All posts tagged: 1860s

Rate the dress: Pink and black in 1869

Last week there wasn’t a great deal of love for Maria Anna and her fabulously (there, I said it!) geometric gown. A few of you shared my excellent taste (there, I said it again), many of you were ‘meh’, and a few of you really disliked it. It came in at 6.4 out of 10 – not bad for 17th century Spanish princess, but not as much as that spectacular geometry deserved (yep, I’m going to keep saying it!) At least I won’t have much competition in the ‘it’s already been made’ stakes if I decide to make a reproduction of it! For this week’s rate the dress I’m going to present something with a lot of colour. We’ve had quite a few not-particularly-vivid garments in a row: time for something a little different. This striking gown was sold at auction a while back. It’s very vivid. And vibrant. While it is much more colourful than Maria Anna’s dress, it shares the same enthusiasm for crazy geometricisation and pattern arrangement. I clearly though the geometry …

Rate the Dress: Purple & bows in the 1860s

Published by The Dreamstress

Sorry dear readers, I haven’t had time to add up the numbers from last week – I’ll try to get to that soon! UPDATE: The Callot Soeurs dress with its layers of sheers in nude and sea blue found APPROVAL in capitol letters from most of you, but those who didn’t like it, really didn’t like it. I rather agreed with Geoffwah that the dress suffered from much-ness, but this opinion was in the minority, and the dress still managed a 7.8 out of 10 This three-part frock from the MFA Boston is a dress for a woman with a definite opinion, and a somewhat limited purse. You’d have to really like purple to wear this dress, especially since you would be wearing it day, and evening. What do you think? Does either bodice work? Is one more effective than the other? Would you give them different ratings? Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10

Rate the Dress: ruffly pink party frock of the late 1860s

Published by The Dreamstress

Goodness was last week’s acid green Callot Soers dress controversial and divisive! You either really, really, really love it. Or really didn’t. If I’d gone with everyone who rated it 6 and over it would have come out an 8.1 out of 10. If I’d gone with everyone who rated it 5 and under it it would have rated a 3 out of 10. Combined, the rating comes to a 6.5 out of 10, which is a rating that no-one gave it on their own! It’s Valentine’s day, and even though I’m not a Valentines fan at all I thought it was a good excuse to show you something ruffly and pink. I failed to find a suitable frock that was quite and pink and quite as ruffly as I had hoped, but I did find this sweet but slightly restrained pink and cream party frock from the MFA Boston. Doesn’t this girls dress with its stripes and panniered overskirt just speak of old fashioned Valentines: all flower garlands and cupids, and maybe just a …