This week’s Rate the Dress goes from bold, bright stripes, to soft, subtle stripes. Last Week: a early-mid teens dress in bold stripes and bold cut Last week’s rate the dress wasn’t very popular with some of you. Whether it was the fabrics, the cut, or the fichu-effect lace, almost everyone found something to criticise. Except for Sarah, holding the flag for a perfect 10! Many of you also criticised the presentation, which isn’t one of the things that we take into account with Rate the Dress. Not every garment is robust enough to be steamed and pressed for presentation, and even when a garment is, a museum can’t always afford the time, money, and expert hours it takes to steam a garment, pad a mannequin, and create proper supports. If museums only shared photos of garments they had the resources to perfectly present, we’d have far fewer garments to admire and research. The Total: 5.5 out of 10 So extremely high fashion 1913-1914ish was not your thing! This week:  an early 1840s dress with …

After last week’s lush excess of trim and embellishment, the garment I’ve chosen for this week is simple and restrained, relying on the cut and layout of the fabric for interest. Last Week:  a natural form era dress in red silk with rosettes and roses Some of you thought last week’s dress was holiday perfection. Others thought it looked like an over-dressed Christmas tree, and not in a good way. Interestingly, one of the things that came in for a lot of criticism was the way the skirt flared out from the hips. That’s a classic dressmaking trick to create the illusion of a small waist. The Total: 8 out of 10 (I personally thought the dress was just the thing for my favourite Christmas movie. Santa’s everywhere at once, and some of him landed on the dress…) This week:  an 1840s dress in striped silk The Metropolitan Museum of Art identifies this dress as a ‘visiting dress’, but I think a more correct description would be a formal day or dinner dress. Perfectly appropriate …