All posts tagged: 1860s

Day dress, ca. 1867, American, silk, Metropolitan Museum of Art C.I.40.164.1a—c

Rate the Dress: Brilliant Blue & Ridiculously Big Skirts

I’m back on schedule with Rate the Dress this week, but still feeling blue – or at least that blue is the right hue for Rate the Dress! This week we go from all the subdued evening blues of last week’s tea gown, to a brilliant blue 1860s number, with equally exciting (if quite different) sleeves. How will it fare in comparison? Last Week: a 1910s Worth tea gown Generally you felt that a dress by ultimate design house (albeit one in decline), purchased by a woman with all the money in the world at her disposal, should be good, and was. There were a few small niggles though. A number of you felt the dress was less than the sum of its parts. Beautiful in details, but the details didn’t add up right, or were too much altogether. The Total: 9.3 out of 10 Almost perfection, but not quite… This week: an 1860s day dress in bright blue Since I’m still in the mood for blue, and not everyone was sold on last week’s …

Fancy Dress, 1850s, NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b17567042

Rate the Dress: a fancy dress in search of accessories

Published by The Dreamstress

Apologies for the rather delayed Rate the Dress. We just had a three day weekend for Labour Day, and my internal calendar is completely confused. On top of that, it’s the busiest time of year at work: the major show of the year + prepping for graduation + interviewing candidates for next year, all in a three week period! And if that wasn’t enough excitment, it’s a very important year in the Baha’i Faith: 200 years since the birth of the Bab. There have been nonstop commemorations and celebrations, and I’ve been dashing from work to receptions at Parliament one day, and then dashing home to do flower arranging for another event the next… I really wanted to have a fancy dress for this week’s Rate the Dress, and this was the most striking example I could find that hasn’t been featured before. It is missing something though… Last Week: a 1920s child’s frock You found last week’s hand painted frock utterly charming. If there was any tiny fly in the ointment it was …

Dress, ca. 1863, French, silk, Purchase, Judith and Ira Sommer Gift, 1999, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999.123a—c

Rate the Dress: Blue Flowers & Big Skirts

Published by The Dreamstress

Your opinion on last week’s dress very much depended on whether it was seen from the front of the back. This week I present another dress that is quite different depending on the angle you see it from. How will it fare in comparison to last week’s pick? Last Week: a summer 1940 evening dress by Schiaparelli The verdict on last week’s dress was pretty clear for most of you: fabulous back, boring front. A few people disagreed, and thought the dress would have been overdone with a more elaborate front, and was perfection as it was. And a couple of you went looking and found the matching jacket that could be worn over the dress. I’d deliberately left it off, because the dress was clearly designed to be worn with or without the jacket, and I thought it would be interesting to see your reaction to Schiaparelli’s cutting, without the more obvious flourishes of the jacket. The Total: 7.5 out of 10 A slight improvement on last week, but still rather disappointing. This week: an …