The Vasa launched with great fanfare on 10 August 1628. With a ship crowded with crew and visitors it sailed past waterfronts crammed with ordinary people, royals, and visiting dignitaries, gun ports open for a triumphant salvo as it departed Stockholm. And then it fell over and sank.
Last week’s Rate the Dress was an 1880s maybe-Western dress in ochre and blue. It evoked a lively discussion, and a mostly extremely positive reaction – minus a points or two from most of you for the bead trim. Just a couple people really didn’t like it (Daniel called it a digestive biscuit of a dress), though no-one could dispute the skill of the dressmaker. Overall, the dress came in at a rather nice, if not astonishingly fabulous, 8.4 out of 10. I’m not sure if I loved the dress, and while I didn’t like the beads aesthetically, I liked them intellectually, as a representation of mica, and the bobble trim on sombrero and other Southwestern wear. This week lets go all the way back to the 1670s, and look at Anna Caffarelli Minuttiba. We actually have two slightly different views of the painting to consider, one, a little warmer and more muted: And another with higher contrasts, possibly after conservation, possibly just with the photo temperature adjusted significantly: I haven’t been able to track …
Sorry! I’ve rather dropped the ball on Rate the Dress this weeks. Between travelling, switching time zones, and Costume College, I’ve just completely lost track of days, and my brain is too tired to remember which day of the week I ought to do it in the US, rather than NZ. Last weeks Rate the Dress, which I posted from NZ, was a tea gown made from a paisley shawl. It copped a bit of criticism for the use of the lavender fabric as a match to the shawl, though some of you noticed that there were definitely lavender elements in the shawl, or simply liked the unexpected contrast. Whether or not the lavender worked was definitely the biggest consideration for rating the dress, and it balanced out at a perfectly round, if not perfectly awesome 7 out of 10. For this weeks Rate the Dress, I have a little request: Please don’t look at the baby. Or, at least, please don’t include the baby in your consideration of the dress Rating. I can’t imagine …
