These dresses are all from June 1920. Aren’t they scrumptious? I’d wear the one on the left with the roses on its bodice, or perhaps the dark one coming down the stairs, or perhaps the one on the far right – such a gorgeous back! The description for the frocks reads: Which would you wear?
Mr Dreamy & I will be celebrating our 7th anniversary in just a few days. I can’t believe it’s been that long! We got married in Hawaii, just down the road from my parent’s farm. I was a very practical bride: we didn’t want our wedding to be a fantasy or a fairytale, we wanted it to be the best reflection of what we could really be as people. As a practical bride, I did all sorts of things on the day. I got up early and made my own bouquet, and the bridesmaid’s bouquets. With a lot of help from aunts and anyone with strong arms I made chocolate mousse for 80 people without any egg beaters (the fully equipped kitchen of the venue, wasn’t). I set tables and arranged flowers, and, to the horror of the aunts, I got down on my knees and scrubbed the dancefloor. Now, any practical bride who is going to scrub floors on her wedding day needs a good apron, and I had a stunner: an embroidered early …
Roshanara is the trade name for a silk or silk-worsted wool blend fabric with a rough crepe texture. Roshanara was popular in the 20s and 30s, but was notorious for shrinking when wet. It is nearly impossible to find Roshanara, or a Roshanara equivalent, today. Roshanara was first introduced into New Zealand in 1920, but appears in ads in the US from 1918. The name probably comes from the famous Roshanara Club in Delhi, which was in turn named after the Mughal princess Roshanara Begum. While Roshanara was primarily made of silk (possibly with a small amount of wool), it was meant to replace wool fabrics, which were in short supply due to the use of wool in soldiers uniforms during WWI. This ad from an April 1918 El Paso Herald extolls the economic virtues of silk, and encourages women to buy it instead of wool. Note the inclusion of the very patriotic and military inspired ‘Khaki Kool’ fabric. The exotic rough texture of Roshanara, and how closely its introduction co-oincided with the discovery of …
