There was supposed to be something brilliant and brainy here about how corset images became commercialized, sexual and alluring in the early 20th century. But my brain isn’t that flexible right now. All it wants is sleep and warm liquids. So enjoy the images. Insert your own brilliant commentary in the comments.
Last week’s striped 1680s frock did very well indeed, with most of you loving it. It rated an impressive round 9 out of 10, missing out on a perfect score because of her awkward headscarf (hey a girl’s got to keep her hair tidy in the wind!) and the fringing. I’m clearly not the only one who doesn’t like fringe. I have no idea what last weeks frock has to do with this weeks frock. I could get really convoluted and say something about from stripes to dots, or your liking the classic ‘go together’ red, white, and blue, but what do you think of the classic no-no of blue and green etc, etc. In reality though, I wanted to post the 17th century dress, and now I want to post this one. That is it. But now that I’ve mentioned it, this week’s dress is indeed in blue and green. Clearly Jeanne Hallee and the wearer didn’t think that the colours needed ‘something in between’, or the wearer wasn’t afraid to be a fool, …
I came across a copy of the Girl’s Own Paper from 1912, and was very intrigued by the handwork section, and in particular, by the spellings in the handwork section. You see, the Girl’s Own Paper spells doily d’oilie. How peculiar! At first I thought it might just have been an old-fashioned term for doily, and I have never noticed it before. To make matters more confusing, the magazines ads spell it d’oyley So I thought a bit more, and realised that I was sure I had read 19th century articles about doilies, and d’oyleys, but never d’oilies. So I did a bit of research, and guess what? I can’t find a single mention of d’oilies or by that spelling in anything but the Girl’s Own Paper. New Zealand newspapers from the turn of the century spell it doily, d’oyley, doyley, and doilie, with the first spelling being vastly more common, and the last only appearing for a brief period at the turn of the century. But why all the variants? I think I have …
