Leaving for our little Victorian house in Tombstone in the morning for a few days, so I can make new draperies and for the new parlor and bedroom…because what do most designers do on vacation? Oh yeah…sew. 🙂
Corsetry
Helldorado Days 2018
It’s October and that means Helldorado Days in Tombstone! This year, Helldorado is scheduled on October 19 through October 21, 2018 and the high point of the event is the parade to he held on Sunday October 21. First started in 1928 to publicize the town, Helldorado is held on the third Sunday of October and commemorates the town’s early years and especially that 30-second gunfight that took place somewhere close by to the OK Corral. We’ll be meeting with clients and otherwise working on some projects and having a little fun. See you there! 🙂
Corsetry From The V&A…
While going through some postcards that we bought at the V&A Museum during our recent trip to the UK, I came across this beauty:
Corset, c. 1890 – 1895; V&A Museum (T.738-1974)
Here’s another view from the V&A website:
This is probably one of the best extant example of corsetry from the 1890s and it helped to create the wasp-waist silhouette that was characteristic of this period. Just for comparison is another corset from 1883:
Corset, 1883; V&A Museum (T.84&A-1980)
From a general perspective, there doesn’t seem to be much of a difference between these two corsets. At some point, we’ll take a more detailed look at corsetry so until then, enjoy these pictures. 🙂
The Expert Has Spoken…
Young Angus has spoken! This is my fancy dress dress for next month…he is definitely fashion wise. 🙂
Now That’s A Wrap!
Living in Southern California and the Southwest in general, it’s easy to get spoiled with all the great weather- warm, sunny, and few or no clouds. Rain is relatively infrequent so it’s usually something we just don’t think about. Well, it hit us that England is quite the opposite and especially when it comes to rain so we had to do a slight re-think about our wardrobe for the Victorian Ball in Bath and that means a cape. 🙂
What to do? Obviously an evening cloak of some sort but since we’ve never really needed one in the past, it’s not something that I’ve given much thought to so it was time to a little research into evening cloaks…so here’s some of the many examples I found:
Emile Pingat, Evening Cloak, c. 1888 – 1890; Metropolitan Museum of Art
This opera cloak made by Pingat in circa 1882 especially caught my eye- the combination of fur and feathers combined with the floral design decoration ivory silk satin is simply stunning.
Emile Pingat, Opera Cloak, c. 1882; Metropolitan Museum of Art (C.I.60.42.13)
Side Profile
Three-Quarter Rear View
And here’s the cloak worn over a dress:
Emile Pingat, Cloak, c. 1879 – 1880; Metropolitan Museum of Art (C.I.60.6.7)
Three-Quarter Rear View
Emile Pingat, Mantle, c. 1891; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.2007.211.38)
Interestingly enough, In my search, it seemed that the most striking examples were those may by Emile Pingat and after some thought, we decided that a full-length cloak would be the most effective and practical design, especially given that my ball gown is a Mid-Bustle Era design so after going through my collection of original patterns, I came up with one from the early 1890s that I could modify:
Angus, our creative consultant checks out the faux fur, trying to determine what animal it came from…
Curved gores follow the shape of the underlying ball gown.
Here’s a good view of the corded floral design.
We’ve used a pale blue silk satin and lined it in ivory silk moire. The cloak is also trimmed in a faux fur (primarily to avoid issues with potential vermin infestation). The cloak is still under construction but we’ll be finished soon and when we are we’ll post some more views here. 🙂