Day 5: Game day gone vintage

Blue jeans, fauxleather jacket, vintage scarf from a friends greatgrandmotheer, favorite pointed toe cowbiybopts, vintage patty hat, white Nittany Lions tee

What to wear to "fancy balls" 1880s style, a Barbarian Queen and the Suez Canal

This book published in 1887, London, gives detailed descriptions for any merrymakers costume desires. 338 pages long and with dozens of illustrations and some seemingly odd costume ideas: Artic Maiden, Cigarette, Wall Flower, Venetian Fishgirl, Christmas Cracker, The Universe, Cloud with Silver Lining and best of all The Isthmus of Suez (or Suez Canal). You can check out this book @ https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7168188M/Fancy_dresses_described






In case you ever wanted to dress like a Backgammon board...

Funny thing is, Boadicea(A.D. 61, England) is one of my favorite historical women and I've thought of being her for Halloween before! An interesting note on the clasps, because of the climate very little archeological evidence remains from Barbarian (None Roman) controlled areas. Also, with no written language makes studying these groups is problematic. Grave goods like jewelry (cloak clasps, earrings, necklaces) or metal weapons found in archeological digs are the best records we have of these peoples on the Roman frontier. So the inclusion of brooches here in a fashion book is very true to form.

 

 

I found the Suez Canal costume to be very telling of the politics of the era. Opened in 1869, the canal served as an important trade route and hot bed for international relations and tensions. Imagine someone today wearing a costume for a geographical location or architectural structure; something like Guantanamo Bay or the Berlin Wall.
Construction of the Canal was overseen by the French government and in 1876 Benjamin Disraeli a British Politician facilitated the purchase of controlling stock in the Suez Canal Company from the Egyptian government. The cartoon from the British magazine Punch, satirically depicts this event. In 1882 British troops invaded Egypt. The canal became a strategic base for the British and doorway to the Middle East and India. The publication of the book above 5 years later speaks of how much these political events were on the minds British subjects, enough for them to infuse it into their clothing. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/suez-canal-opens

Day 4: Pastels and Polka Dots

Day 3 Leather and Fall Gold

Who wouldn't want a balloon? :)

 

Peruvian Mummies, Textiles, and the British Museum Director

Today in my Pre-Columbian Art History class we learned about textiles from Peru used to wrap corpses around 300 B.C. These lengths of fabric could be up to 80 feet in long and include up to 500 embroidered figures. The extreme dry environment on the Peruvian coast helped preserve not only the textiles for over 2,000 years but also the corpses. Creating these textiles took years, enormous

amounts of labor (dye colleting, gathering wool from Alpacas and other Camelids, and the actual stitching). These textiles are an indicator of complex organization of society and labor. Attached is a link to a wonderful podcast from the BBC narrated by the director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor. A personal hero. In it, even a modern fashion designer muses over finding inspiration from these ancient works of art and clothing. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/wm8NbFLMQGGc5zX7d7mszg

If I could have someone pick my clothes every day it would be...

http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/2013/1028/How-Edith-Head-took-Hollywood-by-storm-video

Edith Head (1897-1981). Winner of 8 Academy Awards for costuming leading ladies like Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelley and Elizabeth Taylor. Below is some of her work for A Roman Holiday, one of my favorite old movies.

Day 2 attacked by grape wielding smurfs

6 Odd Fashion Fads From History

Humans have done some quite odd things to look trendy. But I can't help but laugh at what my grandkids will cringe at from my generation haha

Day 1 of my fashion blog :)

Finally starting a fashion blog! Because clothes to me are art and give everyday life a dose of creativity and fun. And because multiple friends and even strangers have suggested it. I am fascinated with the history of anything, and even in 5 or 50 short years simple pictures can record a ton of information. Preserving art, history and ideas of everyday is my goal. :)