Author: kendra

SITE UPDATES

real women’s clothing There’s a few new updates to the Real Women’s Clothing directory — some new ones and some new views of previous listings. As always, if you know of any images of extant clothing floating around out there (that aren’t crappy fuzzy blurry bad lighting shots) let me know.

Speaking of which, I came across these photos of costumes from the Palazzo Mocenigo (Venice, Italy) which aren’t high enough quality to add to the directory, but are the only views I’ve found of some really yummy items. I must find a way to abscond with the red & white striped (STRIPES!) 1787 dress.

PROJECTS

1830s indienne print day dress While many things in my life were put on hold by Dickens Fair, having 1 1/2 weeks off from work over the holidays finally gave me some time to get sewing… read more about my 1830s indienne print day dress project

SITE UPDATES

spring cleaning For those who care about these sorts of things, I’m working on a few site updates to make this here place more manageable. I like my (relatively) new menu/posts with images, but it’s made the right-hand menu get way too long — so I’ve taken all the individual links to various balls & events off of the main page, and just made one main balls & events link (still listed in the right-hand menu, now just under Links & Sources), from which you can get to all of the current and past galleries. I’ll always post about new galleries here, so you’ll know if there’s something new.

A change I made a while ago was to remove Completed Projects from the main page — these are still linked through the Costume Galleries (by era).

I’ve added a new project page, altho it’s pretty bare bones, for my 1909 afternoon dress (to be worn at the GBACG Gibson Girls event). Of course, I PROMISE to finish my 1830s day dress first! And speaking of which, I’ll have some updates on that project (I HAVE been sewing), as well as some pictures of the vintage kimono that I got for Christmas, in the next day or two.

Let me know if you have any brilliant ideas for ways to make the navigation work better.

SITE UPDATES

peers victorian 12th night ball On Saturday I went to the PEERS Victorian 12th Night Ball, which has to have been the most fun that I’ve had at a PEERS ball to date — I think largely because I finally knew people! It was fun to see many Dickens Fair people, and even MORE fun to see some good costuming again (see previous posts about Gaskells for whining about lack-of-period-costumage). I wore my brown late 1830s dress, and finally got out some wire (and fake hair) and made a decent attempt at one of those BIG 1830s do’s (I was trying to channel Cynthia from Wives & Daughters), which had to have been the most fun of the whole evening. Peruse some pictures.

COMMENTARY

movie reviews Cold Mountain: As a movie, it’s a mixed bag but I’d definitely say it’s worth watching — it was hard to care about the two main characters as a couple, but I did care about them, and many of the supporting characters, as individuals. The costumes (which is what we’re REALLY interested in here) were beautiful — Nicole Kidman’s early outfits especially really LOOK 1860s. Perfect bell hoops, lots of nice gauzy cotton prints, at least one dress with a fan front.

Kidman’s hats irritated me, but I don’t think it’s because they’re not period — I think it’s because I just don’t feel she is right for the period. She’s SO thin that she looks like a stick wearing a hoopskirt and she needs to lay off the plastic surgery — see Jewel (who is suprisingly NOT painful) in Ride with the Devil for an actress who just looks right in 1860s. Renee Zellweger was convincing in her “I don’t give a hoot what I look like” loose-fitting outfits, but BOTH actresses drove me ABSOLUTELY CRAZY with their hair. Okay, yes, Zellweger’s character didn’t seem to care much what she looked like, but given that, wouldn’t it be more functional to have all of your hair back in a tight braid or a bun so that it’s out of the way while you’re mucking around in the dirt? And yes, Kidman’s character increasingly cared less what SHE looked like, but if her extensions waved around in the breeze one more time, I was really going to have to hurt her. Functional = out of the face. Irritating = carefully dishevelled, lots of loose hair hanging in your face.

Mona Lisa Smile: Another mixed bag as a movie, but also worth watching imho — again, I cared a whole lot more about the supporting characters than I did for annoying Julia Roberts. Roberts is supposed to be a bohemian, which I guess her costumes portrayed well enough given the constraints of the period (ooo look! she’s wearing turquoise!) — but Roberts is SUCH a modern actress and really doesn’t do well in period films. Her hair was particularly modern looking to me (“oh no! can’t mess with the Julia Roberts mane!”). OTOH, many of the college women (especially Julia Stiles and Ginnifer Goodwin as Constance) looked just fabulous — Goodwin’s and Stiles’s hairstyles especially! I loved the poofy blue bridesmaid dresses, the pencil skirts, and Roberts’s brown taffeta party dress.

Next up — Girl with a Pearl Earring!