All posts tagged: 1800s

Regency sandals

A while ago someone asked me about Regency sandals. Why do we see so many in fashion plates, but so few extent pairs? Well, I suspect the ratio is quite similar to most items seen in fashion plates vs. extent items. Fashion plates (and fashion magazines today) always show the most avant -garde and extreme fashion, and few ladies ever reached that level of modish dress. In addition, contemporary sources seem to indicate that wearing sandals was rather noteworthy, and maybe just a little bit scandalous, so there probably was a lot more talking about them than actually owning and wearing them. We can see the scandalousness conotations of sandals illustrated in the famous Boilly image of a rakish Incroyable meeting his female counterpart, the Merveilleuse. In her transparent dress even the radical Incroyable mistakes her for a prostitute and offers her money, while she shows a modesty not apparent in her attire and makes the sign of a cross with her fingers to indicate her shock and virtue. While they are hard to find, …

Friday (don’t) Reads: My Theodosia

Published by The Dreamstress

I’ve already mentioned my inclination to pick up old books at op shops just because they have pretty covers, and interesting titles. Sometimes it pays off, and sometimes…it doesn’t. Alas, this week’s review, My Theodosia by Anya Seton, is the latter. It looked like a promising book. It’s about the mysteriously tragic Theodosia Burr Alston, who was the only child of the fascinating and controversial Aaron Burr. Now, if you aren’t American, you’ve probably never heard of Aaron Burr, and if you are, you probably remember some school lesson about a duel where he cowardly murdered Alexander Hamilton, making himself one of the most loathed figures in early American history. The truth, as always, is far more complicated. What we don’t generally recall from the school lesson is that Burr was Vice President of the US under Thomas Jefferson, and that he is credited with instituting the modern American presidential campaigning system. I’m not sure that fact is to his credit, and neither are the (possibly completely unfounded and spurious) charges that he attempted to …

Rebecca in Regency

Published by The Dreamstress

Rebecca was actually supposed to wear the Laurel dress for the talk on the 2oth of Nov, but I was so scatterbrained that day I tried to duplicate her and put her in two dresses, so she ended up in the Regency. You know what though? I think she looks lovely. I loooooove the back of this dress! And the hair ornamentations. Madame Ornata lent me the shawl for the talk. It’s a real Indian shawl embroidered with paisley designs. Not an actual Kashmiri paisley shawl, but should I ever be lucky enough to afford one I probably won’t let models trail it around for photoshoots! Rebecca is wonderfully elegant and graceful in this dress, and looks so tall and slim. And I’m terribly envious of her profile too. Look at that elegant nose! She was a little shy in front of the camera sometimes though. I had to tease her to relax. As a result, some of the best photos of Becca are the casual ones Madame O took.