Thanks to my annual Rate the Oscars post, it’s been two weeks since we had a Rate the Dress.  In the last one, we looked at an 18th century riding habit.  By and large you highly approved of the slightly unusual colours, and minor quirks that made it just that bit different, but only by and large, not unanimously.  It did loose points for the colours (some thought the gold too green), and for a lack of balance in the proportions.  Still, a perfect 9 out of 10 isn’t bad at all! I know it’s cold in much of the world, but New Zealand is baking under late summer heat, and is in the midst of a drought, so that, combined with my recent trip to Napier, are making me think of linen frocks and resort wear. Which might lead you to to think I’m going to post something 1930s, but no, this week’s Rate the Dress is a different take on linen resort wear: an 1880s  summer frock in sheer linen gauze and linen …

Last week we didn’t have a Rate the Dress, because of the blog makeover.  I’ll be getting to the Rate-the-Dress scores from the week before in a couple of hours, but for now I am dealing with the effects of a 28 degree day in Wellington (I am basically cold-blooded.  I can handle 14-25 degrees, and on either side of that my body freaks out) and have to limit my computer time or trigger a migraine. I keep going back or forth on whether I think this is a very elaborate wrapper/dressing gown, or a perfectly proper outdoors coat-dress. The bows on the shoulder  suggest  a most elegant inside wrapper – basically  an early tea gown, which first began to appear in the 1870s. At the same time, it  is  also very reminiscent of the trimmings and silhouettes of the type of unshaped outdoor dresses that were popular in the 1860s, such as the ones seen in Monet’s Women in the Garden.  The back view makes me lean in that direction. I suspect on days …