It’s always nice to have the most lovely, polished photos for Rate the Dress, but that does limit the options. So sometimes I have to choose a poorly staged garment, just because it’s so interesting. And I think the fabric, colour, and design of this week’s pick make it worthy of inclusion, lacklustre images notwithstanding.
There was a lot of confusion about the colour of last week’s dress. Was it black? Blue? Purple? My screens say purple, but unless one of us has seen the dress in person we’ll never really know. Photography can be so misleading!
There was also a lot of variation in the rating, with scores hitting every whole point from 4-10. And everyone loved, or didn’t love, it for different reasons. No consensus at all!
The Total: 7.3 out of 10
It does actually reflect this largest clump of ratings, even if it was a proportionally small clump compared to other Rate the Dress selections.
This week: an 1890s evening dress by Mrs Cuttle
This 1890s evening dress could do with a good steam and fluff, but with a bit of imagination you can envision it as it was originally.
This dress is dated to 1890 in the auction catalogue, but the cut of the skirt and the bolero effect of the bodice suggests a date at the end of the decade: more 1899 than 1890.
Beaded silk and velvet evening gown, 1890, Helen Larson Private Collection, Whitaker Auctions
The skirt cut is almost identical to the Scroop Patterns Fantail Skirt, which always attracts me to a dress, but the main reason I found this one so worthy of featuring was the striking turquoise velvet, and the fascinating patterning on the ivory fabric.
So, imagine the velvet all plush and uncrushed, the bows all plump and perky, the pleats and precise as they were the first day it was worn. How do you feel about this dress?
Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10
A reminder about rating — feel free to be critical if you don’t like a thing, but make sure that your comments aren’t actually insulting to those who do like a garment. Phrase criticism as your opinion, rather than a flat fact. Our different tastes are what make Rate the Dress so interesting. It’s no fun when a comment implies that anyone who doesn’t agree with it, or who would wear a garment, is totally lacking in taste.
(as usual, nothing more complicated than a .5. I also hugely appreciate it if you only do one rating, and set it on a line at the very end of your comment, so I can find it! And 0 is not on a scale of 1 to 10. Thanks in advance!)
At long last Ensign Paris has put the finishing touches on his latest holo-program: a recreation of a ballroom from Earth’s early 19th century.
Tom insists it is perfect in every detail, with no backwards harps, but Harry has told me privately that a number of alterations have been made for the comfort and convenience of the crew.
I don’t think the crew cares if it is accurate or not. After weeks of hard work they are all looking forward to the gala launch tonight. It should be quite an event: Neelix has been researching food for an old Earth menu for days.
With Chakotay and Harry on an away mission in search of dilithium, Tuvok has kindly agreed to captain the bridge while Lieutenant Torres, the Doctor, and I attend. Even Seven of Nine has expressed interest after the Doctor pointed out that a ball is the perfect place to observe human interactions and courtship rituals.
I’m slightly nervous about leaving Tuvok alone on the bridge. Long range scans have indicate some worrying spatial anomalies.
Just in case, I’ve asked B’Elenna to engineer costumes which incorporate our coms badge. With that in place we’ll be immediately reachable in the event of an emergency.
Captain’s Log, supplemental
Things are finally settling back down to normal after last week’s events. We’ve repaired most of the damage after spatial distortions caused chaos in the holoprograms. The anomaly simultaneously released holocharacters from almost every other holoprogram into the inaugural run of Ensign Paris’ new ballroom program. It locked us in the program and broadcast the holograms over three full levels of the ship.
With Chaotica’s robot holding us hostage in Sandrine’s, the French Resistance trying to bomb Level 3, Lord Burleigh’s guests staging a dance-off at the Regency ball, Chaotica competing with Leonardo for the attentions of Wealhtheow, and Heorot and his warriors making merry with some Klingons in Fair Haven, the night was far more exciting than we’d planned.
Luckily we were able to shut the holodecks down after 5 hours. We think we can restore most of the holoprograms, though it may be time to say goodbye to Fair Haven. I’m afraid that I’ll never be able to look at Michael in the same way after catching him with Arachnia…
And for those of you who are lost in the Delta Quadrant trying to understand the above…
We’ve just got back from a wonderful weekend away in the Wairarapa (basically, Sonoma to Wellington’s San Francisco), attending the 2019 Time Traveller’s Ball.
The ball is an annual-ish event put on by historical loving people who have accepted that there simply aren’t enough historically inclined folk in the Lower North Island to throw elaborate one-era historical event, so instead they throw a multi-period (and some aliens and steampunkers) ball.
I’ve never been, but this year the Wellington Historical Costumers (aka, my friends and I) decided to head over for the weekend and attend the ball.
And, since we’re slightly mad (aka, I’m slightly mad and good at being bossy), we decided to take the one period that we all have costumes for (Regency) and go really on-theme for this years TTB.
The theme? Voyagers.
Our costumes? The crew from Star Trek Voyagers, done Regency style!
Confession: when I convinced the others that this would be a ‘good’ idea for a theme, I’d seen a grand total of four ST:V episodes. And I was among the better informed on all things Star-Trek of my prospective crew.
The idea was partly sparked by Nina, who was already working on a yellow evening spencer. Not the exact shade of yellow, but we were fine with being a little less than precise!
An engineer was a good alignment to her skills and job, though I don’t think you could get a temperament further from B’Elanna’s!
Hvitr was obviously the Doctor, with her Hole-o-graphic blue dress:
(have I pointed out that she hand-netted it!?!)
Priscilla was going to be my Chakotay, but she got called out on an away mission…
And we may have simply informed Eloise that she was going to make a grey spencer, because she’d be perfect for Seven of Nine…
Zara was Neelix (and her partner was ‘Expendable Crew Member #5), but unfortunately we weren’t able to get good photos of them before the ball, so you can’t see her amazing yellow hair and spotted hairline.
And, miss bossy-pants me got to be Janeway!
I’m good at wearing my hair in a bun, I burn dinner as often as I make it successfully, I’m intermittently extremely good at being a capable leader (and intermittently terrible), and I’m all about the journey though I need a destination to aim for to keep me on track.
But I don’t drink coffee, black or otherwise…
However, I do like doing research, so in the name of science costuming I watched all of Seasons 4, 5, 6, and most of 7 (I ran out of time to finish it) before the ball, and selected an assortment for others to watch to get the gist of it.
I like Janeway, but I’m currently really empathising with Seven. Her focus on ‘efficient use of resources’ strikes a chord. The whole world is so illogical – I’d like to inject everyone with whatever nanoparticles it would take to make them see sense. Failing that, ‘I will adapt’ has been the mantra that has held me together for the last month… In other words, I’m not sure I want to be a human.
It was good to have a break!
And, as you may have noticed, I have a new evening spencer, a new Star-Trek-meets-Regency shawl, a starfleet diadem that I’m incredibly pleased with, and third time is the charm for my Regency gown re-make.
More on all of those in future posts…
We didn’t get a lot of photos at the ball itself, though hopefully the event has some they will be putting up on their facebook page.
So you’ll just have to imagine Captain Janeway, the Doctor and B’Elenna dancing hard out to I’m Gonna Be.
(and I would fly 75 light years, and I would fly 75 light years more, just to be the ship that flew across the Delta Quadrant to fly in through your dooooooooooooooor).
A huge thanks to the event organisers. It was an amazing event: two fabulously decorated rooms, a phenomenal 15th-century Italian inspired dinner with options for every dietary requirement, and seriously fun music.
You know an event is good when you’re having such a wonderful time you forget to get photos at it!
Last week disappeared in a haze of overwork, and this week isn’t looking like it’s going to be much better (last week of term is stressful for everyone…)
So this week’s Rate the Dress is brought to you by ‘it was the first one I randomly selected from my ‘this would work for Rate the Dress’ list.
Many of you liked it, but many of you thought it was nice, but boring. And nobody loved it – not a single 10.
The Total: 8 out of 10
Pretty good, but not fabulous from a usually favourite era.
This week: a 1912 afternoon dress by Jeanne Hallee
Despite being a random selection, this afternoon dress does flow on rather nicely from last week’s pick. The frock, with its wrapped fichu collar, and open overskirt, is a perfect example of 1910s-does-18th century historicism.
The rest of the dress, is, of course, pure 1912: high waist, slim skirt, high collar and layers of trim, with quirky details like skirt pick ups, and innovative details like cut-on kimono sleeves.
Afternoon dress, Jeanne Hallee (French, 1880—1914), 1912, French, silk, Metropolitan Museum of Art, C.I.49.2.4 detail
I’d always assumed this dress was wide stripes, but on closer inspection, its actually stripes over a floral pattern.
A reminder about rating — feel free to be critical if you don’t like a thing, but make sure that your comments aren’t actually insulting to those who do like a garment. Phrase criticism as your opinion, rather than a flat fact. Our different tastes are what make Rate the Dress so interesting. It’s no fun when a comment implies that anyone who doesn’t agree with it, or who would wear a garment, is totally lacking in taste.
(as usual, nothing more complicated than a .5. I also hugely appreciate it if you only do one rating, and set it on a line at the very end of your comment, so I can find it! And 0 is not on a scale of 1 to 10. Thanks in advance!)
