed that it was an extremely attractive and charming example of its type…well, at least all of you who commented by Saturday evening did.  Perhaps there was an outpouring of dislike before the ratings closed, because… The Total: 9.4 out of 10 I haven’t had internet since I wrote this post, so don’t know what the final rating is.  It will be a mystery until I make it out of the valley and back to town. Picture perfect! This week: There isn’t a huge …

Evening Dress, French, c. 1817, silk and wool gauze with silk satin, iron floral pailettes, silk embroidery, silk-wrapped paper, cording of silk around metal core, and glass beads, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1958-74-1

Rate the Dress: Puffed sleeves & pailettes

Published by The Dreamstress

Post an ‘interesting’ dress, get an ‘interesting’ set of responses!  This week’s puffed sleeves & pailette embellished Rate the Dress pick is a little more subtly interesting: possibly somewhere between last week and the week before.  Let’s see what you make of it! Last week: late bustle-era velvet, beading, and patterns Not surprisingly, there was a wide range of reactions to last weeks late 1880s bustle dress.  Ratings ranged from 3 to 10.  It was not a dress that was compromising, or trying to please.  It was a dress with a definite viewpoint, and a definite opinion. The Total: 8 I strongly suspect that the wearer of the dress wouldn’t have cared a fig what we rated it, and whether we liked it or not.  She liked it, and that was the only opinion that mattered! And that fact rather makes me like it even more. This week: a late Regency era evening dress This week I’ve gone simple and classic, but with hopefully enough interesting details to keep it from being boring, with a …