All posts tagged: 1860s

Rate the Dress: green on green on green in the 1860s

AN IMPORTANT NOTE: Please feel free to not like today’s selection, or any other garment that I present, but make sure that expressing your dislike doesn’t become an excuse to insult other people.  You can  tear it to shreds sartorially speaking, but please take care  that your comments do not  attack any of the other commenters, and do not cast aspersions on any group that may choose such garments.  It’s fine to not like something, but make sure that you respect other people’s choice to feel differently. We’ve had some very amusing take-downs of garments over the years, and that’s not an issue  (and even better, hilarious – the “I’m pretty sure that Worth’s cat stepped in a puddle of ink and walked across  this sketch and then the seamstresses did their best to interpret those splodges as an actual design” is still my favourite), but lately there have been a lot of “Ugh, what sort of colour-blind cretin would like that?” comments (which you haven’t seen, because I’ve deleted them), and that is NOT …

Rate the Dress: Velvet & tassels

Last week I showed you a 1920s frock embroidered with poppies, cornflowers & wheat.  You almost universally agreed that my choice of hat improved the dress, mostly liked the embroidery, mostly liked the scallops, weren’t sure about the colour of the silk, and universally disliked the waist seam which interrupted the flow of embroidery.  So the ensemble received an 8 out of 10.    Pretty good, not fabulous. The dress did elicit much  discussion over whether the poppies were a commentary on the recent war.  While I’d like the idea to be true, I suspect it’s too much of a modern take on it.  I  have never found any period sources that  suggest that wearing poppies was anything more than a fashion statement except on Poppy Day, any more than roses were a link to Alexandra Rose Day (which was also commemorated in NZ and other colonies in the 1920s), and I have found period sources that suggest it had nothing at all do do with commemoration, and was simply a fashion, so I’m not …

Rate the Dress: 1860s embroidery & steel

Last week I showed you a late 17th century ‘seamstress’ in pink petticoat and golden brown mantua, her dress covered by her sewing apron.  Her sewing apron received a lot of flack for being so little, which I didn’t understand – it’s not like you really get dirty sewing!  You just want something big enough to have a few pockets to hold things and a place to catch any little threads you cut off! In addition to the apron, very few of you liked the colours, or the overall proportions, or the headgear, dragging the score down to 6.4 out of 10 One of the criticisms about the fashion plate was that you can’t see the details, so this week we’re looking at a dress that while simple in silhouette, is all about the details.  This dress from the Victoria & Albert Museum features black embroidery with geometric and floral motifs, highlighted with steel beading, and is further trimmed with black silk and steel beading. The silhouette of the dress is very typical of the …