All posts tagged: 1760s

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

Rate the Dress: an 18th century Hoodie

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 …

Queen Charlotte in detail by Zoffany

Published by The Dreamstress

Don’t you love it when you find a large version of a wonderful historical artwork that you’ve only ever seen in very small versions? Like this fantastic Zoffany portrait of Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz: It’s full of the most glorious details. There are her sons, with George IV in Roman inspired armour: Prinny looks a wee bit petulant, possibly because the dog clearly loves mummy more than him! (and honestly, who wouldn’t be jealous over that dog’s look of adoration? I’m not even a dog person and I want to hug it!) The whole outfit is fantastic, but oh, his boots! Aren’t they just the most adorable things ever? If he isn’t mad about the dog, perhaps Prinny is glaring at his little brother, wishing he were wearing Prince Frederick’s Orientalist attire. It is rather fabulous isn’t it? And the turban is doing a cunning job of doubling as a pudding cap – the padded caps worn by small children in the 18th century to keep them from injury when they toppled over. It’s …

Rate the Dress: Madame Bergeret with bergere

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week Elizabeth Hawes’ striped 1930s ‘Alimony’ dress elicited VERY strong reactions from almost all of you. Most of you loved it (and when I say loved, I mean LOVED – I don’t think I’ve ever posted a dress that’s received as many hits and forwards and new commenters), and a few of you really, really hated it (no, 0 is not an acceptable rating. It’s a scale of 1 to 10!). I was a bit surprised by some of the comments, particularly about the colour, and wondered if some of you have really really strange colour calibrations on your computer screens! The massive outpouring of love and the few strong reactions of loathing balanced out at 8.2 out of 10. I (in case you haven’t guessed), LOVE the dress. It’s what my 1930s alter ego wore to the gay gypsy bar mitzvah for the disabled in 1938 Berlin. This week I leave the obvious visual intellectualism of stripes behind for a visual intellectualism that is both far more subtle in its visible clues (at …