Beauty Advice 1870s Style…

October 30, 2015April 5, 2020 / Adam Lid / Leave a comment

Feminine beauty has been a hot topic for discussion throughout recorded history and the 19th Century was no exception. With the growth of mass market publications and inexpensive books during the 19th Century, so was the mass proliferation of self-help manuals dealing with the subject of how one can enhance their beauty. It has often been stated by commentators that the growth of the health and beauty aids industry grew along with the fashion industry and that both were part of the overall consumer economy that began to take shape as part of the Industrial Revolution and it fed on people’s desire to improve their appearance, or at least how others perceived their appearance.

One such example of these self-help manuals was one titled, somewhat bluntly, The Ugly-Girl Papers or, Hints For The Toilet. Published by Harper’s Bazar in 1874, the book is a compendium of various beauty advice articles originally printed in various issues of Harper’s Bazar. Covering everything from proper posture and diet to keeping the skin soft, the book offers a variety of advice ranging from the merely amusing to the extremely questionable (and especially those involving various toxic chemicals). However, in the book’s defense, there are some things that are still used to this day, albeit in a modified form.

Particular ideas and attitudes in regard to fashion and beauty reflect their times and the 19th Century was no different. Contained in the preface of the book is some of the basic philosophy behind the book:

The first requisite in a woman toward pleasing others is that she should be pleased with herself. In no other way can she attain that self-poise, that satisfaction, which leaves her at liberty to devote herself successfully to
others.

I appeal to the ugly sisterhood to know if this is not so. Could a woman be made to believe herself beautiful, it would go far toward making her so. Those hopeless, shrinking souls, alive with devotion and imagination, with hearts as fit to make passionate and worshiped lovers, or steadfast and inspiring heroines, as the fairest Venus of the sex, need not for an instant believe there is no alleviation for their case, no chance of making face and
figure more attractive and truer exponents of the spirit within.

There is scarcely any thing in the history of women more touching than the homage paid to beauty by those who have it not…

The above passage pretty much sums up the reason why woman should be concerned with improving their beauty, and especially members of the “ugly sisterhood.” In short, a woman’s ultimate fulfillment comes from her beauty and this book will help them attain it.

Needless, to say, the attitudes expressed above have changed somewhat but in some respects they still exist to this day although the language is different. The health and beauty aids industry is still with us today, stronger than ever, and its a multi-billion dollar industry that offers a seemingly endless variety of products and advice that carry the promise of enhancing out beauty (and yes, this also applies to men!).

So, in the end The Ugly-Girl Papers lives on as a testiment to another era, an historical artifact if you will. To us here at Lily Absinthe, while much of what we design is rooted in the 19th Century, our attitudes are not and we believe that every person arrives at true beauty by their own path, in their own time, and in their own way. 🙂

Pleating – Old School Style

October 28, 2015October 29, 2015 / Karin McKechnie-Lid / Leave a comment

Here I am hard at work in the Atelier working on one of many projects, in this case a wedding dress. In the above picture I am sewing a long strip of pleating onto the skirt base. It’s definitely old school, helped along by one of my many vintage sewing machines- their weight and strength ensure that there is no “drift” when sewing and everything goes on the right way the first time around.

When the project is completed, I’ll have some more pictures to show so stay tuned… 🙂

Bringing A Nation Together – Fashion And The American West

October 27, 2015November 4, 2015 / Adam Lid / 1 Comment

…Tombstone becomes queen of the boom towns where the latest Paris fashions are sold from the backs of wagons…

The above quote is from the opening narration to the movie Tombstone and while it might have been an exaggeration, it raises an interesting question in regard to how current fashion was in the American West.

Fashion, loosely defined, is a style that is accepted and used by the majority of a group at any one time, no matter how small that group. As applied to women’s fashions of the 1870s and 1880s, one could easily argue that the bustled dress was a major fashion that underwent a series of evolutions during this period. For men, the same thing could be said about the sack suit and there is a large body of documentation to support this ranging from photographs, magazines, illustrations, and, most significantly, paper sewing patterns.

As it relates to the American West, the short answer is that by the 1870s, people in the West were pretty well informed about events in the rest of the nation (and the world) this also to fashion. The longer answer is that the dissemination of information was dependent on the speed of communications. People living closer to railroads were more well informed than those farther away and a lot depended on where the railroad was located. With the railroad came a more certain delivery of mail and that meant the shipment of books, magazines, catalogs, and ultimately merchandise.

People are often under the impression, no doubt spurred along by film and television, that it took months, if not years, for mail to reach people and that fashion styles ran at least five to ten years behind those in the East (sometimes referred to as “The States”). This might have been the case before the American Civil War but with the end of the war, railroad construction rapidly expanded from 1865 through 1873. With the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, the United States was brought closer together and along with it an increase in freight and passenger volume.

In terms of fashion, the 19th Century saw the growth of various mass-market publications such as with Godey’s Lady’s Book (1830 – 1878), Demorest’s (which published under a variety of names from 1860 through 1899), Peterson’s Magazine (1842 – 1898), and The Delineator (1869 – 1937). Fashion news, along with fashion plates, advice columns, and patterns, made up a good part of each of these publications and often reflected the latest styles from Paris. While it could be argued that much of the information may have been of limited utility to those out in the west, especially in more isolated areas, the fact that such information was published signify that there was interest. Moreover, all of these publications contained practical information deliberately aimed at the home sewer.

Closely related to the publications was the development of printed paper sewing patterns. In fact, Demorest’s Magazine originally started in 1860 as a catalog for marketing a line of printed paper sewing patterns developed from the 1850s on by Ellen Louise Demorest. One of her accomplishments was devising a mathematical system for sizing patterns up or down. Another major innovator was Ebenezer Butterick who in 1863 started selling tissue paper sewing patterns that were graded in multiple sizes. As in the case of Demorest’s, Butterick started publishing The Delineator as a vehicle for promoting his patterns.

By the late 1890s, the ready-made pattern industry was a thriving multi-million dollar industry in the United States and patterns were available in retail locations as well as by mail order.

From The National Garment Cutter Book Of Diagrams

With the growing availability of fashion information throughout the nation, people were able to stay abreast of fashion in a timely manner (often just a matter of weeks). Combined with the mass production of sewing machines, the home sewer was well positioned to take advantage of this proliferation of fashion information. If people were not able to precisely imitate the latest Paris fashions, they at least were aware of them and often imitated them to the best of their abilities and resources.

One small demonstration of this spread of fashion information can be seen in this picture taken in the town of Kingston, New Mexico in the late 1880s:

Here we see women dressed consistent to the 1880s. The dresses are fairly plain except for the woman seated in front of the dress making shop- it’s presumed that she is the proprietress. Interestingly enough, Kingston was founded in August 1882 when silver was discovered in the area. Soon there were a number of mines in operation and Kingston thrived as a boom town. In many respects, Kingston was similar to Tombstone in that both were boom towns at roughly the same time (Tombstone started a few years before) and here we see that while fashion may have been a bit more subdued than back east, it was still fairly up to date.

While admittedly this is only a small sample, it still demonstrates that contrary to popular belief, the American West was not “years” behind the rest of the nation nor the world in terms of fashions, or at least fashion information. Combined with the growth of mass market publications and printed sewing patterns, now any home sewer could participate in fashion.

Magnificent Seven Convention Highlights

October 26, 2015October 26, 2015 / Adam Lid / Leave a comment

Outside the meeting room at the LA Convention Center.

It was a good day for us at the Magnificent Seven Convention– our presentation “The Victorian West: How the West Was Worn” appeared to have been well received and we feel good. The audience was amazing and had many good questions- it was a real back and forth discussion. We even had people who had traveled all the way from Indonesia- amazing! 🙂 We have been flogging this event for the past month in our blog in anticipation but we always get excited before giving a presentation. Giving public presentations always excites us because it gives us an opportunity to physically interact with our public, talk about the historical basis for our creations, and gather new ideas for future designs.

So, why are we doing this? Well, first and foremost, it’s about the history- history is the basis for what we do and it has always been a passion for us. It was a deep interest in history that initially got us into this business, and it informs everything we do. It’s proven to be a continual learning process; one is always learning new things and anyone who says that they “know it all” is either lying or simply ignorant. New facts are constantly emerging that challenge our ideals and perceptions and we have changed along with it.

At the convention hall.

Unfortunately, over the years we have also witnessed a lot of misinformation and mythology that has been stated as historical fact. We have witnessed some pretty incredible claims that are truly cringeworthy (or simply amusing after a few drinks). While we may wish to clear up the misinformation out there, we are also realize that it’s a near-impossible task so what we attempt to do is to encourage people to question and gather information on their own from reliable sources; it’s often easier than one would think and with the development of the internet over the past 30 years, it’s never been easier.

And just because…at home after the convention.

At the same time, we are also motivated by our experiences creating costumes for the entertainment industry. Often we are asked: “Why are those costumes not historically accurate in the movie XYZ?” In response, we usually say that costumes are intended to help advance the story and enhance the characters. While this may seem to be a cop-out, it really isn’t. Often, what looks good to the naked eye looks absolutely horrible on film; lenses and film react to colors differently under different types of light and adjustments may need to be made so that a costume looks better on film. Also, historical accuracy may be sacrificed, or at least reduced, due to budgetary and time constraints, changes in scripts and actors, or simply because the director thinks that something that’s not historically accurate looks better.

While one could easily spend their time criticizing the costumes in various films on the basis that they lack historical accuracy, in the end this is self-defeating and accomplishes nothing. In the end, film and television productions are about making money and doing whatever it takes to achieve that end. To put it more bluntly, we’re being paid to do a job and the director is the boss so we ultimately have to follow their wishes. In the end, if you want historical accuracy, read a book or watch a documentary (although that’s often no guarantee of historical accuracy).

But don’t get us wrong, we have a deep love for historical accuracy and it does gall us to no end when some things are done wrong but ultimately, all we can do is hold our noses and move on. However, if you ask us what we think, we will not lie either.

So, in our presentation, we present an historical overview of the history of costume in the West during the late 19th Century and combine it with comparing and contrasting costume as seen in film and television versus what actually existed, using our private museum collection of clothing, both original antiques and B-Western. In assembling the presentation, we systematically examined a lot of original photographs and illustrations and consulted a number of primary and secondary sources and we have to admit that the process was very instructive. We believe that we achieved our goal but we now want to expand upon it so we will be doing further research and incorporating it into future presentations.

Modeling the vest and trousers from my new suit.

It’s our sincerest hope that we have provided some good information for people to take away with them and serve as a springboard for expanding their own knowledge.

In closing, we would like to thank the Magnificent Seven Convention and it’s entire staff for inviting us to come and speak and providing a wonderful experience. The facilities were top-notch and our requirements were provided for in a timely manner. We look forward to returning in the future.