I’m coming to the end of the fantastic textiles that Elise sent.  I have just today’s dress, and then one more dress (and it’s a doozy – I’ve saved one of the best for last) to show you. Today’s dress is another velvet item, this one in the same glorious midnight blue of the leaf-patterned devore dress.  Midnight blue velvet was an incredibly fashionable colour & fabric in the mid-late ’30s.  The velvet is accessorized by a posy of  flowers in lavender, peach & pastel-magenta – such a lovely, quirky, completely 1930s touch. In addition to being made of a similar fabric, this dress shares an almost identical cut to the devore gown – with an inverted V waist, a gathered bust, full sleeves, and a bias skirt.  It even shares the clever tucked pleat collar construction, as you can see in the photo above. Alas, not only does the dark clolour mean the dress is tricky to photograph well, it isn’t looking its best because it doesn’t remotely fit Isabelle. It is unusually large …

Last week, out of Elise’s gifts, I showed you an exceedingly quirky and romantic and feminine leaf-green velvet evening wrap  – a perfect illustration of the mid-late 1930s Medieval Revival.  This week I’m sticking with velvet evening wraps, but going to the other extreme, to illustrate another fashion trend of the late 1930s – the masculine look for women.  Thus an almost severe and mannish evening cape: You’ve already had a sneak-peek at this rather masculine monochrome evening cape: I wore it to the premier of  Porcelaintoy’s Monsters. I’m afraid the cape hasn’t photographed very well – the contrast of the black velvet and the white satin lining was just too tricky to balance.  I’ll try my best to tell you about it in great detail to fill in the gaps. Like most of the textiles Elise gave me, this cape dates from the late 1930s, as shown by the materials used and the broad shoulders. The cape outer is black velvet – almost certainly rayon.  It’s fully lined in quilted rayon sateen. The lining …