Greetings Readers-

I have returned from the Ft. MacArthur event! While I do not have any fashion news per se, I will offer this small observation. In a previous post, we mentioned that certain types of fabrics were meant for bright sunlight and others are not. This weekend I observed this phenomena first-hand at Ft. MacArthur. For those who may not know, Ft. MacArthur is a decommissioned coastal fortification on the heights overlooking San Pedro. It is right by the ocean and the sun can be very intense, almost as intense as anything that you will find in the desert.

Ignoring those in uniform, some of the civilian costumes simply do not look good in the harsh daylight nor did it appear that the costumes’ wearers were comfortable and there were one or two who looked downright miserable. Please, consider your environment when you are planning your wardrobe, especially since many of us normally spend most of our time indoors- the transition to spending a few days almost completely outdoors can be a bit of jolt and having the wrong outfit can make it worse. Plus it just looks bad. In the end, save the ball gowns for after sundown- your shoulders will thank you. 😉

In terms of the 19th and early 20th Century civilian costume, the event this year was pretty thin in these areas, which is really too bad. In past years, there has been a lot more and I was a little disappointed. On the other hand, for the 1940s there was quite a bit of vintage clothing being worn, both women’s and men’s. This is not an area of personal interest but it is nice to see.

Well, those are just a few observations on my part. My focus was primarily military so what I saw was in small pieces. Like my idol, Paul Poiret, time to return to the fashion world having performed our military service. 🙂