Last week I showed you a flower-strewn frock by Jean-Phillipe Worth, one that might have been a little too frilly and feminine, but which most of you found fabulous. While I don’t think Worth, original or JP, quite as infallible as some of you did, I wasn’t surprised that this frock received high accolades.  One of two of you flat-out hated the dress, and there were a few complaints about the symmetrical placement of motifs over the bust, the overall fussiness of the bust, and the colour of the creamy silk and blonde lace (I definitely don’t agree that the dress has faded over time – all the different layers of dark ivory matched too well, and were too true, for age to have changed them substantially), but the frock still managed an 8.7 out of 10. Can this week match that? This fortnight’s theme on the HSF is Literature, and I was rather at a loss as to how that could fit in with Rate the Dress.  In looking for inspiration, I found this …

Happy Boxing Day for those of you on the other side of the dateline!  I hope you had a lovely holiday. Last week you found the 1820s  plum pudding/sugar plum dress rather like plum pudding itself: some of you loved it (because those who love plum pudding love plum pudding), and some of you thought it inoffensive  but not exciting, and some of you found it rather disgusting.  Still, plum pudding is a classic for a reason, and the dress rated a 7.5 out of 10. This extremely red ca 1875 ballgown rather reminds me of a dress that Scarlette O’Hara would wear.  One that Rhett would disapprove of. This dress signals a transition from holiday-themed ‘rate the dresses’ to NZ summer themed raters.  The red velvet is all Christmas, but the fabric also reminds me of the classic sign of a NZ summer:  pohutakawa  in full bloom. Adding to the things this dress might remind you of, the details along the bodice and skirt evoke both Elizabethan blackwork and Polynesian applique.  And the garlanded …