All posts tagged: Ninon
Pretty princesses in yellow
Last week Theresa came to town from Melbourne, and of course we made time to do what we do best together: get dressed to the nines and take pictures. Last time our theme was late Victorian, this time we went yellow: Ninon on me (yay, finally!) and the pet (Oooooh) on Theresa. It was a cold, windy, drizzly, overcast day , so an outdoor photoshoot was out. Ninon can NOT get wet, and I’m not too sure about the water-fastness of the chintz the pet is made from. Where to go in Wellington that is indoors, attractive, has good lighting, and where they will let you take pictures? The old Dominion Museum building, now the arts building at Massey University. We got soooooooooooooo many beautiful pictures. I managed to edit an hour and a half of photos down to 250 keepers. Then I had to edit those down to 90 that I really wanted to show you. More grueling editing, and I’m at 75 that I really, really want to show you. By the time …
Five for Friday: Questions I’m bound to be asked at a talk
Whenever I give a talk there are certain questions I can be almost certain I will be asked. How long does it take to make one of these dresses? A long time. A long, longtime. But it does depend on the dress. A Regency, even hand-sewn, can go together in 12 hours. I actually counted with the tea gown, and it took between 32-40 hours from draping to hemming. The Ninon dress was much longer, thanks to all the hand-sewing and bodice boning. The Japonisme dress would have been relatively quick, were it not for the hand-appliques obi motifs. Are the dresses (and corsets) uncomfortable to wear? Chiara in Ninon said “Yes!” much too enthusiastically to this question this time, much to my chagrin.Certainly cramming all five us into a car for the ride from dressing to Premier House didn’t help with the comfort factor. I like to say that they are ‘differently comfortable’. Like a suit isn’t the same as jeans, but you wouldn’t necessarily say uncomfortable. How do you sit in them? …