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Rate the Dress: Velvet & Fur in 1900

Published by The Dreamstress

Despite a few readers loving last week’s avant garde green and gold Lanvin jumpsuit, most of you didn’t.  It rated a rather dismal 4.9 out of 10, with opinions ranging from Stella’s “Who knew!?!? Harem pants  can  look cool” to comparisons to a trashbag.  Ouch.

This week’s rate the dress is brought to you courtesy of the exceptional weather we have been having in Wellington.  It’s been snowing.  Now, this wouldn’t be exciting if I lived in the South Island, but snow in Wellington happens once or twice a century.  And my suburb?  Never!  We live at sea level!  But we have been having hours long snow-storms, and the whole neighborhood has been outside with cameras.  It’s such big news it made the New York Times.  If that wasn’t a hyperlink it would be in bold, italics and underline, all at the same time.  The only one who doesn’t love the weather is Felicity.  Poor kitty is freaked out.  She doesn’t understand this white cold stuff that falls from the sky.

Obviously, I need to present a proper snuggly, furry, winter appropriate frock for your consideration.

How about the afternoon dress from the Met in plush black silk velvet and soft brown fur, with matching fur trimmed hat?

Madame Virot for Raudnitz and Co. Huet and Cheruit, French, 1898-1900, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Madame Virot for Raudnitz and Co. Huet and Cheruit, French, 1898-1900, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Madame Virot has tried to give the warm winter fabrics and dark colours a softer, lighter, more feminine touch by twisting the usual cold-weather cliches.  She has blended the patterned velvet into the delicately spotted chiffon at the hem, and adding girlie touches like a bow-effect hat.

What do you think?  Is this an unusual, but effective way to give a lighthearted and whimsical twist to winter fashion?  Or is the dress to frothy for winter wear, and too drab for spring?

Rate the Dress on a scale of 1 to 10

Want to see more winter wear?  Check out last year’s post on snuggly frocks.

Black and white delight

Published by The Dreamstress

Remember the darling black and white flowered and spotty faux ribbon corset I blogged about  back in May?

Well, last week I finally had the time to sit down and do the tiny bit of handsewing to finish it off.  Yay for finished projects!

All it needed doing was hand stitching along the front busk to hold it more securely.  It’s really quite pitiful that it took me so long to do that.

I really like the effect of the hands stitching on the front.  It adds a nice handmade touch, and contributes to all the different graphic stripes and spots and splotches and flowers going on with this corset.  And makes it look even more like something from a Tim Burton film.

The corset isn’t looking its best on little Isabelle.  She’s only a size 10, and this corset is more a size 14+, so it is massively pinned in the back and doesn’t show off the right curves.  I need to do a proper photoshoot with it on a model.

 

The Sunday market in Wellington

Published by The Dreamstress

I’ve been going to the Sunday vegetable market in Wellington ever since I first came to Wellington to study, some 8 years ago.  Mr Dreamy and I love vegetables and fruit.  We have a massive fruit bowl, and if we got to design the ideal refrigerator, it would be 50% vegetable bins.

Fresh flowers at the market entrance: buy your favourites before they sell out, and get the flower ladies to hold them while you do the rest of your shopping

My vege buying habits are just as extravagant, but my market going has changed a little since 8 years ago.   I’ve moved from the Aro Valley market which was near the university housing, to the waterfront market, which is more convenient to where we live now.

Also, it has way better views.

Seriously. Way better views.

The market has changed a little too.  When I first shopped there, it was a mad dash for cheap vegetables: long lines at every stall, all the veges sold by bulk resellers, and no time for chatting and visiting.

Mounds of vegetables

The market has slowed down a little since then, has diversified, and gentrified.

Now you can sit in the sun and eat a breakfast bought at the market, or stop for a chat with the organic apple growers who have their own stall.  People bring their kids and dogs, and you are guaranteed to run into a few friends.

Fragrant thai herbs

You can buy Thai herbs from the ladies who grow them in their own backyard, Brazilian food from a vendors cart, and rewena paraoa (local bread made with potato and air-gathered yeast).

Local (particularly Maori) specialty breads and jams: rewena paraoa and kamo kamo chutney

You can also do almost all your shopping at the market: from venison salami, to local cheeses, to fresh breads, and of course the vegetables and fruit.

Fresh summer peaches and mandarins

The vegetables and fruit are the one thing that really hasn’t changed.  The market is still by far the cheapest place to buy the widest array of vegetables, from parsnips to pak choi, carrots to kai choi, and the freshest fruit.

Delicious carrots and spinach and kai choi and cilantro and gai lan

This time a year I sometimes miss the market.  The weather today is abysmal: freezing cold and pouring rain, with a blowing southerly wind coming straight off Antarctica.  The last thing I want to do is go out and pick out wet veges with numb fingers.

Onions and parsnips and kumara (sweet potatoes) and beets

I think I’ll stay in and enjoy images of the bounty at last summers farmers market, when bell peppers were under $7 a kilo (this week they are $27!), tomatoes were a rich red, and peaches and cherries were abundant.

Oh bell peppers? When will I be able to afford you again?

Oh summer.  We miss you!  Come back!