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Rate the Dress: 1820s harlequin happiness

Published by The Dreamstress

This week in Rate the Dress we’re going from 18th century silk hoodies to 1820s harlequin patterned cotton – with really, really, really big sleeves.

Last week:  A lavender pink mid-18th century Brunswick

Last week’s Brunswick (or, as Anna pointed out, possible a Jesuit) was the most popular Rate the Dress in a while.  Some of you felt that she did look a bit like a little girl dressed up in her older sister’s outfit, or just found the proportions of the bodice to be a bit odd, but those were the only real criticisms.

The Total: 8.3 out of 10

Better than we’ve had in a while, but not spectacular.

This week: A harlequin print 1820s dress

It’s cold, and rainy, and windy, and horrible in Wellington today.  Luckily I’ve had the perfect sunny, cheerful, über-happy Rate the Dress option squirrelled away for just such an occasion:

1820s fashion is always a bit silly and over the top, but this dress takes it to another level with a harlequin patterned cotton print in yellow and white with red.

In addition to the fashionable bold and bright print, which takes advantage of advances in roller printing, bleaching & dyeing technology, the dress is a la mode in every other aspect.  It’s clearly the garment of a woman who embraced the trends of her time.  Someone who was more concerned with being as fashionable as possible, and with enjoying the vagaries of her time, than in being timeless.

The high waist of the first three decades of the 19th century is dropping, but has not yet fallen all the way to the natural waist.

Although the waistline still sits slightly above the natural waist, the desired effect was a small, nipped waist.  The impression of slenderness was created by balancing little with big.  Huge gigot sleeves exaggerate the upper body, and the waist appears tiny in comparison.  (when your arms are bigger than your waist, it’s hard for the waist not to look small!)

The large sleeves are linked to the dress by an equally large collar.  The lines of the collar draw the eye out from the dress to the sleeves, emphasising their width and lines.  At the same time the lines of the bodice point down to the small waist, providing a counterpoint to the visual lines of the bodice.  The angled horizontal and vertical construction design lines provide a fun visual counterpoint to the dress fabric.  It’s angles within angles within angles.

What do you think?  Does this dress make you smile involuntarily?  Or is it, even for an era known for over-the-top fashion, a bit clownish?

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.  Our different tastes are what make Rate the Dress so interesting, but it’s no fun when a comment implies that anyone who doesn’t agree with it, or who would wear a garment, is crazy/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!  Thanks in advance!)

High fashion hairstyles for 1916 (and the ‘Hump’ hairpin)

Published by The Dreamstress

Along with gorgeous fashion spreads, my August 1916 edition of The Designer magazine includes a fantastic assortment of advertisements illustration how people lived (or aspired to live) and what they bought (or aspired to buy) in the 1910s.

Generally the food-related advertisements are more practical, and less aspirational, and the fashion & beauty related advertisements are very aspirational indeed.  They show what to wear to balls, and at the best resorts, and on ocean liners, while linking them back to everyday products.

One of my favourite of the beauty ads is this one for The Hump Hairpin which “locks the locks”, featuring hairstyles purportedly designed by 7 of the leading hairstylists of the day.  Each hairstyle, of course, is held in place with Hump Hairpins.

High Fashion hairstyles featured in The Designer, August 1916

The hairstyles are a wonderful glimpse into the changing coiffures of the mid 1910s.  The move from low hairstyles, that sit on the nape of the neck, to high ones, with the volume concentrated at the top of the crown, is obvious.  So too is the growing fashion for very defined curls and extremely sculpted ripples.  Both owe their popularity to improvements in curling irons and hair setting lotions.  The irons including the precursor to the one that made the famous ‘Marcel Wave’ of the ’20s.  Marcelling tools were popularised and vastly improved during the 1910s.   The electronic version of the Marcel waving iron was patented in 1918.

It’s interesting to decipher the names of the hairdressers.  I can read: Lehmert & Huth; Benjamin Alexander; Williams; P Rosseau Lay; and Simon.  Sadly my two favourite hairstyles: the ladies on the left and the right, second row down, are the ones I can’t quite make out!

It’s also interesting to compare the fabulous hairstyles of the fashionable hairstylists to the marketing of the hairpin.  ‘The Hump Hairpin Locks the Locks’ goes on to describe all the things you can do without your hairpins falling out, or your hair growing dishevelled – clearly a problem that many women faced!

We sometimes think of women of the past looking like they stepped out of a bandbox, but with fine slippery hair, holding a fashionably loose hairstyle in place would have been tricky (even in the days when weekly shampooing was more the norm).

I’d really like to get a reproduction of these hairpins to see if they actually work!  And a reproduction of each of these hairstyles….

What do you think?  Would they hairpins work, or was it all marketing & hot air?  And which is your favourite hairstyle?

Portrait of a Girl Holding a Spaniel by Alexander Roslin, mid 18th century (Detail)

Rate the Dress: an 18th century Hoodie

Published by The Dreamstress

I’m so excited about launching the Scroop Patterns Otari Hoodie (which you have about 19 hours left to get 20% off on, along with all the other Scroop Patterns, with the code TWOYEARS at checkout), that of course I had to pick a historical hoodie for this week’s Rate the Dress!

Last week:  A mid-1910s iridescent silk taffeta ensemble

Last week’s Rate the Dress pick was…contentious.  You definitely couldn’t fault it for not being interesting, but some of you faulted it for pretty much everything else.  The two biggest complaints were about the (even more clashing) sash and buttons, and the abrupt join of the two fabrics around the hips.

There were also people who adored the outfit for its personality, and for being such a fabulous example of mid-1910s quirkiness.

The Total: 6.6 out of 10

Well, it’s a slight improvement on the week before it I guess?  Unfortunately a lot of the people who adored the outfit only commented on facebook, and I don’t include the FB comments because they get lost to time (and are a pain to count), so not a success for this one this time.

This week: A lavender pink mid-18th century Brunswick

Portrait of a Girl Holding a Spaniel, Alexander Roslin, mid 18th century

Portrait of a Girl Holding a Spaniel, Alexander Roslin, mid 18th century

This charming young lady was painted by Roslin sometime around 1760, along with her equally charming pet.

Portrait of a Girl Holding a Spaniel by Alexander Roslin, mid 18th century (Detail)

Portrait of a Girl Holding a Spaniel, Alexander Roslin, mid 18th century (Detail)

She is clad top to toe in a brunswick ensemble in lavender pink, faced with white satin.

A brunswick was a hooded jacket fashionable in the mid 19th century.  Brunswicks were usually worn with matching waistcoats, and the hood could be attached to the jacket, or the waistcoat.   Roslin’s lady seems to have a hood which attaches to the waistcoat.

Portrait of a Girl Holding a Spaniel, Alexander Roslin, mid 18th century (Detail)

Portrait of a Girl Holding a Spaniel, Alexander Roslin, mid 18th century (Detail)

The young lady’s extremely coordinating ensemble is accessorised with a double pearl choker, and a fashionable mid-century hairstyle, with heavily powdered hair twisted back from the brow, topped with a scattering of flowers, and crowned with a small cap.

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 don’t stray into the kind of meanness that is actually insulting to those who do like a garment.  Our different tastes are what make Rate the Dress so interesting, but it’s no fun a comment implies that anyone who doesn’t agree with it, or who would wear a garment, is crazy.

(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!  Thanks in advance!)