Historical Fashion Parade

While last weekend was a quiet one, the previous weekend saw me busy as a bee. I volunteered to be a model for the Abbey Museum Fashion Parade High Tea. The event was to raise funds to restore the heritage stained glass windows in the Museum. Two of the organisers are friends of mine and asked for me to be one of the models. I was to wear three gowns.

The first, a new 1901 gown that I have made for EDAS (European Defensive Arts School) when we do bartitsu at History Alive. I found an original piece for sale on Etsy and decided that I would try my hand at a recreation. Because I am trying to be good and use my stash as much as possible this year, I dug out a piece of blue cotton organdy. I had planned to use it for a bustle gown sometime in the future, but this seemed like a good compromise. The cream cotton for the underblouse section came from my scraps bucket, as did the silk sash. The lace was leftover from my red tartan bustle and the buttons came from stash. I was very pleased with how I managed to do it all from my stash. I had also whipped up a matching hat to go with (also from stash materials). I also styled a new wig for this ensemble. It has a very forward poof that is a little reminiscent of Elvis, but it sits wonderfully under my hat.

The second, my 1780s Green Georgian ensemble for the section ranging 1750 - 1820s.

And finally, my 1880s gold and orange Natural Form Bustle. I got a lot of comment from people afterwards, that they liked the dress but weren't so sure about the yellow gold. I love it, so not too worried about that, and let's face it, not everyone likes all colours. I was completely against green until I started using it and finding colours that flattered me.

 

At any rate, I had a great time. We were horribly exhausted afterwards - all that rushing around. My back was killing after being pulled into three different corset shapes. We did some of the quickest changes imaginable. Thankfully my mum was on hand, volunteering herself as our dresser. She managed to duck out during the final section (Victorian) to snap some quick photos.

Annual Heritage Ball

Last weekend, I attended the Annual Heritage Ball at Morningside. It's something that I have been to for the last four years and it really is a lovely evening out. Being a Heritage Ball, the costume options vary greatly. That afternoon, I ran a hair workshop for the attending members of the Australian Costumer's Guild - this time namely on Victorian hairstyling. I was a bit to busy styling to get any progress photos, but I did make sure that I got shots of the end results.

1830s Apollo Knots Style

1870s Early bustle

1880s Late bustle

My own hair was hidden under a wig again that I had styled the night before. All that I had to do to finish it off was pop in some flowers and a couple of huge white feathers. I am starting to get pretty decent at styling long hair behind me that I can't really see. It was a pretty simple do, but it served the purpose.

As for the costumes, I took my mum and dad along again, so they were all dressed up (and with masks). My mum wore her 1870s pink silk bustle again. We updated her mask with some feathers as a change of pace. As for my Dad, he was in his grey tailed suit, but I had made him a new vest as an early father's day gift. It is made of a chinese brocade that I picked up on sale with purple silk dupion lapels and pocket welts. I even went to the trouble of putting in the pockets. I think the more I do of the wretched things, the better I am getting at them - but they are hideously fiddly.

For me, I decided I wanted to wear my natural form gold bustle, but since I wasn't happy with my original ballgown bodice, I thought I would have another crack. I unpicked all the trimmings and tossed what wasn't usable. Thankfully I still have a good chunk of the gold fabric that I was able to get another bodice out (I still have more of it too). I hunted through a few fashion plates to get a little inspiration, and came up with a new apron and bodice option. The apron is made of some white chiffon that I had in my stash and trimmed with ruffled white silk ribbon (again from stash), and then a couple of pin-on fabric flowers. As for the bodice, I used my day bodice as a base for the pattern as I really like the hem and the neckline on it. This time though, the bodice features deep pleats in the back seams and front lacing. It is also trimmed in the gold lace that I pulled off my old bodice. I was a little disappointed on the night that it was a little too big across the shoulders (I suspect my body has changed from the sword training I have been doing these last few months). We pinned it to hold through, so it's not too bad, and I should be able to fix it.

I had an absolute blast of an evening and danced until I was ready to drop. You can really understand how some of the women stayed fit at the time - between being unable to eat heaps of food due to corset lacing and dancing the nights away, it would be easy to stay in shape. And before you ask, yes those are sparkly hello kitty shoes that I wore with my ballgown - I had forgotten that the shoes I normally wear were tossed after last year and had not replaced them with anything really suitable. I was comfortable at any rate.

Here are some of the other photos from the evening:

Modern Woman

How can a costumer resist when an exhibition comes to town displaying works from 1850-1910? The girls in Brisbane certainly can't. We were lucky enough to find a mutual date for all of us to attend the Modern Woman Exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) in May. The exhibition displayed a selection of works from male and female artists throughout history. There were some truly amazing pieces on display and we all gazed in awe at the detail achieved with pastels - there may be some art lessons in our future. One truly unique piece on display featured a musical evening scene that was painted to be made into a fan. On our way to the gallery shop, we were sidetracked by many other pieces of historical art on display - these ones owned by the QAG, so were able to photographed. Three hours later, we sat down to lunch. While there, we decided that these sort of outings need to by much more frequent - it was a lovely and relaxing way to spend a Saturday morning.

I decided that I wanted to wear my gold and orange bustle ensemble again, but was a little loathe to have it exactly the same as last time. So, I paired it with my first gold skirt with the massive train and I styled my wig a little differently than last time. I think it worked successfully, and it made me feel like I was wearing a different outfit. I am now considering making a different hat that would go with it all so that I can mix and match just that little more. And of course, I am planning to turn it all into an evening ensemble with a new bodice for the heritage ball later this year. It really is a good thing that I was able to get more of that gold fabric...

Victorian Day Spa

I have already posted up my photos in facebook land but I love sharing into the world of blogging. Last weekend one of my friends held a Victorian Spa Day. Thankfully the heat has not yet set in so it is still nice to be wearing all the layers of a bustle gown, but the day was lovely. We started out by dressing up in our Victorian undergarments. We are talking chemise, stockings, drawers and corsets. Five of us sat down to brunch and tea before the rest of the accompaniment arrived. We dressed them up in some undergarments and started our pampering. We tried an assortment of Victorian reproduction cleansers, masks and moisturises before moving onto dressing our hair. Ten of us in total and only two doing hair, it took quite some time to be done, but they all turned out rather well. Since my hair has all been hacked off, I took along one of the hairpieces that I picked up while I was in Japan, ironically it is the perfect match for my hair (I had bright fake red hair when I bought it and have only recently gone back to brown), but it was a matter of just attaching it, popping in a few pins and attaching the hat.

We then made it into the dressing room. I was amazed. Only four of us have Victorian costumes, and yet we have enough between us to dress up ten people with one left over to spare. All done up, we sat down to lunch. We had hoped for some croquet and strolling in the park and gardens but the rain had set in so we were strictly stuck to the house. But all in all we got some beautiful photos.


But I was so overly happy to wear my very new and just completed gold and orange day gown ensemble. It is the skirts that I made for my ballgown earlier this year in July but I thought that it would be prudent to make a day bodice and get even more wear out of the ensemble - especially considering how much work I put into the skirts. Early on in the cutting out process I ran into a few problems. Because I had decided to do the ruching on the skirt, I shorted myself out of some of the gold fabric which meant that while I had quite a bit leftover, the pieces had the slub running the wrong way to match. This is wear I had to be creative. I decided that since I had so much of the golden orange silk leftover, I would make it more of a feature. I had originally just planned it for the collar and maybe a cuff, but instead added the centre back panels and the undersleeve. I was a little worried that it would look strange, but it turns out that I love it. The bodice itself is very simply trimmed. I had tried to do some ruches on the sleeve but it just looked too fussy, so I instead went for the white velvet ribbon, and the only other ornamentation is the pin-on jabot. The pattern for it is based off one of my Innocent World lolita items, but I have seen these in some of my fashion books. At any rate I like how it dresses up the bodice at the neckline. As for my second attempt at the hat, you can see that it turned out so much better.

It was such a lovely afternoon and a pleasure to wear a bustle gown again. I just don't get to do that too often anymore, with all the regency that I do. I must make an effort to wear my Victorian. Note to self!