Author: Adam Lid

The Countess Grefuhlle’s Tea Gown

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Countess Greffulhe

One of the most iconic versions of the tea gown (or dress) was the one that was made by Maison Worth for the Countess Grefuhlle in 1895. Although tea gowns were initially intended as a form of Victorian “casual wear” for wear at home, the style eventually evolved into something less casual and more focused on achieving a fashion effect (as is the case with a lot of fashions that start simple and evolve into something far more complex). Here are a few views:

Tea Dress, Worth c. 1895; Palais Galliera (GAL1964.20.4)

Three-Quarters Front View

In this close-up, one can see the blue flocked velvet design set against a green silk satin.

Three-Quarters Rear View

Back in 2016-17, an exhibition about her was staged at Palais Gallieria in Paris and the FIT Museum in New York. Below is a link to a video about it:

In future posts, we’ll delve more into this gown but suffice to say, it’s simply stunning and we’re looking forward to someday seeing it in person, whether in Paris or somewhere else.

Off To The Getty Villa

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It’s been awhile since we’ve been at the Getty Villa so today we decided to renew our acquaintance. We normally make it out to the Villa about every two to three months but due to a long-standing road closure and work in general, we’ve been unable to make it; normally, the Villa is about 20 minutes away but the major roadway was closed from March to June due to a landslide caused by heavy winter rains. So today the stars lined up and off we went!

From the looks of things, it appears that the gardens are under renovation and the grape vines in the arbor had been severally trimmed back.

The long pool and surrounding garden are some of our most favorite parts of the Villa and it’s easy to linger for a long time here and lost all track of time…not that we were any kind of a hurry. The weather was nice and cool, in the mid-70s which provided a nice break from the 100 plus temperatures we’ve been getting in the Valley lately. It was definitely worth the trip!

And It’s A Wrap…

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One of the less glamorous sides of the film business is wrapping out. Wrapping out is the process of ending a production, removing all the various equipment, props, et al. and returning the location/set to its initial condition. For us, wrapping out not only involves the set, but it also involves returning the various wardrobe items to their original sources. For our most recent production, that meant returning wardrobe to our associate’s place out in Agua Dulce after we had laundered most of the costume pieces and inspected everything for damage.

Fortunately for us, we have a system for quickly returning items to stock so it didn’t take very long to get everything put away, a major plus since it was over 100 degrees in Agua Dulce today. Currently, there isn’t anything new on the horizon production-wise so we’ll be able to take a long-awaited rest.

Memoirs of Madame Moustache

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This past April, we worked on a short film for a good friend, Manuela Schneider, entitled The Memoirs of Madame Moustache. This is an adaptation from her book of the same title and it tells the story of a one Eleanor Dumont who earned the famous nickname “Madame Moustache” during her early life as the most well-known of all blackjack dealers in the West. This film was shot in and around Tombstone to include No. 11 (of course), as well as the Schieffelin Monument and Gammon’s Gulch. Below are just a few pictures from the production:

And here’s something from YouTube:

We’re Back!

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We haven’t been active here in more than a year and for that we deeply apologize. A number of issues, both personal, and professional, have pushed us away from posting on the blog combined with a few dead-ends such as attempts at Patreon and e-commerce. Things got to be a real mess here because of all manner of technical issues and it’s only been in the past two months that we’ve been able to address them.

Also, over the past three years, we’ve been shifting the focus of our business towards providing wardrobe/costuming services for the entertainment industry ranging from on-set support and costume rentals to complete design and fabrication. For us, this has been a major shift but was the result of some long, hard thinking about the direction of our business, we came to the realization that relying on private clients and sales on Etsy and Ebay simply wasn’t enough for our business. COVID saw a decline in weddings and other formal events and with it, a good portion of our business.

However, through a lucky series of events, we began to get film work and we spent 2022 and the early part of 2023 working on various projects in a number of capacities. Unfortunately, just as we were getting off the ground, the Writers and then SAG decided to work on strike and almost instantly our business dried up and once again we were relying on Etsy and Ebay. A little more than a year has gone by and although the strikes were resolved, the film industry is still slowly recovering. Things ARE looking better but it’s been a slow slog in 2024.

Anyway, that’s the short and condensed version of where we’ve been away but rest assured that we’re back and we’ll be reinvigorating things and as we move forward, we’ll update you.