All posts tagged: 18th century

Rate the Dress: Sunny 1780s Redingote

Published by The Dreamstress

I’m deep, deep in 1780s stay madness at the moment, so it’s probably not a huge surprise that I’ve picked something on-theme. And I’m always in favour of yellow, so yellow it is. Last week: a red velvet Edwardian frock with a hint of pinaforeness   After the silence of the week before, there were so many comments on the pinafore dress. I must admit, I was quite surprised at how popular it was. I guess the pinafore look is in historically as well! The Total: 8.7 out of 10 And many, many thanks to Cynthia Amneus of the Cincinnati Art Museum, who weighed in with additional information on the dress in the comments. This week:  a yellow silk 1780s redingote This 1780s redingote is a wonderful example of the variation in garments seen in the last quarter of the 18th century. It features a fitted bodice, front fastening, with slim, curved 3/4 sleeves, a wide double collar with decorative reverse-scalloped edging, and a cutaway front (the so-called zone-front). The photographs are not clear enough …

Robe à l'anglaise, England (Spitalfields), c. 1750. Yellow brocaded silk, woven with brightly coloured large-scale oriental poppies, posies and swags, the ground figured with arabesques and wine silk spotted cartouches, linen lining, trimmed with pinked furbelows; stomacher trimmed with rosettes and braid, sold by Kerry Taylor Auctions

Rate the Dress: Sunny, sunny yellow, ca 1750

Published by The Dreamstress

Today’s rate the dress is brought to you courtesy of the unprecedented heatwave that is hitting New Zealand. It’s so bright and sunny that I picked an equally bright and sunny dress to go with it – though I wouldn’t want to be wearing the heavy silk of this weeks Rate the Dress in the heat! Last week: a shot purple dress and matching cape A couple of you loved last weeks dress, but most people thought it was nice but not fantastic. Noted let-downs were the ‘seaweed-y’ trim, and that pesky centre front seam. Still, all the ratings were in the top half of the range, so I guess my comparisons to horrible purple rooms didn’t put you off too much – or you were feeling contrary so had to rate it well, simply because I made the comparison 😉 The Total: 8.3 out of 10 Middling. This week: I’m rather famous/notorious for being a fan of yellow, and I try not to lean into that too much with Rate the Dress. I wouldn’t …

Woman's Dress and Petticoat, England, 1770-1780, Silk plain weave (taffeta) with discontinuous silk supplemetary weft patterning, M.57.24.8a-b

Rate the Dress: Georgian Pinks

Published by The Dreamstress

It takes at least 45 minutes to write a Rate the Dress Post (find dress, download images, format if necessary, upload, write post, link everything), and lately, I’ve just struggled to find the time.  It’s the end of the year at Toi Whakaari (graduation is tomorrow!), work is hectic, and the weather is warming up, so when I have down time I just want to be outside. So this weeks Rate the Dress pick reminds me of spring flowers and strawberry ice cream.  It’s possibly a little un-complicated, because I’m not in an over-thinking mood.  Hopefully it’s enough for you to rate though! Last week:  an 1870s evening dress ensemble — complete with shoes So, that’s a no on the very gold front and very green back then.  And many of you found the mis-matched shoes annoying rather than witty – or if they were witty, that didn’t carry over into the dress.  Daniel called the dress “ugly-chic austere luxury”.  A few of you did love the dress, but on the whole the scores were …