Pink, rose, salmon, magenta, fuschia, mauve, and red…I don’t apologize for all the pink in my life. 🙂
Edwardian
Croquet Anyone?
To continue the First World War theme a bit, here’s a picture of us from a a couple of years ago at the annual Great War Historical Society party. Not to minimize the magnitude and tragic significance of the First World War but rather the celebrate some of the lighter moments. 🙂 This picture was taken by a good friend of ours and we think it captured the moment quite nicely…
What’s On For The Weekend…
This post is a bit after-the-fact but sometimes life gets in the way. 🙂 This past Saturday we attended the annual party for the Great War Historical Society, a living history organization dedicated to the preservation of the history and heritage of the First World War era. The period from 1900 through 1920 has always fascinating for both of us although while most of our endeavors are focused on the period from 1870 through 1900.
The first two decades of the 20th Century were a time of great change and the world in 1920 was a vastly changed place from that of 1900. While much of these changes occurred in the ares of international relations and military science, change was just as profound socially and culturally. In 1900 the world was seemingly a relatively stable place, ruled by a European-centered international political order and the ordered certainties of Western Civilization. However, the First World War was to sweep all of this away, replacing it with political and economic uncertainty, redrawn borders, and civil disorder (and in some cases civil war). In short, much of the old order of things had been swept away and it was uncertain what exactly was going to replace it.
As with other aspects of society and culture, the world of fashion was was deeply affected and fashions dramatically shifted in response to social and cultural change. For us, it’s fascinating to see the trends that developed from 1914 on and while it could be argued that some of these trends were merely a continuation of what has happening before the war, much of it was new.
Fashion Design – Lanvin 1917
For our purposes (and to have have something to wear to the party 🙂 ), we’ve attempted to capture a slice of a life in transition  so here are a few photos of that attempt…
Here’s the both of us in black and white. Unfortunately, we arrived at the party a tad late due to traffic so we were unable to get good daylight pictures. Here’s the color version:
For Karin, her dress is more pre-war in style, fitting roughly into the 1908 – 1909 time frame. Please excuse the lighting, we didn’t have much to work with. 🙂
In describing her dress, it’s best summed up by Karin this way: “It’s not often that I wear this gown. It’s constructed from original textiles from hat to hem, gown is patterned form an original 11-piece princess gown in my collection.” For a better look at the chapeau:
As for me, my outfit is a somewhat more convention- a reproduction US Army officer’s uniform appropriate for the 1917 – 1918 time frame. It’s one of my standbys. 🙂
This is probably not one of my better pictures… 🙂
We had a good time and I am confident that we will be making some more fashion forays into the early 20th Century and in my case, I will be exploring the civilian side a bit more. 🙂
And Now For Your Viewing Pleasure: The Old West
Whether it’s in the drawing room or out on the range, Lilly Absinthe has you covered!
Be sure to check out our new Old West page HERE. 🙂
Nadezhda Lamanova- Between Two Worlds, Part 2
In our last post, we took a brief look at the career(s) and work of the Russian designer Nadezhda Lamanova as she built a reputation as a designer of Haute Couture for Russia’s upper classes and subsequently reinvented herself as an avant garde designer for the masses in the new revolutionary Russia. Now we’re going to take another look at Lamanova’s designs prior to 1917. To start, here is one particularly striking example from circa 1910 – 1914:
Evening Dress, Nadezhda Lamanova, c. 1912 – 1914; State Hermitage Museum
Rear View
Side Profile
The above dress design reflects the shift from the earlier tightly structured silhouette of the S-bend corset towards a more vertical silhouette employing a tubular dress shape. Make no mistake about it, the underpinnings were still there but now the dress flowed loosely in a manner reminiscent of the Classical Grecian Chiton.
The dress itself is two layers, the underlayer composed of a turquoise/jade green satin and an overlayer consisting of a black chiffon embroidered a floral motif consisting of the flowers and leaves of chrysanthemums. The embroidery itself is in a golden-green silk and gold thread. One can see the combination of different textures, contrasting colors and a separate overlayer with metallic embroidery creates a three dimensional effect to the dress and this is especially evident when one looks at the train. The above pictures simply do not do justice to the dress.
Now, for something a little different from the Mid-1890s. This is a visiting dress that belonged to the Empress:
Visiting Dress, Nadezhda Lamanova, Mid 1890s; State Hermitage Museum
Close-Up
The above visiting dress is from the mid-1890s, characterized by the leg of mutton or Gigot sleeve style and it’s a princess line dress. According to the description, the fashion fabric is of an ivory/cream (depending on the light) silk velvet. Metallic sequins have been stitched to create a vine motif with vertical lines of sequins suggesting some a trellis of sorts which serves to accentuate the vertical lines/silhouette of the dress.
The above examples are a tiny fraction of Lamanova’s output and they reflect the major fashion trends of the times and while much of what she created was fairly mainstream conventional as in the case of the above visiting dress, there were also attempts to push boundaries such as in the case of the above green ballgown. It wasn’t until after the revolution that Lamanova came into her own as a designer, creating ready-to-wear designs for the masses while at the same time creating avant garde designs. Lamanova is a designers that we should know more about.
Postscript: We find it amazing that so many dresses of the early 1900s have managed to survive revolutionary turmoil and two world wars. 🙂Â