All posts tagged: Hawaii

Putting marmotte hair to shame

I’m still plugging away on the Marmotte Masquerade Stays, but have been held up by boring paperwork and car fixing and whatnot. So I’ll keep you entertained with other things. Between my stays and the Fairies & Dinosaurs at Versailles party I’ve been fixated on mad 18th century hair. These fashion plates particularly delight me: ZOMG! Look at that hair! Look at the fruit! The entire bowl of lemons (or apricots?)! The full pineapple perched in front! That one random pear at front! And her fabulously NOSE-y nose. Best of all, do you know what the pointy fruit going up the back of her hair is? I do! I’m relatively certain that it is a cacao fruit. Yep. That’s right. Chocolate hair. I’m not sure what the large round fruit that alternates with it is though. Out-of-scale quince? Perhaps they were going really exotic and they were meant to be breadfruit. It’s like pastoral France meets my parent’s farm! I love it! And what about this one: She’s a little more typically pretty, which …

Hula Girl

Published by The Dreamstress

Every once in a while, when I’m hanging out with friends and we do the thing where you get on youtube and show each other cool videos, we end up watching hula videos, and my friends are always amazed, and I realise that while practically everyone has heard of hula, few people actually know what it really looks like. The best representation you get of it outside of Hawaii may be the dancing scenes in Lilo and Stitch, which is kinds weird and sad when you think about it. Like Lilo, I was in a hula hÄlau (a hula troop/school) as a child. It’s just what little girls in Hawaii did, like little girls everywhere else take ballet. I was never particularly good, but I enjoyed the grace of it, and the history and story behind each dance. My baby sister was an amazing dancer, but being a haole (white) hula dancer in Hawaii is problematic. As a dark haired Filipina or Japanese girl, you can dance professionally, and be in the best hÄlau (troops), …

18th century shoes at the Honolulu Museum of Art

Published by The Dreamstress

I wish I had a finished garment to show you today – my hoopskirt, or the hinted at 1900s dress, but sewing is not going to plan, and I want to post about at least SOMETHING, and I thought, hey, a real antique textile is as good as anything I make, if not better! I’ve shown you most of the textiles from the Honolulu Museum of Art, but here is one of the most exciting pieces I looked at: a pair of 18th century shoes in green and gold on ivory brocade: Based on the large scale brocade, which is clearly early 18th century in date, the wider heel shape and slightly tilted toe, the shoes are probably early-mid-18th century. The outer of the shoes are silk brocade, and they are lined in linen. The green binding is herringbone twill, either in cotton or linen. The shoes are (obviously) entirely hand sewn. The heel is wood, covered in more of the brocade, and the sole is rather heavy leather. The pointed toe appears to be …