All posts tagged: 1880s

Rate the Dress: Actual 1880s opulence

Last week I showed you a linen and lace resort-wear frock. I had serious doubts about the dating onthe dress from the beginning, and the more I looked at it, the less 1880s it looked. I think it really is from the early 1900s. I don’t know if a change in dating would have had any effect on the results though: it would still have lost points for not actually being that comfortable for summer wear, and for the dull colours, and odd colour matching between the laces and fabric. Still, it was a very attractive frock in some ways, and seeing it on the wearer did help you to visualise it, so the dress managed an 8.4 out of 10, which is pretty darn good considering that there was one rating of only 3! Since last week’s dating was a bit iffy, this week I’m showing a gown that is definitely from the 1880s. No mistaking the bustle on this one! This day dress (probably for visiting) features lustrous silk satin and lush patterned …

Announcing: Polly / Oliver!

Published by The Dreamstress

Well, it’s been five years, a lot of fabric, a lot of thread, a lot of buttons, a lot of gold braid, and a bit of moaning and swearing and threatening the garment with dire consequences (“I will DYE you blue. I’ll do it! I swear! You’ll be an abomination unto Nuggan from head to toe. Behave or dye!”) but I have finally finished the whole Polly / Oliver Perks ensemble, and Polly is ready to stand for Borogravia and women’s rights and well-maintained pubs and clean socks everywhere. (well, not quite everywhere, but not just on feet and in the sock drawer and other places you might normally expect to find them). This dress and I have done battle, I lost some skirmishes, but I’ve come out the winner in the end, and I’m rather pleased with it. It’s Borogravia does girlie-military, with lots of gold braid and fitting, meets historically plausible 1880s fancy dress. After seeing the photoshoot images, there are a few places where I need to tack the skirt panels into …

Dressing Polly / Oliver. Inspiration, and a teeny bit of progress

Published by The Dreamstress

This week is Polly / Oliver week (also Tax week, T-Shirt week, get-that-darn-car-sorted week, and plan-next-semester’s-schedule-week), and I’m working on it like mad. As a bit of a Hudson-Bay start after my little meltdown/epiphany over the weekend, (or really, a Hudson-Bay Start after a 5 year delay in getting this enterprise off the ground), I took stock of what I had, re-looked for inspiration, and have finally sorted out what I’m actually going to do, and what is actually going to work. I started with late 18th century female dress borrowed from male hunting attire and military uniforms, some real, some rather satirical: This print shows an outfit almost identical to the one on the cover of Monstrous Regiment, but for women: I’ve already shown you this image: And, of course, the MA portrait in hunting attire: Finally, the ubiquitous Reynold’s portrait of Lady Worsley: From these, I really love the white single-breasted waistcoat on Lady Worsley and the “Officer in the Light Infantry”, and their black feathered hats. I’m also borrowing the gold binding/ …