All posts tagged: Edwardian

Rate the Wedding Dress

UPDATE: Ratings on this dress closed on March 9th. This week’s Rate the Dress is one that has been in my RTD file for a long time, but it’s never been the right one. This week is finally its time. Last Week: 1780s pick ups and pleats  For last week’s 1780s mint green concoction you either adored the colour, or hated it, and either loved the pleats, or found them fussy, and either thought the silhouette was fabulously shepherdess-y, or far too extreme and boxy, and either thought the fly fringe was a fascinating touch, or weird and hairy. Most of you who loved the things loved most of the things, if not all, and very few of you hated everything, leading to a score of… The Total: 8.4 out of 10 A major improvement after last week, but not as good as a lot of other recent picks. This week: 1780s pick ups and pleats  Our Rate the Dress for the week is a 1907 wedding dress featuring a full helping of Edwardian frills, lace, …

Historical costumes at Fernside thedreamstress.com

Frolics at Fernside

Last weekend Fernside, an early 20th century home and gardens an hour away from Wellington in Featherston, held an open day in the gardens as a fundraiser for the local theatre. I’ve always wanted to see the gardens: they are a lovely example of a restored early 20th century garden. You can generally only see them as part of a (long, expensive) Lord of the Rings themed tour, as the gardens were transformed into Lothlorien for the the films. I’m not that keen on LotR (well, mostly I’m not that keen on long expensive tours where you’d just get trotted through the gardens to the most important filming scenes and then back out again, and can’t wander around), so I was really excited to have a chance to explore the grounds at leisure. And obviously, to dress up! We got together a group, and settled on early 20th c clothing, to match the grounds and house (and also, because it was the easiest to get dressed in a cafe bathroom in. We weren’t going to …