Fashion Historian & Historical Costume Maker
I’m half-way packed, and mostly done sewing (just some handsewing to do on the plane — ruffles for my habit shirt) — aieeeeeeeeeee! SUPER excited! I’ve been too busy to take photos of the final bits, but I promise to post some photos and updates while I’m gone.
I’m terrible with connecting names and faces, so if you’re in Williamsburg, come on over and say hi!
So, I normally don’t make New Year’s resolutions — I mean, ever. But last night I couldn’t sleep, and one of the many resolutions I out-of-nowhere settled on was to try to post at least five times a week on this here blog. Because it’s languishing, and that’s silly! And I have lots of stuff to post about, so I just need to get my butt in gear. I might do a bit more “general costume history” in addition to what I’m up to…
First thing to post about: I’m going to the Colonial Williamsburg Costume Accessories symposium in March! I am super excited, because as you know I have been all about the 18th century for the last few years… not just in my costuming, but also in my research. So I’m excited about getting to hear new research and hopefully meet some interesting people! I’ll be going a few days early so as to have time to run around in costume and have fun. The last (and only) time I went to CW, we had literally one day, so there’s so much left to see and do. Also, it’ll be fab because lots of costumers I know are going, so it should be a real party! If you’ll be around, let me know and we’ll hook up!
Of course, this adds new wrinkles to my costuming to-d0 list… the short version is that I want to finish the Brunswick and make a 1770s riding habit. Of course, I NEED to finish my stays before I can start on the habit, and given that it’s hand sewing, there’s only so much I can do to make things go faster. I’ve spent a good deal of my winter break sewing, and will continue to do so, but I think I’m letting go of the need to hand sew the habit — I think it’s going to have to involve some machine sewinBut g to get it done in time. But more on that in another post!
So I have been to the UK many times — I studied abroad in Scotland in college, and I’ve probably spent a combined 3 months in London. Which means that while I’ve done most of the London museums multiple times, I haven’t spent much time in England beyond London… which means that there are many interesting costume museums I’ve never visited! Which is all to say that a large point of this trip was to hit some out of the way museums.
I did go to the V&A to meet up with Kate, Christina, and Leia. Leia had never been, so we did go through the costume wing, but we spent more time in the new Medieval & Renaissance galleries and in the Textile Study Room. There was lots that was interesting, but highlights for me included seeing this Florentine bust in person — it is great to see a 3D view of mid- to late-16th c. Italian fit. There’s a nice curve to the bustline, and the neckline comes up past the bust point… and check out the waistline wrinkles, consistent with a bodice that’s stiffened with heavy fabric but not boning!
In the Textile Study Rooms, I bypassed the embroidery to look at the printed cottons, but luckily Kate mentioned this pair of mid-18th century jumps. One whole front was there — I think it had never been sewn together? And the teeny tiny embroidery stitches were absolutely to die for — maybe like 20 stitches to the inch?
Blaise Castle House Museum had a couple of nice rooms full of period costume (altho heads up, they had some signs up that they’re working on a [late?] 20th century exhibition – sigh). Probably the best moment was looking at this Charles Worth gown, when some very small (ages 5-6?) children ran in. Boy #1: “Is this what they wore in the Victorian era?” Boy #2: “Yes.” Boy #1: “NASTY.” My husband and I ran around saying “nah-sty” for the rest of our trip.
I happened to check out the Royal Albert Memorial Museum website, and saw they were doing an exhibit at the Lawrence House Museum in Launceston… otherwise I wouldn’t have known to stop in! This gown, from their regular display, is signed as being from the 1880s, but I say it looks about 1908ish.
The special exhibit, “Curious Curves,” would have been very cool if I wanted to try on reproduction period undies (bustles, panniers, etc.), but turned out to only have one extant dress on display — this late Victorian beaded number.
Killerton had a lovely exhibit called, “Elegance,” which included a number of really fabulous items. These pair of leather 18th c. stays had me peering up close for a while…
…and this 1770s sacque, with teeny tiny ikat pattern, was just gorgeous in person.
I was super fortunate to have a study appointment with the curator of Killerton and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum. I was looking at late 18th century gowns, and was super excited to find one in the particular style I’m researching, plus to look at a lot of other pretties. Unfortunately I can’t post pictures of any of them due to copyright.
I did find out that they recently photographed all of their collection, which will eventually (in a few years?) make its way onto the National Trust website. I don’t know if this means that other National Trust collections are also being photographed?
Many small museums that I didn’t think of as “costume museums” had period costumes on display. The Sidmouth town museum had this lovely fan front taffeta 1850s dress.
Chawton, Jane Austen’s home, was really really cool. REALLY! The jacket is from Mrs. Austen’s riding habit, which was recut by younger family members for fancy dress. And the quilt on the bed was made by Jane and Cassandra (and Mrs. Austen?) out of dress scraps.
Finally, the Winchester City Museum had a display of Tudor costumes recreated by Herbert Norris (author of Tudor Costume and Fashion) in 1908 for a town festival. I thought some of you 16th century costumers might like to see what he came up with!
All in all, it was a lovely trip, and I’m glad I got to cross so many small but interesting museums off my list. If you’re interested, you can see the full set of travel photos (including many from museums, but also just my general travel photos too) on Flickr.
There was a mad rush of sewing to get ready for the England trip, naturally.
As previously posted, Michael’s doublet was nearing completion but he felt it was too tight. I thought about piecing in a gusset in the CB, then realized that would just get wonky, so I literally took out the whole back and remade it. Ugh! I know I could have made him suffer, but I wanted him to be happy. I really wanted to make him a hat, and bought the pattern and everything, but the timing was just too tight. Maybe if he ever wears it again!
Final photos – and by popular request, a ruff (okay, some ruffled eyelet lace) for Sir Winston:
For me, the big project was a c. 1780 robe à la polonaise, which I took pictures of while I was making but totally neglected to do a dress diary… the reason for which will need to be another post! It’s made of red and white printed cotton (a duvet cover from Ikea), trimmed with red taffeta (which was supposedly silk when I bought it in the $7/yd silk taffeta garment district madness, but when Sarah burn tested her fabric, she reported it was not silk – bastards!), and yards of white organza ruffles. I handsewed most of it, except I hemmed and gathered all the organza ruffles on the machine (hey, I’m not crazy!) except for the bottom ruffle on the petticoat, where the ruffling would show… and I ran out of time, so a lot of the sleeve was done on the machine. I’m really pleased with it, especially the fit — I’m tired of always being the boobed wonder when I wear 18th c., so I made the neckline pretty cover-y — it might even be TOO narrow, but I’m not changing it now! I do still need to add some braid to the back seams, but I can easily get that done before Costume College. I’m thinking I’ll wear this to the Gala unless I get a wild hair to make something new… but that’s another post, too! I promise to do a full write-up on the dress at some point, but again, more on this subject in another post.
I also remade my 1780s capote to have a poufier top (ie remade it in a couple of layers of silk organza), and retrimmed it as the green scheme made the outfit Christmas-y (I figured blue was complimentary without being matchy). I used a vintage feather trim that I got at Costume College a few years back. Finally, I wore the lace knitted mitts that I’ve been working on for a while – a totally modern pattern, unfortunately, as the only period patterns I could find were very butter churn-y and winter-y.
Finally, I did widen the neckline on the medieval gown — it was a rush job the night before we left, so I just put the dress on inside out, marked a wider neckline, cut some bias silk and finished it quickly. I was worried it would stretch out or do something funky, but it seems to have worked! I have a LOT of bust in it, but otherwise it turned out to be prettier than I’d thought and I had fun swanning about in the bluebells in it.
Oh, and I wore my green Venetian, but that’s very this-old-thing to me these days!
Or, I Went to England and All I Got Was 500 Photos (ok, and a spoon and some books)
Home from the trip of a lifetime! The plan: rent a fabulous period house in England, get a bunch of friends together so as make an instant party and cut down the cost, and have as many costume events as we could pack in. After a ton of work, we found a 16th c. manor in Suffolk with tons of period details and gardens waaaay out in the country. Sadly, there was only room for a limited number, plus we wanted to make sure everyone would get along, so we had to keep the invite list short. But what a fabulous trip we had, and maybe it will inspire other groups to do the same!
We rented the house for 4 nights/3 days and packed in a ton of costumed events (altho if we did it again, I’d rent a place for a longer period and space out the costume-y-ness — it’s hard to have the energy for multiple events in one day, what with all the food prep and cleanup!).
The first day, we had a 16th c. lunch followed by some period music and then a walk to the local church. The countryside was gorgeous, and the church was really quite close by, which was good because it was WAY colder than I’d pictured. I thought we’d be eating out on the lawn everyday, but it was only day #2 that was warm enough to spend any decent amount of time outside! The area around the manor was gorgeous — we’d just missed the daffodils, but there was a lime avenue (any fan of Marie Antoinette knows how exciting that is!), lush green fields and trees, bluebells and other tiny flowers, and fields of yellow rapeseed flowers that just glowed.
That evening, we had our big event: a 16th c. dinner in a 16th c. house! In a period room! With paneling and a huge fireplace and portraits of the house’s various owners! We had tons and tons of delicious food made from period recipes.
Day #2, I went for a long walk in country lanes (and kept thinking of Persuasion: “Why does everyone assume I am not a good walker?”), then we had our 18th c. lunch (macaroons! tea sandwiches! yummy desserts!) followed by lots of wandering in the gardens and some lawn bowling. Luckily, this day it was warm enough to be outside!
That evening, we’d planned an informal dinner followed by a Pre-Raphaelite Cocktail Party. Fortunately and unfortunately, the dinner turned out to be a 7 course French meal (which was amazing), which ran late and left me and some others feeling not up to putting on yet another costume! Braver ones than I still got dressed up, and we lounged in the (supposedly haunted) attic sitting room.
Day 3 was the Victorian or wear-any-era tea. Since I hadn’t worn my medieval/Pre-Raphaelite dress the night before, and had been planning to re-wear 18th c., I went medieval. We had yet more yummy tea sandwiches and desserts, then more garden strolling and general silliness.
That evening, we adapted the Lumieres Salacious Salon to be the Salacious/Spooky/Seditious Salon. Everyone dressed down, Edmund performed a magic show, and we had silly and spooky readings.
And then, sadly, it was time to go! It was all too short and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Wearing historical costumes in what is, to me, the motherland (okay, France is the other motherland, with Italy running a close second… but still!) was really pretty amazing. It was fun that my husband came along too and bravely wore his hampants (and took some great photos!). It was great spending time with friends and eating great food and indulging in this crazy hobby we all share!
I took waaaaaaaay too many photos, which if you’d like see, are all on Flickr.
Coming soon – posts on the costumes I made, plus the various costume museums I went to.