For the gown, I have some green and gold plaid silk. It’s pretty exciting, and I have lots of it. I plan on making an impressive skirt without an apron, scalloped at the hem line with some pleating showing below the scallops on the base skirt underneath. The bodice for the dress I am thinking will be high necked, simple, well cut and possibly belted. I may use the plaid for accent pieces on the bodice, but otherwise the bodice will be made on green silk.

Fur trimmed coat. My intention is to keep it shorter in the front than this russet beauty.

The coat will be velvet and will have a bustle/pouf portion with some side panels. I purchased a set of wild Canadian mink cuffs with a thick matching collar to attach to the jacket. I may trim the jacket with silk ribbon or fringe.

The pièce de résistance will be the full plaid silk skirt, though I am thinking that the wild mink will be a show-stopper as well. Since two of the last three bustle gowns I made employed plaid, it would be safe to say I like plaid and bustles juxtaposed. Tissot would empathize with the bustle and plaid fascination, and all of the competing pattern and lines therein. Plaid is such hardworking stuff that provides humor and surprise, though very easy to work with because of the whole grid design. Perhaps Tissot would agree.

My goal for the next gown is to do a magnificent job with the tailoring. I was less enthusiastic about the tailoring of previous bustles. I am going to correct that this time around. I have some drawings and will be starting a mock up as soon as I dig out my bolt of muslin not in storage. Most of my patterns are indignantly stored away in a rubbermaid container in an unheated storage unit far away (poor patterns!), so I’ll drafting from scratch. Fun, fun, fun!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16027710

The girls that are wanted are good girls

Good from the heart to the lips

Pure as the lily is white and pure

From its heart to its sweet leaf tips.

The girls that are wanted are girls with hearts

They are wanted for mothers and wives

Wanted to cradle in loving arms

The strongest and frailest lives.

The clever, the witty, the brilliant girl

There are few who can understand

But, oh! For the wise, loving home girls

There’s a constant, steady demand.

What strikes me the most about this poem is the last line: that the home-loving woman is in “steady demand.” One can recall my discussion in a previous post regarding the docility of Victorian era women. In the Victorian era, a woman’s career was at home as this was the way the economy was structured.

Now in this modern article it is stated that women are having a harder time getting back to work then men. Here, today, is an example of a situation in which there are probably many “witty” women who are not in demand, and who are finding themselves frustrated and anxious at home. They are potentially in circumstances where their male partners and friends are returning to work. Women of the US didn’t decide one day they wanted to return to being Victorian-style domestic goddesses, but cultural and economic pressures dictated that they may want to curb their “wit,” even if only for a limited duration.

Current unemployment statistics do not necessarily reveal how many women have decided to have a baby but not return to work. These numbers are harder to find (though I’m sure a clever statistician with the right statistics could deduce the extent of the phenomanon). The statistics in the above article may be a reflection of such a trend. I recall a slate article read not so long ago that was highly encouraging for new moms such as myself: here was a “mommy track” Harvard Law graduate – a witty and brilliant girl – who found herself with less of a career than she expected. Her brilliance and accomplishments were sidelined and her expensive degree became more of a status symbol than a source of income. Naturally, if she had a less illustrious education, her mommy track status would be on a significantly lower level, so it’s not entirely worthless. But expensive educations do cause debt. I am pretty sure she is in good and numerous company.

Should this current trend continue (and it may not), one can expect college degrees granted to women may decline, and enrollment in colleges could also suffer as a result. There would be less incentive for a middle class woman to gain a college degree, as men would be apprehensive about taking on their debt. The “wise, home-loving girl” would look far more attractive if it became the norm for women to not return to work.

I recall a Harvard historian who recently stated something to the effect that Regency England hardly expected Victorian prudery and structure to be right around the corner. All of those relatively liberated women in their high-waisted gowns expected that the Georgian public acceptance of lovers, illegitimate children, emancipated, intelligent women, and sheer ball gowns would not grind to a screeching halt when faced with an era headed by an 18-year-old inexperienced Queen.

In any case, our culture and resources will set the demand, and none of this changes my desire to make another bustle gown. I love visiting the past, but the present is always way more exciting because we don’t know where it will go.

Great Exhbition: the world brought to London

As of late the Great Exhibition of 1851 has gathered much more attention than in previous decades. It was an amazing feat, a world wonder, and one can guess that it was so ignored for so long because of our recent bias against all things Victorian (again, until as of late). The Great Exhibition encapsulated the changing nature of the planet. Like it or not, the mighty British Empire spanned the globe and brought with it unprecedented cross-cultural contact. The technological and economic impact was huge.

Baghdad on the Hudson: Olana (1870)

In the 1990s, globalization was hailed as the savior of the world. Manufactured goods could be ordered and bought from afar and for cheap, forming fortunes for the investor, and providing the middle classes access to goods they would have otherwise been unable to acquire due to rarity or afford due to cost. The Victorian era was relatively similar, and this formed Victorian style as we know it: varied use of materials and rampant revivalism (such as the Egyptian revival and the polonaise). The bustle was a form for the display of new and varied available resources. Any fashion plate will show how the form provided such an effective surface for variation, while still keeping with what our genetic makeup would allow us to find attractive.

In any case, it’s ironic that the bustle is experiencing a revival in the mainstream when, in reality, our time period shares much more in common with the Belle Epoque (we share top heavy wealth distribution among other features). But I guess popular culture imagines the bustle to personify the entire Victorian era in general. If the Victorian era is imprinted on popular consciousness as being fantastic, filled vampires, romance, deviant sex and an alternate view on gender norms juxtaposed with the contrasting structure of Victorian society, then its resurgence in popularity may be better explained. In our time period of little subtlety – where it could be claimed that our social interactions rank low in imagination – the bustle era with its calling cards, segmented floor plans, flamboyant architecture, creative revivalism, clothes that require help to remove, and all those nooks and crannies could look as though it could hold a secret that could help us out in our quest for a quality life.

In summary, the bustle era with its structure and distance looks like the furthest point from a reality show. Never mind the rest.

HUNTER GREEN VELVET

I have some silk non-Christmas-looking plaid that I could pair with Green silk velvet. This would be Holiday-ish, without looking like it stayed too long at the party come January. I am highly tempted by this option, as I already own half the materials.

NAVY BLUE MOIRE

This would certainly be more elegant, and I’m all about navy lately. Rayon moire can be uncomfortably stiff (though easy to work with), and silk moire is prohibitively expensive. If I can track down the latter it will be the star of the show, so my other material choices will be subtle, tone-on-tone or low contrast.

I’ll know soon enough which will be the chosen option.

Current designers are doing away with the complexity and trickiness that was fashionable a few years before for all that’s flow-y and drape-y. I am not unhappy about this move, and am affected by the morphic resonance. When approaching this next bustle, I feel compelled to be more thoughtful about the decorative and structural additions, making sure that they add something to the whole and the drape. But in this I am running the risk of deviating from authenticity and applying 2011 aethestic standards. Here are some random thoughts running through my brain as I plan:

• Pleats: Contrary to intuition, they look divine in motion. Very few things can capture undulation like pleats at a full-bodied hem.  No point in pleating anything other than silk, light-weight cotton or linen, and don’t put it anywhere it won’t move if you want it to look good. To be entirely authentic, you could put them anywhere. But then you are taking the risk it will look stuffy to modern taste.
• Ruching: Use with caution. Though ruching is great, it is currently a tad associated with grabby brides. Though this is probably a transient association, it does influence. I certainly want to avoid using it on a large scale to avoid modernity. One imagines the bridezilla stretching her hands across her waist saying “it makes me look so much thinner.” Hm.
• Trims: Don’t use them unless they are an authentic material, or at least are a good-quality substitute. If you can’t afford silk fringe – or can’t find it – do some ruching, pleats, or clever usage of fabric. Simplicity is better than cheap trim.
• Hems: early period and mid period bustles should have hems that move, or else they miss the mark in the romantic category. Late period bustles should move no where except the back  – and only if you have a train. Otherwise, one doesn’t really have a late period bustle.
• Linings: No point in lining the WHOLE thing. This was a mistake I made in the last few dresses, when I was in love with the idea of lining the whole thing in silk. I’m over it now. Most dresses of he period were not completely lined.  Save yourself the trouble and the distraction and just do some facing.
• If you are doing a high fashion bustle, mix up the fabrics. Our modern inclinations urge us to keep it simple with one type of fabric. The tastes of the time period were the opposite. Think of the architecture: exteriors could covered in gingerbread, shingles, clapboard, brick, iron, and half-timbering on one house. Upholstery would be patched together as well. It’s easy to get a little confused by the usage of multiple fabrics and textures, but it really has to be done. If you can’t find the fun in it, then you might want to try a dress from another period. To play a conservative route, one could use a silk and velvet in the same color, or the same colored silk with two different textures (My previous posts of the antique Victorian mid-bustle era gown I own showed lots of use of both matte and shiny silk satin. The pictures show how well this can look.), but the creation of depth and varying reflections of light and variations in tactility are absolute essentials for a fashionable Victorian bustle. Otherwise, you should just make a 1950s gown and save yourself all the trouble.

That’s all my thoughts for today.

Winter will shortly fall on our heads like a sharp and brittle wind-blown icicle. As I currently live in a city, skiing opportunities will be scarce though the winter will be colder and darker. A project is needed.

When we left off I was about to start an Edwardian corset, and had all of the materials to complete said project. Now, though I live in a bigger city with greater resources, and I intend to allow the fabric to do the inspiring. Though I wouldn’t rule out an Edwardian, I feel as though a luscious silk velvet bustle beckons – one such as the ladies in my Victorian city neighborhood would have worn when these brick row houses, and copper clad mansions were new. ‘Tis the season for velvet, eh?!

Onto those sketches!

I bought three shades of silk at Joanns – green, grey, and brown – and some silk leaves in matching colors. As the title suggests, baby will be a Green Man.

I have always loved Green Men. They are delights in churches: wise, earthy, mischievous, mysterious, and unspeaking. Wikipedia lists them as being symbols of rebirth. From my reading I gathered that they were the male forest deity with the powers that implies. A male forest deity would of course, entail rebirth, but also decay and regeneration in a good way. Such as in the tarot Death card, death and decay to him would be the beginning, not the end, and in that Christianity may have translated him into a rebirth image.

Why is baby a Green Man? Because he reminds me of how a Green Man would be: mysterious, jolly, though quick to anger, destructive and creative at once. It seems to me that a baby costume should be something foreign and human (so no spiders, pumpkins, or dinosaurs) since they are mysterious indeed. A wonderful book I read regarding baby cognition remarked that a 35-year-old has way more in common with another 35 year-old than he has with himself at age 8, and certainly at age 8 months. A baby is a constant development, their minds exchanging some powers in exchange for others, limiting itself so as to form a cohesive, functioning individual. None of us can stay children, and we certainly can’t stay babies.

The trick to the Green Man costume is how to fashion it so that there is not too much going on that could either get in the face or be ingested. I am fortunate in that my little guy is not very fond of sticking things in his mouth, which both benefits his hygiene and augurs future healthy eating habits. But it would be silly to chance it.

So, make a Baby Green Man without crowding the face. I will probably do something inspired by the image here.

At the same time, a swimsuit called the “atome” is in department stores, a name I am sure was meant to evoke associations with power and that which is of-the-moment. A French designer decides to entitle his own new number, touted at the smallest swimsuit, “the bikini” because it splits the atome, and is small but packs a lot of power.

So next time you think “bikini,” you can now think of 20 atomic tests, fish that emit x-rays, and the upending and annihilation of a 27,000 ton battleship.

I didn’t do the hair or the ruff (photos of ruff in previous post), and instead wore a lovely scarlett velvet cap. Since baby was along, I wanted to be mobile. And I tied the chemise sleeves high for coolness. The chemise is 100% silk, and ties at neckline and wrists.

One of the original reasons why I made this gown was because my previous Elizabethans were much less mobile. I wanted something pretty that would allow for frolicing. Even with the bumroll the gown is quite frolic-able, and cool.

I intend to do a post later on the Sterling Faire, but I’m busy right now, so no can do.