Despite the fact that most of you thought Marie Christine looked like a “blinged-out sheep” with “an 18th century mullet” the essential loveliness of her pink dress (and a general weakness for diamonds on the part of some voters) brought her in at a respectable 6.5 out of 10.  How to improve the rating?  More flowers, less jewellery, and no rat-tail curls! This week I’ve tried to move as far as possible from frilly pink status frocks while still staying very feminine and detail-oriented.  You can’t get much further from pink party dress than a Victorian mourning dress. Admittedly, this 1872-4ish mourning dress from the Met is still clearly a status garment, demonstrating that the wearer could afford specialized mourning clothes and completely impractical garments that they couldn’t do any real work in. Impractical is one thing, but as long as a garment isn’t ridiculously confining by the standards of its time, we are more worried about looks. What do you think?  Is this frock an elegant way to navigate the social requirements of mourning …