The Minette Stays are both a response to two of the most requested things when I did the Scroop Pattern Survey a few years ago (#1 front lacing ca. 1800 stays and #2 more beginner/intermediate historical patterns) and a continuation of something I’ve been working on for years.
I’ve had a very busy week, with teaching and patternmaking and talking, which is why there have been no posts between last week’s Rate the Dress and today’s post. Luckily I had this week’s garment for rating all picked out! I hope you enjoy studying it as much as last week’s wedding dress. P. S. Welcome to new raters! PLEASE read the note at the bottom of this post. Last Week: an all-lace Edwardian wedding dress Last week’s frock should probably get a bonus point for breaking the 50 comment mark! If nothing else, you certainly found it interesting. There were three distinct comment groups: 9s, 7s, & 4s. And only one person rated it a 10! With so many unimpressed raters, the total came in at… The Total: 6.4 out of 10 Not a popular choice with many! This week: an Empire era spencer & petticoat This week’s Rate the Dress continues last week’s white and lacy theme for the bottom half, with a petticoat trimmed with linen net and appliqued lace, and goes dark …
Fashion plates, like fashion magazines (and some corners of instagram…) today, sell not only aspirational fashions, but also aspirational lifestyles. There is a series of Costume Parisien fashion plates, stretching from the 1790s to 1820, that shows an fashionable lifestyle that I can very much see myself ascribing too… I call it Regency Ladies Reading*. 1810-11 was by far the high point of the style. The fashion illustrator hit on a post he liked, and built numerous outfits, all modelled by ladies intent on their literature, around it. *Somewhat inaccurately, because the fashion plates originated in France, and some predate the English Regency. I suppose I could call it ‘Empire Ladies Enlarging Their Minds’….
