Author: kendra

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Tudor/Stuart Fashion Exhibition & Book

From May to October, Buckingham Palace will hold the exhibition:  In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion.

From the site:

This exhibition explores the sumptuous costume of British monarchs and their court during the 16th and 17th centuries through portraits in the Royal Collection. During this period fashion was central to court life and was an important way to display social status. Royalty and the elite were the tastemakers of the day, often directly influencing the styles of fashionable clothing.

In Fine Style follows the changing fashions of the period, demonstrates the spread of styles internationally and shows how clothing could convey important messages. Including works by Hans Holbein the Younger, Nicholas Hilliard, Van Dyck and Peter Lely, the exhibition brings together over 60 paintings, as well as drawings, garments, jewellery, accessories and armour.

A book related to the exhibit is forthcoming, written by the curator of paintings at the Royal Collection:

It looks like I may be in the UK this June, so I’m hoping to catch this exhibit while I’m there!

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2012 Recap – Costumes & Events!

Now that I’ve finally posted about the last costume event of 2012, I can finally post my end-of-year recap!

(C) Wendi Koble

In late December/early January, I made a 1575 Florentine veste & petticoat to wear to Sarah’s laurelling ceremony.

In January, I wrote an article on 1912 evening wear…

…and another on hair, makeup, and accessories.

In April, I bought some Indian wedding jewelry, slightly altered my 1910 Lady Maud evening dress, and went to the GBACG Titanic event.

In May, I made a new Venetian Renaissance dress to wear to Bella Donna performances….

(C) Mark Schiffer

…and it had its first outing when Bella Donna performed at the Valhalla Renaissance Faire.

(C) Karen Fox

I spent way too much time in June handsewing an 18th century Turkish ensemble, which I wore to the Lumieres Salacious Salon.

(C) Andrew Schmidt, http://photos.theshotwellcollection.com

In July, I made the 1938 Marie Antoinette sorta-rocket dress, which I wore to Costume College.

Over fall,  I worked on a tambour embroidered fichu, which is nearly done (but not quite).

(C) Laurie Tavan

In September, I performed with Bella Donna at Much Ado About Sebastopol, a benefit Renaissance Faire that is really breaking new ground in terms of authenticity AND entertainment.

For Italian Heritage Day, Bella Donna walked in the SF Italian Heritage Parade and performed for two North Beach Italian restaurants.

In October, Bella Donna got dressed up and took a gondola ride on Lake Merritt in Oakland with Gondola Servizio.

(C) David Bedno

In early November, I recovered and trimmed a had, did some stage makeup, and wore my Maja dress to the Vampire Ball…

…where I performed with Bella Donna.

(C) Brigit Kinch

Later that month, Bella Donna performed at the SCA West Kingdom fall Collegium feast, a beautiful dinner and dance set in 1530s Corregio. I actually reworked my green Venetian dress a bit, but I have no photos yet so I have yet to post about it!

In December, I reworked the failed Champagne fancy dress costume, which I wore to the Dickens Fair.

(C) Deborah Borlase

At the very end of December, I added a placket and wore my Gwendolen dress and had tea with the GBACG.

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Guest Post: In Defense of the Use of Baleen in Hobbyist and Recreation Corsetry

Last May, I posted a review of Wissner boning (aka “German plastic boning”), and mentioned (okay, kind of ranted) that baleen wasn’t an option for boning as whales are an endangered species.  My friend and fellow costumer Sahrye emailed me privately with some very interesting information on whaling and conservation — she’s a marine biologist and so knows far more about this than I do.  I asked if, in the spirit of discussion, she’d be willing to share what she wrote with readers of my blog and she said she would.

So here you are, my first guest post ever, written by Sahrye — whose blog (It Came From the Stash!) is fabulous, by the way!

Continue reading “Guest Post: In Defense of the Use of Baleen in Hobbyist and Recreation Corsetry”

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GBACG Holiday Tea

At the very end of December, the Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild held a bustle-era tea at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.  The Palace is super fancy and dates from 1875 but was rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake — the restaurant where tea is served is what used to be where carriages would pull in and is just beautiful:

Palace Hotel, San Francisco

The tea was hosted by Mrs. Vanderbilt (Cynthia) and THE Mrs. Astor (Catherine), both tres chic in their bustle gowns:

Mrs. Vanderbilt & Mrs. Astor

Costumes ranged from the 1870s to the 1890s:

Kij

Teresa and Bridget were both super pregnant and super cute with their unbuttoned bodices:

Teresa & Bridget

There was lots of gorgeous beading and fabulous hats:

Untitled

And a lovely lady wearing an actual antique late 1860s/early 1870s gown:

Untitled

I wore my purple and white striped Gwendolen dress, this time without the lower hoops as I wasn’t in the mood to wrestle them on BART (our local commuter train).  The bodice appears to have (ahem) shrunk, but luckily I saved scraps of the fabric and hit on the faaabulous idea of adding a V striped false waistcoat front — I’m so glad there are two runs of buttons on each side of the bodice opening!

Kendra

Sadly the hat I made to go with the outfit just doesn’t want to work over 1870s hair.  I could have jammed it on my head and not liked the effect, so I chose to go without (shocking!).

Tea was scrummy — I couldn’t even finish all of my sweets and had to take some home! And the hotel had lots of beautiful photo spots:

Kendra

All in all, a lovely afternoon!  You can see a few more photos in my Flickr set.

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The Plan for the Coming Year: all 18th century, baby

(Tell me you’re surprised)

I keep wanting to do a 2012 wrap-up post, but am stymied by the fact that I have yet to upload photos from the GBACG holiday tea last weekend and then to post about said event.  So in lieu of those posts, which are indeed forthcoming, let’s talk about the coming year!

I’m going to France!  Specifically, the same group of friends who rented a manor house in England a few years back are getting together to rent a petit château in the very south of France, near Toulouse.  I’m going to get to play dress up in this:

We are, as all sane and right-thinking people would do, making it all 18th century, all the time (for our costume events).  So while I have some things in my wardrobe that I may bring along (one of my françaises, my Turkish ensemble for lounging, my proper polonaise for sure; maybe the round gown, or the gaulle, or the riding habit, or the Brunswick — oh god, I need to start whittling!), I am of course making some new things.  Although after looking at that list, I am wondering why a bit…

For sure, I am going to make:

1. A 1770s camisole à la polonaise, this jacket filled out by this fashion plate:

Caraco, entre 1770 et 1780. Musée Galliera, Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris. GAL1992.177.X.
Camisole à la Polonaise, de Mousseline des Indes, doublée de Taffetas rose. Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français, 31e. Cahier. 1780.

2. This c. 1780 redingote as seen in this sketch of Marie-Antoinette:

Drawing of Marie Antoinette, about 1785, ink and color on paper, Artist unknown. From Lofstad slott, Norrkoping, Sweden. From the blog Fashion Is My Muse.

3. I’m also going to be making a hand tambour-embroidered waistcoat for Francis.  

If I have time, I may also make either this robe à la turque:

Wille, Young Woman Admiring a Miniature, 1778

Or a 1770s robe à la française from this striped fabric:

Phew!  I’ll be posting lots more about each of these projects — the camisole and redingote are actually under way — shortly.  Plus that tea recap, and the 2012 recap!