All posts tagged: paisley

Rate the dress: a paisley dressing gown of 1855

Last week you were divided on Anne Miller’s dance routine frock from Easter Parade.  Did you rate it as a dance dress?  As a pretend historic costume?  Most of you loved the stockings, but the reaction to the rest was mixed, balancing out at an unimpressive 5.9 out of 10.  Poor Anne. I usually present outerwear as Rate the Dress options, but since you loved Anne’s stockings so much, it occurred to me, why not present underwear?  Or at least informal wear?  And someone requested an autumn themed Rate the Dress (since it is autumn in NZ), and what is more snuggly and fall-y than a warm, cozy robe for curling up in in front of the fire with an apple and a good book? Something like this perhaps? This cosy wool wrapper from the MFA Boston features warm colours and a paisley inspired pattern.  It may or may not be made from a cheaper Western replica of a Kashmiri shawl.  It’s even paired with paisley embroidered petticoats. Here is a detail of the pattern: …

Rate the Dress: Regency furbelows

Last week most of you loved the Victoroco (or should that be Rococtorian?) fantasy dress.  There were some slight quibbles about the colour, and the bow on the front bodice, or the skirt draping (btw, as the grand queen of this blog I’ve decided that those of you who suggested it needed to be pulled up on both sides were  wrong.  If you did that it would make her look too much like a porcelain shepherdess, and the fantasy would become cliche and would be utterly ruined), but the dress managed a very impressive 9.5 out of 10. For all its popularity, Andreotti’s painting left me with a bit of a dilemma.  Where do you go from a rate the dress that included both the 18th and 19th centuries, and that had so many colours and details in it? How about a compromise?  Regency – halfway between the dates.  Something with lots of colours and details, but with all the details agains a simple backdrop. So I present this unknown woman.  She’s got a lot …