Category: shopping

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Random Musings

Last weekend I went to the Oakland Museum’s White Elephant sale where I only bought a pearl necklace and a 40’s style olive green suit ($10)… only to get home and on a hunch, start poking around and realize that my 40’s style suit is actually a vintage Women’s Army Corps uniform (minus all its buttons). Yay! So now I’m wandering around ebay trying to find buttons and all the other insignia that it’s missing.

And I’m teaching two classes this weekend at GBACCG’s Costume Academy — one is an overview of 18th century costume, the other is on draping the 18th c. bodice. In doing so, I came across the sketch Nancy Bradfield includes in Costume in Detail of 1780s bum rolls/pads. That’s the only evidence I’ve seen for these, and since I love the 1780s, I thought I’d just go see if I could find the original she redrew that from… behold! I’ve ordered the catalog on ILL so I can see a better version. Anyone know of any other documentation for bum rolls in the late 1780s?

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Los Angeles Report

I spent the past weekend in LA, where I got to see the Star Wars costume exhibit at FIDM. It was quite impressive, and I noticed garments and details I hadn’t seen on the screen. The best part were the little kids who were correcting their mothers (ie Mom: “That’s the costume Padme wears when she’s pregnant with a baby!” Little girl: “TWO babies, Mom!”). The Emperor wears an awful lot of leg-o-mutton sleeves, I gotta say. I think my favorites were Queen Apailana of Naboo and Amidala’s Senate gown — and I would just like to share my feeling that pearls are not comfortable to sleep in.

I also, of course, went fabric shopping — and bought nothing! Granted, I had a very specific list of things I was looking for (eg black wool for cheaper than I could get online). I was specifically hoping to price silk duchesse satin, but was disappointed not to find ANY (except for a few of the new dupioni satins coming out — what’s up with that? Yes I want weird little slubs in my satin!). I did see some great striped silk taffetas that would be perfect for 18th c., and even more when I went to the Silk Trading Co. outlet (SMASHING striped silk taffetas for $15/yard, plus a $40 yard red silk damask that was a dead ringer for this portrait and totally out of my price range). But as I have fabric for two 18th c. projects already in my stash, and I’m only planning to accomplish one of those this year, it seemed silly to buy fabric just to buy fabric. So I’m feeling a bit thwarted in the fabric arena.