Givenchy on Edwardiana

Edwardian styles have been creeping back into couture.
The whole purpose of the Edwardian silhouette with it’s s-bend corset, white shoulders, ’stuffed’-like bosom, hip-hugging skirt, and flared hem, was to personify the elegance of the exaggerated female form: Small waist, curving hips, delicate, subtle yet substantial, and a generous, matriarchial busom. It was smooth, lacey, art [...]

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Edwardian Stunners

 
 
 
 
 

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Influences 1872-1876

The Polonaise I am making is influenced by a number of fashion plates. This is in keeping with the clothing making of the time. Fashion plates from a specific year may demonstrate specific trends, but gowns made in that year are often more like composites from the past few years. It makes sense. When a [...]

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The Polonaise: A brief genealogy

The Victorian world saw an explosion of advancement, growth, and manufacturing. Factories were raising from the gentile fields of Europe, and America was stalking and pouncing on the power of steam and mechanization with a covetous hunger. From all the clank and soot arose new millionaires, all eager to establish themselves in society and ensure [...]

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Victorian Clothing Consumption Across the Genders in 1890 America

Think Victorian women outspent Victorian men on personal consumables?  Think again.
It has been a common misconception that the Victorian American woman was a little more than fond of retail therapy and large scale personal consumption. Much of the basis for this misconception has been that the little data that has been analyzed has been approached [...]

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What Giselle can teach us about Historical Costuming

First, this post is about the ballet, Giselle, not the supermodel. Second, I can’t believe I forgot to mention Giselle in the context of the 1840s!
Let me start by saying that I love Giselle. It’s a beautiful ballet. But, I love Giselle the same way I love foie gras: it’s something of a forbidden pleasure, [...]

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Static of the 1840s: What were they thinking?

After consuming a significant number of books on scientific advances in the 1840s, I wonder why, in such a highly charged atmosphere of innovation and energy, their clothes and hairstyles were so dreadful.As much as I enjoy championing the champion-less, I would take up the cause of this decade begrudgingly, and only out of a [...]

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Inspiration in Olive, Part I

After examining my olive gown (see first post for background), I have concluded that she is a Natural Form gown going into the second bustle period and not a late bustle. That would put her at about 1884 to 1885. When you are young, objects seem larger, and I remembered a great deal of space [...]

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Social Context & Rustling Skirts

On dress purchases from Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence:
“Old Mrs. Baxter Pennilow, who did everything handsomely, used to import twelve a year, two velvet, two satin, two silk, and the other six of poplin and the finest cashmere. It was a standing order, and as she was ill for two years before she died [...]

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The Birth and Death of the Victorian Bustle: an Apologia

“Fashion is born by small facts, trends, or even politics, never by trying to make pleats and furbelows, by trinkets, by clothes easy to copy, or by the shortening or lengthening of the skirt,” – Elsa Schiaparelli
“Fashion is architecture: it is a matter of proportions” – Coco Chanel
When I mention the bustle (or the corset) [...]

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