I’m currently choosing fabrics for costume designs in bronze and copper, so this week’s Rate the Dress seemed perfectly in keeping with my mental design board. Or, mostly in line! The designs I’m working with are very aged and worn; all verdigris and corrosion. In contrast, this week’s 1910s evening dress is all crisp and polished, almost bright and shiny as the day it was made. Will you like it?
Last Week: a pink and black striped 1890s reception dress
A very mixed reaction to last week’s Rate the Dress. Everything from ‘smitten’ to ‘just no’, and every descriptor from ‘restrained’ to ‘exuberant.
Those who didn’t like it weren’t sure about the pink and black though: was the pink to pale to hold its own? And they definitely weren’t in love with the sleeves (I suspect they were a lot better when they were new).
Those who did like it liked it because it was such a perfect exemplar of the 1890s, or in spite of the fact that it was 1890s…in other words, for every possible completely contradictory reason!
The Total: 7.7 out of 10
A slight improvement on the week before.
This week: A 1910s evening dress in copper and bronze
It’s pretty amazing that this 1910s evening dress is only separated from last week’s dress by 30 years. The fabrics, silhouette, and design aesthetic are all strikingly different. In contrast, my students today are all wearing clothes that are basically identical to what was worn 30 years ago (in fact, a lot of them are literally identical – late ’90s ‘vintage’ is all the rage amongst the hip young things who were wearing diapers when these garments were first sold!)
Evening dress by Augusta Lundin, 1913, Sweden, silk georgette with gold, silver and copper silk thread embroidery, lame, velvet, gold lace, chiffon, satin, Göteborgs Stadsmuseum
While this dress is radically new compared to the 1890s silhouette, it is nostalgic in its own right; the silhouette and decorations look back to Ancient Greece and Rome. The sleeves, banded overtunic, and bodice girdle are all re-interpretations of classical dress. It’s characteristic of the 1910s take on Hellenic styles that this dress is coloured, turning its wearer into a goddess in bronze and copper, rather than a marble statue in white.
What do you think? Would Venus herself have envied the wearer of this frock?
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.
