Happy First Day of Autumn! To celebrate this spooky pumpkin season, I thought I’d share one of the first ladies that started our collection in bright copper pumpkin silk faille. She’s all original, no shattering, and is fetchingly balanced on one of our own bustles. She’s homemade or Dressmaker made, completely hand finished and little to no signs of wear. Was she a wedding or special occasion dress? Only the Ghost Seamstress knows…
Mid 1890s styles are very easy to spot with their gigot sleeves and multi-gore skirts. We came across this circa 1895 dinner dress dress on the Augusta Auctions website, one of our go-to dress source outside of museums.
Augusta Auctions
This is an interesting dress in that it utilizes a two-tone color effect, pairing a pea green (medium green) colored skirt and bodice trim with gold-colored sleeves and under-bodice. There’s a definite floral theme running through this with floral embroidery on the skirt as well part of the front bodice. Here’s some more views:
Here are some closer views of the bodice and sleeves. The sleeves are interesting in that the gold-colored fabric has a subtle floral pattern that complements the other floral elements found on the skirt and bodice.
The pea green fashion fabric appears to be made of a silk taffeta with a dull finish that acts as a nice contrasting texture to the gold silk sating of the sleeves.
The sleeve fabric appears to be a silk satin with an embroidered floral design.
And finally, here’s the decorative effect on the skirt itself:
The skirt is also finished off by a back of ruching running along the hemline.
Overall, this dinner dress is elegant but not overdone and definitely sets a level of elegance that might not be on the level worn by one of the 400 but is still up there. Interestingly enough, this dress was made in Boston and while it borrows many French design elements, it’s also restrained. We love the dress!
Our passion to help set the standard for reproducing late 19th Century garments begins with an understanding of all the details found in original/extant garments. Often, when we look at reproduction garments (film, reenactment, old time dress-up), we notice that they often repeat the mistakes found in tired, mass-produced reproduction patterns. To us, the only true way of recreating late 19th Century garments are by starting with an examination of original/extant garments. All our designs are based on originals garments and probably 80% of those specific designs are based on extant garments in our collection; if you view our social media (Facebook, Instagram), you will see our designs next to the originals that inspired them.
Side-by-side comparison. Now, bear in mind that our designs are not always line-for-line reproductions but rather we use various period design elements and combine them to create more of “inspired-by” creations.
This is the heart of the patterning/design operation- pattern pieces are checked by placing on a mannequin as well as “walking” the pieces and truing up the edges. Yes, this takes time and effort but it avoids mistakes and saves a lot of time and eliminates a lot of grief in the end. Trust us… In future posts, we’ll have more on our design philosophy.
The use of creases in men’s pants has always been an interesting topic and especially since there’s been very little hard information. Beyond the common idea that creases were “invented” by King Edward, there’s been little hard information. Until now. In this interesting blog post, the staff of the FIDM Museum has attempted to bring some clarity to his issue. Enjoy!
Godey’s Lady’s Book, December 1875 fashion plates
Two-tone dresses were a major element in early to mid-1870s fashion and is one of the major factors that set 1870s style apart from 1880s style (apart from the changes in bustle configuration). A “two-tone” dress was essentially one that combined two major colors to achieve the fashion effect; often these were contrasting colors but they also could be more harmonious color combinations.
When we discuss color combinations, they can either be complementary colors or analogous colors as illustrated here:
As a rule, complementary colors provide the greatest visual impact but neutral colors such as black and gray can also perform the same role. Let’s take a look at some examples:
Day Dress, c. 1868-1872; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.82.272.1a-b)
The color combination on the above dress a harmonious combination of dark red/burgundy and a dark gold/yellow or old gold, both which are warm colors.
Day Dress, c. 1873; McCord Museum (M20277.1-2)
The above color contrast uses a combination of complementary colors- a blue-green and very light red orange. What is interesting is that the red-orange color is further broken up with with blue-green stripes.
Worth, Afternoon Dress, c. 1874; Metropolitan Museum of Art (1975.259.2a, b)
The color combination on the above dress is interesting in that it’s a combination of dark blue and celadon which are analogous colors. The next two dresses feature the use of monochromatic color combinations:
Day Dress, c. 1870; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (64.1003a)
In the above example, we see the use of very dark purple combined with a more medium shade. It also should be noted that the fabrics can also be used to enhance the effect: The dark purple is on a rich velvet while the lighter purple shade is on what appears to be a taffeta. Also it must be noted that the knife pleating running along the bottom of the skirt is a third shade of purple. Here’s another example that uses lavender:
Day Dress, c. 1868-1872; Kent State University Museum (KSUM 1983.1.118a-d)
The dress features a monochromatic color combination of darker and lighter shades of lavender. Note how the contrast colors run vertical for the bodice and horizontal for the skirt. The above examples are only a small hint at the combinations that were possible with early to mid 1870s dresses and as we find some more examples, we’ll be sure to post them here.