The Dreamstress

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Come hear me talk about corsets at Fibre Fest at Te Manawa

On Sunday the 8th of March I’ll be part of Fibre Fest at Te Manawa in Palmerston North, talking about corsets and corset history

WWI era corset, 1910s corset, Rilla corset, corset pattern

Buckram & Bones: Corset Materials & Construction 1700-1930

Explore the construction techniques and materials used in support undergarments, from cane & whalebone stays in the 1700s, through corded Victorian corsets and the introduction of front busks, to the move towards streamlined unders in the 20th century. You’ll get to see original historical corsets from Toi Whakaari’s historic costume collection, and handle reproduction stays & corsets by Leimomi.

I’m on at 1!

Rate the Dress: 1780s pick ups and pleats in peppermint ice cream green

Published by The Dreamstress

Yellow is the colour I reach for when I want to be happy, but green is my go-to for calmness and de-stressing. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks in my life. Some of it has been good stress, with fun adventures, and the start of the new school year at Toi Whakaari the New Zealand Drama School. There’s also been some less happy stress, with a spike in my ever-present-but-mostly-under-control-most-of-the-time-climate-anxiety, and worries about the coronavirus (people I know who are in the know are very worried, and that’s even more worrying…).

So this week I want to be calm. And while some think historical fashion is frivolous, I’d strongly argue against that. Clothes are a universal need that links almost everyone on the planet. What we wore tells us a lot about where we’ve come from as a society, and where we can learn from that. And looking at old garments is a very low climate impact way to de-stress! So here’s to pretty (or not – that’s what RTD is all about!) frocks. This week in ‘de-stress green’ (at least for me – maybe green is your stress colour, like mine is purple. For your sake I hope not)

Last Week: ca. 1880s tiers of tassels

It’s a good thing I wasn’t aiming to de-stress you with last week’s pick, because that’s the opposite of the effect the dress had on most of you. A few of you really liked it, but most of you thought the tasselled skirt was a terrible decision that had nothing to do with the bodice.

The Total: 6.3 out of 10

Not great, but I’m sure the dress can just shake, shake, shake it off!

This week: 1780s pick ups and pleats

This week’s pick is a late 18th century concoction in palest mint green.

Robe, French, circa 1780, fastening with hooks and eyes, with with box pleated and fly-braid edged robings, fitted back skirts with fixed green silk cords, sold by Kerry Taylor Auctions

When this dress was sold by Kerry Taylor Auctions it was identified as a Robe a La Circassienne, based on the similarity of the skirt to a fashion plate of a Circassienne.

However, while it’s not entirely clear what 18th c fashion writers meant by a ‘circassienne’, fashion plates described as ‘circassienne’ all appear to show garments that have the same general shape as this one, but with more elaborate ‘Orientalist’ trimmings, with fur or tassels. You can read more about them here (sadly, the images no longer appear to be working).

So this dress is one of the many late 18th century dresses that doesn’t fit perfectly into a category.

So what do you think? Does it make you as happy as a perfect scoop of peppermint icecream, or does it leave you a little cold?

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

Historical costumes at Fernside thedreamstress.com

Frolics at Fernside

Published by The Dreamstress

Last weekend Fernside, an early 20th century home and gardens an hour away from Wellington in Featherston, held an open day in the gardens as a fundraiser for the local theatre.

I’ve always wanted to see the gardens: they are a lovely example of a restored early 20th century garden. You can generally only see them as part of a (long, expensive) Lord of the Rings themed tour, as the gardens were transformed into Lothlorien for the the films. I’m not that keen on LotR (well, mostly I’m not that keen on long expensive tours where you’d just get trotted through the gardens to the most important filming scenes and then back out again, and can’t wander around), so I was really excited to have a chance to explore the grounds at leisure.

And obviously, to dress up!

We got together a group, and settled on early 20th c clothing, to match the grounds and house (and also, because it was the easiest to get dressed in a cafe bathroom in. We weren’t going to make the drive over a rather daunting mountain range in costumes!)

Of the five of us, two chose 1920s Vionnet ‘Chiton’ dresses, two chose Edwardian with Fantails Skirts & Wearing History blouses, and I tied the two eras together with my Miss Muffet dress.

We had an utterly delightful time. We wandered around the gardens and admired the fruits and flowers:

We cuddled the resident cat (name: Squeaky)

We found peacock feathers, and posed with peacock babies:

Miss A showed off her new Fantail Skirt (her very first completed historical costume!) and Miss Eloise showed off her new Fantail & her new Wearing History blouse (hacked to be front buttoning to enable self dressing).