(Yes, I am shamelessly stealing that post title from the talented Cathy Hay!)
Aiee, we’re here! In France! In an ancient chateau, originally 16th century but restored in the 19th century, and very appropriately eighteenth-century themed inside!
Here is the lovely Chateau de Pys, in the southeast of France near Toulouse:
(C) Trystan L. Bass(C) Thomas Dowrie. Currently I'm sleeping in the building to the right, next week I'll be moving into a bedroom in the chateau!The view on a rainy late afternoon -- we actually have a view of the snow-covered peaks of the Pyrennees when it is clear, which I'll post once I've remembered to take a photo!
And we’re having a blast. So far there have been sewing circles, cocktails, Eurovision final watching parties, yummy dinners…. and costumes! Most of us are here for two weeks, so we’re spacing out the costume events to basically every other day, so nobody hits the wall. It’s so lovely to BE in the place you’re going to be playing dress up — no hassle to get dressed and pop over — plus to then be able to put your pj’s on and have a late night, post-corset snack in the kitchen with everyone else! I could SO get used to this…
Our first costume event was a picnic lunch on the terrace/outside. It’s been drizzling on and off, so we set up the lunch buffet-style on an outdoor table. After food, we took TONS of photos, rambled about the grounds to see the nearby pond, woods, and lawns, played some ninepins, and lounged about on the steps. As I keep repeating, This Does Not Suck.
Lisa & FrancisSarahThomas & TrystanCathy & LisaC'est moi!
On Friday night, after all my previous museum shenanigans, I met Fanny, Olympe, Carmene, and Anne — all fellow costumers — at Fanny’s shop, Au Temps d’Elegance. It is, I believe, the only shop of its kind in Paris. Fanny is a very talented costumer who does custom work, plus sells all sorts of bits and bobs for costuming (hats, feathers, jewelry, etc.) in her shop. It was fun to see all the shiny things in her shop, plus she brought out two real extant eighteenth century pieces — one a jacket, the other a dress — for us to peer at. It’s always fun to meet new people and talk costume — many of them go regularly to Vaux le Vicomte, Carnivale, etc. And if you’re in Paris, you should definitely check out her shop!
Now I’m at “our” chateau, so tomorrow: costume posts!
Bonjour from Paris! I’ve been here since Tuesday and already it’s been a whirlwind. In addition to being on vacation (I leave tomorrow for the south for our two weeks of playing dress-up), I’m also here in France doing research! See, the research I’ve been doing for years on the robes a la polonaise, turque, and circassienne have been growing and growing. First they turned into an article that’s coming out this month in Dress (the journal of the Costume Society of America). But it’s kept growing, and so… I’ve decided it’s a book!
What’s the book about? Well, partially about what exactly these styles are, how they were cut and what was different/the same about them vs. other dresses of the period. I’ve been doing tons of research, but I also really need to study more extant dresses and I especially want to take patterns. So I applied for, and am incredibly excited to have received, some research grants! I’ve received funding from the Design History Society’s Research Grant, and the Society of Antiquaries London’s Janet Arnold Award (hey, I won a grant in honor of Janet Arnold — how cool is that?).
So here in Paris I’ve just spent a day at a half at the Musee Toile de Jouy, a small museum about an hour outside Paris. The museum focuses on printed cottons and the history of the Oberkampf fabric printing factory. They have a dress that I’ve studied before, which belonged to Mme Oberkampf (the wife of the owner), which they’ve been calling a robe a la turque but that I have determined was a polonaise longue — a trained version of the robe a la polonaise. Confusing, because the polonaise was looped up, right? Well, one version featured the specific cut of the polonaise but had a long train, and that was the polonaise longue. Here’s a not-great photo of the dress I patterned:
Robe a la turque de Mme Oberkampf (actually a polonaise longue), Musee Toile de Jouy: http://www.museedelatoiledejouy.fr/dynPopup000101b5.html
Then this afternoon, I went to Versailles to the chateau of Mme Elisabeth, the youngest sister of Louis XVI, to see the exhibition that is all about her. Her chateau is very pretty, the gardens are stunning, and it’s waaaaay less crowded than the chateau de Versailles proper. The exhibition is really nice, with some great paintings of Elisabeth, Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI, and more, plus personal objects of Elisabeth and related people. And, best of all, there’s a room with about 8 costumes on display, including this tambour embroidered stunner that I think I’m going to have to make, now that I’m a tambour-ing demon (more on that shortly, I promise!):
Caraco et jupe, 1775-1785, Musee Galliera. Image courtesy of Madame Elisabeth, Une Princesse au Destin Tragique exhibition website: http://elisabeth.yvelines.fr/oeuvres-et-lieux/caraco-et-jupe/
Okay, I have more to write about but I’m exhausted (jet lag!) and I have to get up really early for my train to the south, so more soon!
So I haven’t been blogging lately (obviously) — partially because I’ve been too busy, and also partially because I’m feeling like the dress diary is over. There are so many costume blogs these days that I think it’s hard to keep up with them all, and I don’t get much feedback on my own dress diary posts, so I’ve been thinking of doing more wrap-up posts — here’s what I made and here’s how I made it.
But since I AM sew-sew-sewing for France, I wanted to show you where things are!
First off, the camisole à la polonaise is almost done. I had a bit of quandry when it looked like I didn’t have enough of the contrast windowpane fabric to do skirt ruffles, but I managed to find a piece I’d forgotten about and have eked out enough. Just need to gather and attach the hem ruffle, and I want to make a couple of sets of different color bows (I’m thinking green and lavender) to wear at the neckline and sleeves.
I’m working on a gazillion things simultaneously, which is kind of nice in that when I get sick of one thing I can put it down and pick something else up. Here’s the robe à la turque, which turned into a robe à la circassienne once I realized how impractical a white silk satin gown was with a train. This was a particular adventure because I decided to drape it on my dress form using the fashion fabric. A great idea, except when you’re dealing with $40/yd fabric. Yeah. There were some screw-ups and fabric wastage. I’ll give you the long version when I write my “how I made it” post!
Finally, there’s the redingote, of which I don’t have an up to date photo.
I still have LOTS of fiddly bits to do — sleeves to set, 10 million buttons to make, plus I am embroidering away on Francis’s waistcoat… And I want to style a new wig, and make at least one hat. I’ll try to post more pics in a day or two! Luckily I’m off work as of tomorrow, so I have 1.5 weeks to finish sewing, pack, and get generally organized. EEK!
There’s also some important news to post about my research, but I’ll save that for another post….
Last week I went down to Anaheim to help my husband, who is a professional illustrator, sell his art (originals, prints, cards, etc.) at WonderCon. This is an annual convention, officially for comics, but also for scifi, fantasy, video games, and all things geek-y, and is organized by the same people who put on ComicCon. I’ve been to this convention a few times to help my hubby, mostly when it was up in San Francisco. I spend most of the weekend sitting in a hard plastic chair helping Michael out — selling stuff, getting food, letting him go on breaks — but it’s also fun from another perspective: cosplay!
I don’t really do cosplay, but it’s (obviously) the most popular area of costuming and growing by leaps and bounds. It’s fun to get to watch people who are just as obsessive as us historical costumers get their costume geek on, even if I do spend most of the weekend asking my husband, “Who’s that character? And who’s that?” Okay, I can spot a Disney princess, Captain America (very popular this year!), and Game of Thrones (okay, so I am considering making a Game of Thrones outfit because they’re PRETTY and sometimes they have crazy hair!).
There are some things that don’t grab me as much about cosplay, mostly the purchasing items and putting them together into a costume part of things (some people make their own costumes, and others purchase and repurpose stuff — not saying there isn’t a ton of work that goes into that second option, just it’s not MY thing!). But what I do get is loving a character, show, book, etc. so much that you want to literally BE a part of it, and find some way to take on that character/world. I think part of what I love about reproducing paintings and fashion plates and historically set movies is that I am trying to put myself into that person or character, so in some ways it’s very much the same!
We’re generally in the small press area, which means we aren’t in the heart of things, so I know there are tons of cool costumes that I miss seeing. But here’s a few photos of costumes that I liked. I think my favorites was Daenerys from Game of Thrones, and the Dr. Who girl who had a hand painted Tardis parasol!
