All posts tagged: 1760s

A 1760s/70s man’s ensemble – again

Published by The Dreamstress

I’ve been planning on making an 18th century man’s ensemble to go with the Lady Anne Darcy dress for ages. I started one almost two years ago, but it got set aside in favour of other projects. The Grandeur & Frivolity talk was the perfect excuse to pull it out again and finish it, but things didn’t go that easily. First of all, the jacket didn’t look that grand when I fished it out of the bag that it was crumpled in and ironed it: Clearly some taking it apart and re-shaping and interfacing is in order. That was do-able. Making sleeves out of thin air wasn’t though.  And I mean ‘thin air’ literally.  I can’t find the extra fabric from this jacket anywhere. And then the waistcoat didn’t fit Daniil, the model for the talk.  And I hated the squidgy synthetic fabric it was made out of. So basically, all of the stuff that I started with got stuffed back in the bag it came from, and I restarted. I’m using this suit from …

Earthquake fashions of the 18th century

Published by The Dreamstress

Responding to Emily’s suggestion, today’s post is about Earthquake fashion.  Like everything else, fashion and textiles are affected by natural disasters.   Trade routes are interrupted, industries are destroyed, or moved.  Fashions change and developed in response to earthquakes. This post is also meant to celebrate the resilience and  fortitude of countless unnamed people across the centuries who have picked up, sought to “bury the dead and heal the living”, and rebuilt their lives and their cities, through an exploration of how the things closest to them, their clothes and textiles, changed in response to the changes in their life. For an interesting look at earthquake fashion let’s look at the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake.  In terms of human life, this was the most devastating earthquake ever recorded, and it probably had the most profound effect on society.  The massive chaos of the earthquake, and the resulting tsunami and fires, sparked the transition from the baroque to the rococo styles in Spain and Portugal, and prompted the philosophical writings that led to the Enlightenment.  Hundreds of …