#but y'all have some very pretty horse and sims

[lazyteapot]

me watching everyone post their horses and living vicariously through them knowing im waiting for that pack to go on sale

[jewishsimming]

So I thought I'd put together some lookbooks for a few decades and talk about the fashions of the time, in the hopes that y'all might find it helpful to put looks together for your Decades challenge.

What I'd like to do is break down the outfits by undergarments, dresses, accessories and hairstyle and explain what was the fashion of the time, and give you the CC links to achieve this look.

Full disclosure - I am no expert. The information I'm conveying here is gained from my independent research, but take it with a grain of salt and do your own research too!

I’ll try to do some more looks soon.

Full breakdown and CC links under the cut.

Firstly, it's important to know that, like most people nowadays, not everyone had the latest fashions the very year they came out. Dressmaking was a time consuming and expensive exercise, and it was common for people to unpick and make over existing dresses into new styles. So if you hit 1890 and don't have a super rich Sim, it's okay to put them in a dress that is closer to 1888 - 1889.

Undergarments

My townie, Adina, is wearing what would be worn around this time period: a chemise and drawers, and a corset. Contrary to what period dramas often portray, women did not wear a corset against their bare skin, because corsets were meant to be comfortable support garments.

Corset | Drawers

Look #1 - Walking Ensemble

I use the term ‘walking ensemble’ loosely, because generally the walking skirt falls to the top of a woman's boot hem, allowing her to walk without dragging the hem of her skirt in the dust. But I digress.

It's important to note that it was frowned upon to step out of the house without gloves and a hat for many decades, so get used to picking out gloves and hats for your looks. It's fun, I promise!

This look is appropriate for around 1890 - 1892. Take it with a grain of salt, as it's based off an EA mesh, and probably not super historically accurate. But with the tailored bodice and waistcoat and overskirts, you could make it work IMO.

Hair - hairstyles in the early to mid 1890's are pretty vertical, swept up and pinned under a hat often trimmed with feathers or flowers (or both). Towards the mid to late 1890's it was common to wear stuffed birds on your hat; in fact it was so popular that it took a lot of bird species to near-extinction :| so not fun.

Shoes - sensible walking shoes aka the Victorian button boots, that all-rounder type of shoe, which comes with the Vampires pack, or a lace-up version unlocked with Get Famous.

Hair | Dress | Gloves | Hat

Look #2 - Day Dress

This look is probably more of a house look for late 1889 - early 1890's, as it doesn't include gloves or a hat.

Hair - as before, the hair is piled high on the head, with some strands falling over the shoulders. One thing nobody talks about is that from about mid 1880′s to about the mid 1890′s is that little curly-frizzy bangs were in style, so I’ve added them on to Adina’s outfit. If you’d rather not deal with the horror of that, you do you.

Hair | Bangs | Dress

Look #3 - Evening Wear

Anything that exposes the arms and shoulders is generally reserved for evening and formal wear.

Gown - the dress from Get Famous or a recolour is my favourite to use for the 1890′s. Any dress that doesn’t expose too much cleavage and is floor length (at least) is good. White gloves were worn.

For the dress, you can use Get Famous’s dress, or a the number of recolours, and the base game long white gloves. Pearls were common, as were stones.

Hair - worn in a high or low coiffure, often with hair accessories like brooches, feathers or a tiara.

Undergarments - as normal, though I believe silk stockings would be worn, as well as low-heeled pumps. The shoes I’ve linked are a classic style that I believe would work under this gown.

 Gown | Earrings | Necklace | Shoes

Look #4 - Riding Habit

By the early to mid 1890′s bicycles were increasingly popular, especially with women, but horse-riding was still a pastime for the wealthy. Because, IMO, there is no suitable bicycle jacket (yet 👀), I thought I’d put together a riding habit look.

Hat - lil top hats were common, underneath swept-up hair (same hair I used in look #2.

Dress - I couldn’t really find anything closer than this. Normally it’s a well-fitted buttoned jacket and a skirt that can be buttoned up to allow freer movement. I settled for a separated bodice and walking-length skirt. Or you could download the outfit that the hat comes with.

Hat | Bodice | Skirt (New Woman set) | Boots

[dramallamadingdang]

Oh, God! Question meme! A really long one! Run! Hide!

Tagged by @ajaysims. *points* It's his fault! His! Not mine! ;)

This is really long, since it's a synthesis of two of these questions memes and I have verbal diarrhea. So, I cut.

Name: Katrina

Nicknames: Most RL people other than my kids and grandkids call me Kat because one syllable is less than three. :) Simmers call me iCad because that's what I chose to call myself when I started participating in the community. Hubby calls me Kitten. Kids call me Ma, usually in exasperated/long-suffering tones. Grandkids call me Mimi because I hate the usual things that grandmothers are called because they're associated with old people. I may be old, but I'm not old, y'know? :)

Zodiac sign: Taurus, but astrology is still bullshit.

Height: A hair less than 6'0/about 182cm. And very underweight due to digestive/metabolic issues mostly because of a malfunctioning liver. (No, not from alcohol. From having had asymptomatic Hepatits C that I most likely got from a blood transfusion in the early 80s, before they screened donated blood for that. It sucks, y'all. Cherish your liver. Baby it. Seriously. Stop with the alcohol. Just stop. Do weed instead.)

Orientation: In experience/practice: A Kinsey 2. In terms of the kind of person who attracts me: People with IQs over 130. I really, truly don't care what you look like, what gender you identify as, or what sex organs you have or don't have. Smart is seriously sexy. So, I'm sapiosexual. :)

Ethnicity: Whitey-white-white, yay! :| Glow-in-the-dark white. I-start-burning-in-the-sun-in-30-seconds white. Damn-near-albino white. Also, mostly of Welsh descent. Only sort of half-second-generation American on one side; my paternal grandma was one of those horrible immigrants who took a job away from a Real American(TM). She was even a somewhat illegal one, for a few months. But she was white and British so I guess that's OK.

(Sorry, as a person married to a man whose mum -- who is awesome -- was born in Mexico and who came here legally with her family when she was 7 and is a citizen but she still gets shit these days because she’s “a Mexican,” I've sorta come to really hate the kind of people who tend to call themselves Real Americans(TM).)

Favorite fruit: Okra, especially when part of aloo bhindi masala, an Indian dish. Okra IS a fruit. Really. Look it up. Also, tomatoes.

Favorite season: Autumn, when everything is dying. MWAHAHAHAHAH!

Favorite book series: Still Sharon Kay Penman's "Welsh trilogy." Also, though not really a series, per se: The Star Trek novels that were published in the 80s. They got mostly stupid after that, but there were some gems that were published in the mid-80s, before The Next Generation was a thing.

Favorite flower: Calla lilies. Usually used in funeral arrangements, along with Easter lilies, yay. Flowers of death! MWAHAHAH!

Favorite scent: Lilacs. Lavender. Honeysuckle. And this "rain" scent scented candle. It's so clean and fresh and not-perfumey, yet it manages to drown out the brine smell that eventually permeates everything when you live close to the shore...

Favorite color: Greens. All shades, although I prefer the yellower shades, especially the darker ones like army green. Also, orange.

Favorite animal: The spotted hyena, but I already extolled their many virtues the last time I did this list, so I'll refrain. Also, elephants.

Coffee, tea, or hot cocoa: Hell no, maybe, and yes please (if it's vegan), respectively.

Average sleep hours: Sleep? What is this word? *just came off a 38-hour work "day" a few hours ago, and I'm too wired to sleep.* YAY SHOWBIZ! :| But generally, when life isn't crazy, usually about 6 hours per 24 hour period. And I'm nocturnal, so those six hours are usually between about 0900 and about 1500. :)

Cat or dog person: Both person. And llama person. And alpaca person. And horse person. And snake person. And spider person.

Favorite fictional characters: Spock. (Well, actually, pretty much the entire original Star Trek crew except, well, Kirk. Whom I hate. With a passion. I really like Abrams-Kirk, though. Oddly enough. So it might just be that I can't stand Shatner...) The Cardassian characters from Star Trek: DS9, but especially Garak. Also, Julian Bashir and Miles O'Brien from DS9. Jack O'Neill and Rodney McKay from the Stargate franchise. KITT from the original Knight Rider. And Jayne Cobb from Firefly. (Hi, @eulaliasims!)

Number of blankets you sleep with: I'm in SoCal at the moment. No blankets because I tend to sleep in the warm part of the day. And when I do sleep at night, there's a furnace-like husband and a large, furnace-like dog in the bed with me. Blankets would be overkill.

Dream trip: Still Antarctica. Or space. But Antarctica is more likely at this point. ;)

Blog created: I think it was December of 2013. Maybe November. Ahhhh, those halcyon pre-2016 years...

Number of followers: Right now? 1443. It might change in an hour or so.

Time right now: About 0220 Pacific Time, Wednesday, March 22. One month and one day until my birthday. I expect presents, people! (Nah, I kid. Birthdays after 50 don't mean much. Hell, birthdays after 18 -- or 21, nowadays, I guess -- don't mean much. :) )

Last thing you googled: I was looking for some textures to use for some recolors I'm working on during downtimes at work.

Fave music artist: In terms of non-classical stuff: Queen, always and forever. But I also really like the Barenaked Ladies and other such alternative groups from the 90s as well as 80s New Wave stuff. Also, Metallica. In terms of "classical" stuff: Beethoven, always and forever.

Song stuck in my head: Beethoven's 8th piano sonata, 3rd movement. I was playing it at work today...on my cello. I'm working on arranging the entire sonata for solo cello...starting with the 3rd movement because I do better working on things backward. (Since I'd be willing to bet most people don't know the tune off the top of their head, here's Dubravka Tomsic playing it on youtube, if you're curious.

Last movie I watched: Star Trek Beyond. I liked it better than Into Darkness but not as well as the first Abrams-verse one...

Last TV show I watched: I have Stargate Atlantis paused on my computer screen at the moment. I plan to work on furnishing/decorating the house I put up for download tonight when I'm done with this, and I usually have a TV show playing while I build/decorate stuff in my game. :)

What I’m wearing right now: A pair of black sweatpants and a Telluride Daily Planet T-shirt. (That's the local newspaper at home. :) ) Boring white underwear. My fleece-lined moccasins because my feet are always cold.

The kind of stuff I post: Sims stuff, duh! At least on this blog. :) The other blog has the ranty/political stuff.

Why did I choose my url: Because I like to point and laugh at silly internet drama and because I own llamas, and I added dingdang because dramallama was taken and because of this song.

Gender: According to every one of those silly "What Gender Are You?" online quizzes, I am male, mainly because I'm a self-confident, argumentative, assertive, non-empathetic asshole who doesn't do "feelings." Yet, I have girl plumbing. Go figure. Meh, it's all just social conditioning and expectations, anyway, so...I rebel. I reject gender labeling and their associated roles.

Hogwarts house: I took a quiz once and it said Gryffindor. I've never read Harry Potter or seen any of the movies except one of them during an airplane flight...and I fell asleep during it, so...Yeah, I don't know what it means to be Gryffindor. Don't much care, either.

Pokémon team: Don't know anything about Pokemon, either.

Lucky number: 13 because I am anti-superstition. (Well, except when it comes to white pianos, of course, but I have hard evidence that they are evil, so it’s not superstition. ;) ) Or 42. Take your pick.

Dream job: I once said "Not having one" but then followed it up with "but that's boring." So, I decided to take on some work through June. And you know what? I'm gonna go back to "Not having one." I just need to find some volunteer work to keep me occupied for a few hours a day. Not for 38-hour "days," though. :p

Relationship status: I is married to my second husband. He's cute. And a lot younger than me, woooooooo! First marriage wasn't nearly so fun, though. The only good thing that came of it was my kids.

Pets: Oh, God. Most of them are back home in Colorado (where I have a 39-acre ranch) while I'm here in California, but:

A herd of llamas and alpacas, about 50 total at the moment, but "unpacking" season is approaching, so that number will be going up to about 65 soon. 5 horses 2 nanny goats...which actually belong to a neighbor but they're currently housed on my property, so...they count! 8 dogs 5 cats...although sadly that will probably be going down to four soon because the 18-year-old whose had health problems all her life is currently quite sick and likely won't be getting better. :( Also, there are a ton of barn cats, but they don't really count as pets. A flock of chickens. 1 rooster, the rest hens. 1 California kingsnake 5 tarantulas, various species 8 dragonfly nymphs. I think 2 will become dragonflies this year because I've had them for a few years now...

Last song you listened to: Beethoven's 5th piano concerto, for somewhat sentimental reasons.

Favorite TV Show: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I love the original series a lot, too, but DS9 surpassed it in my book.

First Fandom: Star Trek, of course. I remember declaring that I would marry Spock when I grew up. I was 3 at the time, in 1967, watching the episode "Amok Time" (in which Spock almost gets married) in its original run. We'd only just gotten a color TV a few months before, so it was REALLY COOL. I also wrote a crapton of fanfic in the 70s/80s and a bit in the 90s. Even published a 'zine in the 80s. It was expensive as hell back then but SO MUCH FUN!

Randomly Tagging People I Don’t Think I’ve Tagged For This Thing Before: @randommindtime (It's what you get for following me!), @yandereplumsim, @elfpuddle, @halousims, @nuttydazesublime, and @kayleigh-83. As always, feel free to ignore for whatever reason. :)