#19th century menswear

[my18thcenturysource]

Definitely not 18th century, BUT my dad was watching Cold Mountain (2003) this weekend and I had forgotten that Jack White is in this film and that he looks great in 19th century clothing.

Also, here a snippet of the film where he sings Wayfarer Stranger (my favourite version, btw):

Photo from the top: Jack White tintyped by Stephen Berkman, costume design by Carlo Poggioli and Ann Roth.

[sleebyfrogs]

The shirt for my historically accurate Toy Soldier cosplay is done!!!!!

[Image: two photos, both taken in a mirror, of a young, transmasc person in their bedroom, wearing a reconstructed, white Victorian dress shirt. It has a shield-shaped bib area and a tab below the placket, with a detachable rounded collar and cuffs. The front placket and collar have a narrow black edge, and everything is fastened together with pearlescent shirt studs and cuff links. In the first image their face is blurred out, with comically simple eyes and a moustache doodled on top. In the second it is obscured by the body of a mandolin, held by its neck in one hand. Their short, dark hair is visible under an antique black-and-red military cap. End ID.]

(*almost historically accurate, and almost done)

After all this time!!!!! I started in September(?) and it’s now May but a lot of that was just putting off starting the twenty eight hand-done gimped and tailored buttonholes this ended up requiring because I can’t do anything by halves

If you’re wondering, I used this pattern, which worked wonderfully for me (special thanks to this tutorial too for demonstrating some of the more difficult parts), but I spent a long time trying to alter it to fit me, and to fit flatteringly, as I have never made a garment this complex before and I do not have the body an average men’s pattern expects. I had to do a lot of things multiple times over, but I’m really glad I did, because it’s definitely the most effort I’ve ever put into anything like this, and the finest sewing work I’ve ever done. I feel very dapper and handsome.

I did machine-stitch most of it because I knew, knowing me, that I could either end up with an ahistorically-sewn shirt or no shirt at all as I would procrastinate sewing all of that by hand just. Forever. I did hand-stitch a lot of it though, mostly the felled seams and fiddly collar bits. And the buttonholes. God so many buttonholes. The black edge is bias tape that I folded in half and ladder-stitched to itself through the shirt/collar fabric. (Also the horizontal seam you can see near the bottom in the lower picture exists solely because I didn’t have the fabric to cut the front out in one, and that part gets tucked into the pants anyway. Piecing is period.)

I’m still working on combining my various incomplete bits of antique cuff link and stud sets in the least-mismatched way, and the shirt itself is definitely not perfect (and there are still some minor adjustments I want to make), but all this to say I’m delighted with my work and excited to move onto the next item, which will probably be either the trousers or waistcoat, and I intend on documenting those too! I learnt so much from this experience and one day I’ll likely make another shirt much like it.

(Also, I’m happy to answer any questions about it!!! I know I could have used footsteps to follow in when I started this project)

They/them

[somethingwithmoles]

Louis-Léopold Boilly, Three Young Artists in a Studio, ca. 1820, black chalk with white chalk heightening and stumping on beige paper, 29.8 x 36.5 cm, Getty Center, Los Angeles

Source: Wikimedia Commons

[burningvelvet]

Gentlemen’s Regency Era Portraits

[fashionsfromhistory]

Vest

c.1845

England

LACMA (Accession Number: M.87.219)

[lookingbackatfashionhistory]

• Hard tartan kilt decorated with silk rosettes and matching pink silk ribbon ties, part of a man's kilt suit.

Place of origin: Great Britain, United Kingdom, Northern Europe

Date: ca. 1820

Medium: Tartan, silk, cotton

[daguerreotyping]

Cabinet card of two gentlemen and their absolutely delightful double-walking-stick-wielding dog, c. 1890s

[chic-a-gigot]

La Mode, 8 juin 1839, Paris. Coiffure argus et turban de Maurice Beauvais. Robe garnie de guipure de Me. Doucet, de la Paix. Robe des magasins de Gagelin Opigez. Chemise et col de Oudinot Latel, place de la Bourse. Costume de Drappier, Cassolette à parfumes de Guerlin, Lambrequins de Maigret. Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library

Left- She is wearing a white off the shoulder dress which has a floral pattern. The dress has a jewel at the center of the neckline and has opened sleeves. Her hair is decorated with leaf ornaments and white lappets. Middle- He is wearing a black jacket over a striped vest and high collared shirt. Right- She is wearing a pink off the shouolder dress with white lacy lining. Her sleeves are opened and ruffled and cuffed at the arms. She also has on a white lappet with sheer veil. Background- statue of an elephant with a man wearing a turban.

[historical-closet-raider]

Blue Silk Saturday

This man's waistcoat ca.1851-60 is from the Museum of London collection. I love how the colours of this piece are still so vivid.

Object description from the Museum of London website:

"A man's waistcoat, fronts of blue silk embroidered with coloured silk thread with lilies of the valley. The front of the waistcoat is of royal blue silk with a shawl collar and a small slit pocket on either side. The embroidered lily motif lies in a diagonal band of three on each side of the waistcoat and each side of the collar has two motifs. Each embroidered motif consists of three sprigs, each sprig has a mid brown stem, green shaded leaves and ivory flower heads with a green base. The front has a straight bottom edge and is fastened by means of four blue silk covered buttons. The back of the waistcoat is made of blue silk taffeta. Attached to the lower part of the silk back are two sets of brown silk ties which are fastened to adjust the width of the waistcoat. The waistcoat is lined in a buff coloured silk material."

Museum of London | Free museum in London

[clove-pinks]

girl help, I had a fashion history shitpost escape containment on the Beau Brummell Forbade Men From Wearing Colours website

[digitalfashionmuseum]

Dark brown embroidered velvet smoking cap, 1866, South American.

Victoria and Albert Museum.

[empirearchives]

Embroidered Silk Coat

Plum silk faille court coat embellished with glass sequins.

circa 1800s, Napoleonic era

Source: Maryland Center for History and Culture

[diemelusine]

Mirza Abolhassan Khan Ilchi by Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830). Fogg Museum.

[designedandplated]

Menswear, September 1806.

[cinderellaheist]

[fashionsfromhistory]

Waistcoat

c.1850

National Gallery of Victoria