What do these things (with some tweaking and sewing and assembling) have in common?
Vampire Ball costume!
Books!
When it comes to costume/fashion history books, I am a sucker. Even though I work in a university library, I still need to own ALL THE BOOKS! With that in mind, here are some recently published and forthcoming books that I am excited about. (It feels like it’s been a while since there’s been a decent number of costume books to be excited about, so, yay!)
Fashion Prints in the Age of Louis XIV: Intepreting the Art of Elegance — I literally just purchased this one, and I can’t wait until it shows up. I’ve only dabbled in 17th century costume, but it forms a basis of the ongoing research I’ve been doing on Turkish influence on 18th century fashion, so I’m looking forward to both reading their analysis and hopefully seeing some fashion prints that are new to me. It was just published at the beginning of this month. From the book’s description,
“Between 1678 and 1710, Parisian presses printed hundreds of images of elegantly attired men and women dressed in the latest mode, and posed to display every detail of their clothing and accessories. Long used to illustrate dress of the period, these fashion prints have been taken at face value and used uncritically. Drawing on perspectives from art history, costume history, French literature, museum conservation and theatrical costuming, the essays in this volume explore what the prints represent and what they reveal about fashion and culture in the seventeenth century. With more than one hundred illustrations, Fashion Prints in the Age of Louis XIV constitutes not only an innovative analysis of fashion engravings, but also one of the most comprehensive collections of seventeenth-century fashion images available in print.”
Style and Satire: Fashion in Print 1777-1927 is from the Victoria & Albert Museum, which is all I need to know. Plus, as well know, satires and caricatures can be such great sources for fashion history — see, for example, my article on 18th century rumps! Also just released.
“From the sky-high coiffures of Marie Antoinette to Victorian hoop skirts, from the sheer gowns of Pride and Prejudice era to the flat-chested 1920s flapper, Style and Satire tells the story of European fashion and its most extreme trends through lavish fashion plates and the glorious satirical prints they inspired. Beautifully printed, hand-colored fashion plates first appeared in magazines and for sale individually in the late 18th century. At the same time (and often by the same artists), satirical prints gloried in the absurdities of fashion, presenting an alternative, often humorously exaggerated, vision of the fashionable ideal. Both forms were a product of the same print market, and both documented modern life. Lavishly illustrated, Style and Satire presents a witty and original history of fashion trends.”
Gilded New York: Design, Fashion, and Society — I’m going to NYC in late October, and this is one of the exhibitions I’m really excited to see. I went through a phase of reading about all of the Gilded Age heiresses who went to England (like Consuelo Vanderbilt), so I’ve got a soft spot for the whole late 19th century New York high society thang. I’ll definitely report on the exhibit once I’ve seen it!
“The Gilded Years of the late nineteenth century were a vital and glamorous era in New York City as families of great fortune sought to demonstrate their new position by building vast Fifth Avenue mansions filled with precious objects and important painting collections and hosting elaborate fetes and balls. This is the moment of Mrs. Astor’s “Four Hundred,” the rise of the Vanderbilts and Morgans, Maison Worth, Tiffany & Co., Duveen, and Allard. Concurrently these families became New York’s first cultural philanthropists, supporting the fledgling Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Opera, among many institutions founded during this period. A collaboration with the Museum of the City of New York, Gilded New York examines the social and cultural history of these years, focusing on interior design and decorative arts, fashion and jewelry, and the publications that were the progenitors of today’s shelter magazines.”
The House of Worth: Portrait of an Archive — I’d love to hear from anyone who has purchased this one. It sounds amazing — images from the House of Worth archive at the V&A, with details about designs and fabrics. However, I see in the reviews that most of the images are in black & white, which doesn’t sound as exciting. Has anyone seen this? What did you think?
“Legendary British-born designer Charles Frederick Worth (1825–1895), with enormous talent for design and promotion, built his fashion house into an empire during the last quarter of the 19th century—the first business of its kind with global reach. His company, through his heirs, endured until 1952, when his great-grandson retired. Profusely illustrated, this astonishing book explores Worth’s success in the realm of haute couture after 1890. Hundreds of photographs selected from the V&A’s unique archive of more than 7,000 official house records capture the Worth style and offer valuable insights into the daily routine at Maison Worth in Paris. Images and text tell the intriguing story of these creations, providing historical context and describing Worth’s international clientele of elegant women of wealth and power.”
Glasgow Museums: Seventeenth-Century Costumes has been on my wishlist for a while now, and at $22 I really should just buy it, because, 17th century! I am super excited that it sounds like they’re planning to publish more books about their costume collection. One reviewer clarifies that the book features mostly “Waistcoats, coifs, bags, hats, gloves” with a focus on “surface embellishments.”
“Rich silks embellished with needlework were used to create expensive, high quality garments, affordable only for the wealthy. Yet their very exclusivity, has meant that few items have lasted through the centuries, many having fallen victim to reuse and re-cycling as other garments and household items. Several rare and beautiful pieces do however survive in Glasgow Museums’ collections. This book is the first in the series of publications about Glasgow Museums’ European Costume collection. Designed to appeal to costume and embroidery enthusiasts and social historians alike, it features new photography and the fruits of recent research, revealing the intricate details of exquisite embroidery.”
The Impossible Wardrobe: Highlights from Three Centuries of French Fashion at the Galliera Museum. The Musee Galliera has a huge, amazing costume collection on the level of the V&A. However, they don’t show a permanent collection; they only do special exhibitions. So I’m really excited to see what gets featured in this book. I saw the Modes en Miroir exhibit (which was about 18th century fashion in France and the Netherlands), and it was really amazing. So I have high hopes! Note that this doesn’t come out until January 2015.
Fashion Victims: Dress at the Court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette — Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell has published a number of scholarly articles on 18th century dress that are seriously fabulous, plus she’s contributed to a number of books and exhibitions (including LACMA’s Fashioning Fashion). Plus, most of my academic research is in late 18th century French fashion. So, I am THRILLED that she is coming out with this book. THRILLED. And I’m not happy about having to wait until April 2015 for it to come out!
“This engrossing book chronicles one of the most exciting, controversial, and extravagant periods in the history of fashion: the reign of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette in 18th-century France. Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell offers a carefully researched glimpse into the turbulent era’s sophisticated and largely female-dominated fashion industry, which produced courtly finery as well as promoted a thriving secondhand clothing market outside the royal circle. She discusses in depth the exceptionally imaginative and uninhibited styles of the period immediately before the French Revolution, and also explores fashion’s surprising influence on the course of the Revolution itself. The absorbing narrative demonstrates fashion’s crucial role as a visible and versatile medium for social commentary, and shows the glittering surface of 18th-century high society as well as its seedy underbelly. Fashion Victims presents a compelling anthology of trends, manners, and personalities from the era, accompanied by gorgeous fashion plates, portraits, and photographs of rare surviving garments. Drawing upon documentary evidence, previously unpublished archival sources, and new information about aristocrats, politicians, and celebrities, this book is an unmatched study of French fashion in the late 18th century, providing astonishing insight, a gripping story, and stylish inspiration.”
COSTUME COLLEGE!
In all caps, because it’s taken me so long to write about it! Costume College happened, and it was tons of fun, as always. I got to hang out with old friends and meet new people, and teach some classes, and go to some classes, and flog the wig book!
First, though, I want to echo what everyone else has said. Although I had a blast hanging out with friends, it definitely felt like there was less interacting among individuals and groups. As with everyone else, it’s the usual things: you’re teaching, or running around, or out of class whenever everyone else is in class, or sick, or what-have-you. For me, I had the added layer of book stuff. I only sold and signed my books on Friday night, but it still meant that I could only make it to the social for about an hour, and couldn’t make the court dress meet-up, and then I was selling books for most of the night. And Sunday, I was in a limited class all day. So, I do think a part of it is just scheduling.
I also feel like as historical costume blogging has grown, so too has Costume College, and I don’t know about you, but I feel like I spend most of the weekend in visual overload over how much Completely Frickin’ Amazing costumes everyone is wearing… to the point where I’m so overloaded that I probably don’t even tell you that how amazing your costume is, because there are SO MANY amazing costumes, and it just becomes this whirl. CoCo has always been a place to strut your stuff, and now that there are so many more of us, there are so many more costumes. I don’t know about you, but I feel like my conversations went something like, “Oh my god, I love this — SQUIRREL!”
Also, I’m really happy that so many people are blogging about costume. It means there’s so much fabulosity out there, and so much information. But, it used to be fewer of us, so there would be about 5 people who you’d stalk and say, “Hey! I know you! Online!” Now, there are SO many bloggers that I know a lot of us have a hard time keeping up, and captchas and spam make it hard to comment, so we’re probably interacting less online. Which then means, there are a gazillion people you might recognize from online, but at the same time you might not feel as close to them as when there were fewer. So, I now spend half of CoCo going “I think I know that person?” And it’s not til later, when I’m looking at pictures or whatever, that I realize “Hey, that was so&so!”
I’ve also given up on trying to take too many photos, since we’re all getting great formal pics from the official photographers. I like that it frees me up to just relax and socialize. But at the same time, it means I miss those opportunities to have a quick squee and pic that I used to; now I’m more likely to sit on the other side of the room and mutter, “Wow, that’s a seriously good dress” than run over.
So yeah. A bigger CoCo, more costumers, all of these are good things. But it does change things somewhat, and I know I for one miss being able to have longer, better chats. So, if we missed connecting, please know that it’s not you, it’s that I’m overwhelmed! I’m not sure whether there are obvious solutions. Some people have talked about reinstituting an LJ meet-up, but I don’t know if I even qualify for that anymore, since I’m hardly ever there!
I mean, just look at all of this pretty!
Okay, on to my CoCo report:
Thursday night I only made it to the pool party for a brief time. We drove down that day, and I was super blown, so there was a bit of chatting and hanging and then I hit the wall.
Friday morning I had to be up bright and early to teach a hairstyling demo. In the class I showed how to do one of the styles from my 18th Century Hair & Wig Styling book. I only gave myself two hours, which isn’t enough to do a hairstyle well when you’re in front of a bunch of people… and yeah, I actually did a really crappy job. But luckily those who I spoke with her happy to see the techniques, even if I didn’t fix and futz to make it all look pretty.
Later that day I went to Janea and Abby’s class on 18th century dressmaking terminology, which I loved because I’m a terminology geek. There are so many terms we use now to refer to 18th century dress/dressmaking that are totally not used in the era, and then there’s the whole French vs. English thing.
That evening, I wore my this-old-thing (to me) white caraco a la polonaise. I definitely felt the pressure to bring my A game in terms of wigs, but I didn’t want to wear my Kick Ass Wig both Friday & Saturday nights, so I whipped out a quickie 1780s style based on the Balloon. I got about an hour of socializing in before it was time to start hauling books down for my signing & sale. Jennifer Rosbrugh was also there signing her publications, and I felt very verklempt to be supported and celebrated in that way by Costume College.
Saturday was pretty flexible for me. I had one lecture class to teach (on 18th century hairstyles), nicely in the middle of the day, so I decided to make some effort and dress up. I wore my vampire bride costume, which was an easy one to throw on (and hey, one of the very few things I made last year!). I taught my class, I had some lunch… with the cast of Ab Fab, because my friends kick ass like that. Trystan was Edina, Sarah was Patsy, and Karen was Bubbles.
Oh, also that day, Merja wore the wig that I made for her as her reward for donating big during the book’s Indiegogo campaign. She picked the style, and I made it. She wore it with her STUNNING striped polonaise, and I think the striped bows that she added to the wig just really took it over the top.
Saturday night was the gala. I didn’t have time to make anything fabulous this year — I knew I wanted a kick ass wig, but beyond that, I just about killed myself to get the book done in time. So I banged out an 18th century sultana — a posing gown, based on Ottoman clothing but interpreted through European eyes, specifically inspired by this painting of Hester Thrale:
I bought a really pretty ivory and white silk sari on ebay and went to town. The top of it is pretty Ottoman, in fact, and I ended up hand sewing it in bits on the couch. I decided to pleat the skirt to get more fullness, and ended up machine sewing most of that because I was in a hurry. The sash is a bit of red silk organza with gold stripes from Renaissance Fabrics, and I was shocked to find that my last minute hunt for gold fringe was successful — at Beverly’s, of all places!
For the wig, I took down and washed out the wig I made for France. I completely restyled it, adding more hair and making a different frame. It’s not a literal version of one of the book wigs, but it uses the same techniques. I was inspired by this wig, with its silly dangling ringlets, from Gallerie des Modes (I think 1779?):
Meanwhile, Trystan had come up with the idea to do a book-themed costume, and Karen and I decided to join in. Both of them wore the wigs they modeled for the book, and we decided to put miniature books in our wigs, which I flogged my husband into making (ah, the joy of hot gluing the night before leaving for CoCo!). Trystan made us mini book jewelry (necklaces & earrings), and for her outfit, she even made a printed-on-silk stomacher with the table of contents, and paper roses made from print outs of the book pages.
This was my first time attending the gala dinner in a number of years, and I was glad I did, although a lot of YOU skipped it which made it harder to hang with you! But you guys. There was SO MUCH COSTUMEY GOODNESS.
Two empresses in Edwardian court dresses.
Sahrye as Madam Vastra — I had no idea that was her!
Fabulous 1830s — the dagging!
Beautiful bustle-y goodness.
Fabulous robes de style.
Merja. You’d hate her if she wasn’t so nice.
I am kind of obsessed with this late teens amazing-ness. It would never suit me, but hot DAMN.
And, unlike the rest of us laggers, Elizabeth, Rebecca, and Katherine kicked some serious ASS in their stunning, over the top, beautiful 18th century court gowns. All three are just drop dead WHOA.
And, my friends, that is just the tip of the iceberg on the AMAZING costumes that were worn all weekend. Every era was there. Game of Thrones, Hunger Games, the list goes ON. I would need a week to track down all of the amazing-ness and post it here, so instead I’ll just send you to the official photographer’s gallery.
Sunday, I had an all-day limited class with Candace Kling. I’ve passed up (just through sheer laziness) the chance to take workshops with her before, and now I am REALLY sorry I did. I was exhausted, but it didn’t matter. That woman knows her stuff!! We made some GORGEOUS ruched trims, and I got so much out of it. I’m really inspired to take more classes from her. She had all these amazing ways of making ruches, pleats, and gathers more interesting that I never would have thought of!
And so, that’s mostly it! It was a great time and over too soon.
Catching Up
Oh god, I’ll never catch up with stuff if I wait to do posts about each individual thing, so here, minus The Book, my life the last few (many?) months!
I went to a 1920s Circus Picnic, for which I turned a shitty polyester prom dress from ebay plus a bit of a sari into a circus costume inspired by a picture of my great-grandmother. I forced myself to do the worst sewing job ever on it, since it was such a throw-away costume, and I looked pregnant in it (note to self: stand up straight!), but I had fun!
I performed at Pirate Fest with Bella Donna (as the House of the Rising Sun — New Orleans tarts), for which I made a quick wig based on the Balloon style from The Book. Accessorized by a faaaabulous hat by Jenn.
And I prepped for, went to, and recovered from Costume College, but like everyone else, I’m waiting on professional photos for that post! I no longer bother to take good pics of myself, since I know the professionals can take such better ones. So yeah. More about that soon!
OH, and Frock Flicks is back. After years of my poking them, Trystan & Sarah have finally gotten excited about this again. We have a website. And a Facebook page. And a twitter. And will be recording a new podcast in the next week or two.
BOOK! (World’s Worst Blogger edition)
I have turned into the World’s Worst Blogger(TM). So much costume-related stuff has happened that I have totally failed to blog about! If you follow me (or The Book) on Facebook, there will be a lot of repeats coming up.
But whether or not it’s been all over Facebook and Costume College, and whether or not you’ve received yours already, I still need to blog about:
THE BOOK IS HERE! And has been shipped! And it’s all shiny and pretty! And I have many boxes of them in my dining room!
If you haven’t gotten one already, you can order it online on the book website!
And, in case you missed it on Facebook, I designed a T-Shirt to go with the book. You can order yours online through this coming Friday, Aug. 15 at 5pm PDT at the book website.
