#mids 1880s

[fashion-from-the-past]

La Mode Artistique 1879

[himblebo]

Unpicking a suit lining at the sleeve head like. I’m undoing this hand sewn seam that someone made in 1935. I know the name of the man the suit was made for and the name of the man that tailored it and I can see proof of the human labor that made this. I can see the layers of wool roving and hair canvas used to interface the shoulders. I just worked with hair canvas for the first time recently on another garment, and this garment carries this same historical textile and practice. This wool and silk is nearly a century old and I’m mending it so it can continue to be worn and I’m directly interacting with human artistry and skill in the same way it was originally done on this garment. In another ten, twenty years, if this garment is still in use and I’m not the one mending it, they will be able to see the difference in the original construction and where I’ve worked on it. They might be able to tell how recently it’s been mended because of the fabric I’m using to patch. And then if they mend it, and add to the signature of stitches on this garment, somebody else down the line can look at it and see each of us there in the seams we’ve sewn. Every garment is a museum.

[foreverinthepagesofhistoryy]

Rare photo of Queen Olga of Greece (née Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna of Russia) with 5th child and 2nd daughter Princess Marie of Greece and Denmark (later Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna of Russia), mid 1880s

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Stela N by Alfred Maudslay, Copan, Honduras 1885.

[chic-a-gigot]

La Mode illustrée, no. 17, 23 avril 1882, Paris. Toilettes de Mme Bréant-Castet, 6 r. Gluck. Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Netherlands

Description de toilettes (Bibliothèque Forney):

Toilette de visite en faille nuance vive de bordeaux et velours épingle rouge. La jupe, plissée perpendiculairement tout autour, est faite en faille. A 10 centimètres de distance du bord inférieur les plis sont arrêtés par une guirlande de feuillage en velours et perles d'or. Paniers et draperie de derrière en velours épinglé rouge. Corsage à pointe en même velours, avec guirlande de feuillage (pareille à celle du bord inférieur) posée sur le côté du corsage. Grand chapeau de paille doublé de faille vive de Bordeaux et garni de fleurs rouges.

Robe en rhadamès bleu-papier (de sucre). La jupe est plissée perpendiculairement à intervalles réguliers. Sur chaque pli une passementerie ajourée à pampilles en saillie. Dernière, draperie très-bouffante. Corsage Henri IV, à pointe, avec bourrelet bouillonné sur son bord inférieur. Au-dessus de ce bourrelet une bande de passementerie. Encolure demi-ouverte, bordée de passementerie. Manches demi-courtes un peu bouffantes, avec longs gants en peau de Suède. Chapeau de paille doublé de velours bleu-papier.

—

Visiting ensemble in a bright shade of burgundy and red hairpin velvet. The skirt, pleated perpendicularly all around, is made of faille. At 10 centimeters distance from the lower edge the folds are stopped by a garland of foliage in velvet and gold beads. Baskets and back drapery in red pinned velvet. Pointed bodice of self-velvet, with wreath of foliage (same as lower edge) set at side of bodice. Large straw hat lined with bright Bordeaux faille and trimmed with red flowers.

Paper-blue (sugar) rhadames dress. The skirt is pleated perpendicularly at regular intervals. On each fold an openwork trimming with projecting pendants. Last, very puffy drapery. Henri IV bodice, pointed, with bubbled padding on its lower edge. Above this bead a band of passementerie. Half-open neckline, lined with trimmings. Half-short, slightly puffy sleeves, with long suede gloves. Straw hat lined with paper-blue velvet.

[fitzrove]

! Stephanie's "What a night! What torments, what horror!" is often presented out of context and taken as a sign that something very bad happened on her wedding night.

But considering what she says around it, about Laxenburg being absolutely miserable and cold, with outdated furniture (on a previous page it says everything was from 1856 - imagine if you the reader got married right now and went on a honeymoon in an apartment not updated or renovated or w its furniture not replaced since 1999) and only an unpleasant (in her opinion) and distant chambermaid to assist her, no plumbing or proper bathroom, no friendly faces or anyone to talk to her about her anxieties... It's no wonder she felt horrible, especially after travelling multiple days for this and having such a lavish wedding. Like, she was expecting to be treated well, because the people adored her and her parents and everyone hyped it up that she was going to be set up as the future empress of Austria. And on the carriage ride to Laxenburg, she and Rudolf didn't talk at all, they just sat in silence for hours because they were stranges that didn't have anything to say to each other!! Wild dhfhfjj considering that they just got married...

So um yeah, my interpretation is that what happened between her and Rudolf in the intimate sense was super awkward and cold, but probably not violent or abusive (see: "the cold silence and the mutual embarrassment seemed broken" the next morning).

[resplendentoutfit]

Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926) • Camille or The Green Dress (Camille would later marry Monet) • 1866 • Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany

Camille Doncieux is the model, later to become Monet's first wife and mother to two of his children.

The portrait is life-size – 231 × 151 cm (91 × 59 in)

Promenade dress • 1865/68 • English • Alpaca and silk fringe • Manchester City Galleries, Manchester UK

This dress is likely a very similar one to that worn by Camille.

In the mid 1800s, the crinoline was all the rage but one of my sources, Claude Monet: Camille states that she had not worn one. Perhaps she heeded the warnings about how dangerous crinoline hoop was! (Read my post about it here).

Though the portrait was well-received at the Emperial Salon in 1866, where it was first exhibited, there was a buzz in the French press regarding the dress and, to some extent, the model. Some felt it was too large for its wearer and its train exageratedly long. Indeed, one can scour fashion history books and internet sources and be hard-pressed to find a dress of similar style with such a long train. Notice that even the closest example to the painted dress itself had a much shorter train. Could it be that the lack of a crinoline, as the critics observed, made the dress sag enough to create a train that was longer than fashionably expected? My theory is that Monet could have painted it that way toward some creative endeavor, such as giving the portrait a sense of motion. After all, Camille isn't really posing but looks as if she's on her way somewhere.

Other critics speculated whether the dress could be hers, given how expensive it was. Some said that it had to have been borrowed or even rented, hence its poor fit.

This jacket is similar in style to Camille's though it is velvet and blue. The article linked above states that the future Madame Monet's jacket was seal skin and it appears, in the painting, to be black.

The hat Camille wears for the portrait is referred to in the linked article as a regency bonnet. In the detail of the painting, it's difficult to make out what is hat and what is hair and what the embellishments are. I looked at a lot of hats of the period online and my pick for best match is the hat below.

Velvet, silk flowers, and ribbon • 1880s

[dudeshusband]

the only birth anything i've given any character is a birth year (the other guys retain dean's birth year of 1917 in my mind). I suppose that dude was born in the 1840s...probably 1841-1842 or so depending on when in the 1880s rio bravo is

[eightfourone]

remembering that the original reason I turned away from newage stuff was because they basically just say a bunch of spiritual buzzwords. and this comes from a history of appropriating various spiritual practices into a new unified system that goes back to at least the 19th century

[lilyabsinthe]

Designing For The 80s - Part 2

In Part 1, we discussed design approaches for early 1880s fashion, with a dash of late 1870s thrown in. In contrast with the early 1870s, the emphasis was on the vertical rather than horizontal with minimal bustling and trains. Today we move forward into the mid-1880s when the bustle seemingly returned with a vengeance.

[themuseumlady]

so very obsessed with this

Day Dress

early 1890s

Canadian Museum of History

[vincentbriggs]

My uncle's friend asked if I wanted this machine that he has no use for, and yes I very much did want it, so now I have a beautiful crusty old friend to clean up!

I've never sewn on a White before, but from what I've read online they're very good. Quite a bit different from the Singers I'm used to though. The hand wheel moves in the opposite direction.

It was manufactured in the U.S. (more specifically - Cleveland, Ohio) sometime around the mid 1880s. I'm told it hasn't been used since about the 1970s, but that it used to belong to a woman who made her living by sewing on it for many years.

There's a lot of gunk and old dust to remove, and I need to shorten the drive belt and probably replace the rubber ring on the bobbin winder, but the moving parts are already spinning very smoothly and quietly so I'm hoping it won't be too much trouble.

[we-are-not-afraid-92]

Briefly interrupting my slew of I miss phantom content to say goddamn Erik and Aaron Covenant from Undying would be such a power couple

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Vintage photos documenting the discovery of Maya ruins, 1880-1900

Stela D, dated AD 766. The figure depicted on the craving is that of K’ak’ Tiliw Chan Yopaat, ruler of Quirigua in the mid-eighth century.

[ichabodjane]

Okay but @marzipanandminutiae , is this an opera gown or a ball gown or a dinner gown or a reception gown or a....?

Evening Gown 1880′s

[yeoldenews]

It’s Dear Santa time again!

Every year since 2010, I have spent the month of December posting children's Dear Santa letters.

Publishing letters to Santa in the newspaper first became widely popular in the late-1890s, though scattered newspapers did so as early as the mid-1880s. I believe this sudden explosion in popularity was at least partially the result of the famed "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause" editorial which was published in The New York Sun in September of 1897.

In large cities Dear Santa letters often acted as a method of getting needed clothing and supplies to impoverished children when parents might be ashamed to ask for charity. Subscribers to the newspaper could choose a child’s letter and provide the items they asked for. The most common requests were shoes and coats.

Sometimes newspapers offered prizes for the best letter (which I suspect often acted as another clandestine form of charity as the winners were often letters asking for basic clothing and school supplies.) Though these prizes could range from the ordinary (a sled or a doll) to the extravagant (a $20 gold piece or a live pony.)

Often local stores would enter children in a drawing if they mentioned the store in their letter - which on occasion would result in children hilariously name-dropping every store in town just in case.

Writing Dear Santa letters was also commonly an activity done at school, often following some rough form letter. These letters are fairly easy to spot as they often hype up what a good student the child was and include effusive praise for their teacher (who would likely see the letter before it was sent.)

So why have I spent hundreds of hours of my life over the last decade reading tens of thousands of these letters?

Children's voices are largely absent from the historical record.

Dear Santa letters offer an extremely rare opportunity to see history unfold through children's eyes - in their own (often creatively spelled) words.

1914′s “Remember the children in Belgium” becomes 1918′s “Please visit my brother in France”.

During the Great Depression the very common phrase “I know you’re poor this year too Santa” gives a glimpse into parents' attempts to explain to their children why they might not be getting as much this year.

1939′s “Be careful flying over Europe” becomes 1945′s “Since the war is over you’re making bb-guns again right?”

Requests for toy flying machines become aeroplanes become fighter jets become space shuttles.

Dolls and wagons become Shirley Temple merchandise and Erector Sets become Barbies and Star Wars action figures.

But through all these changes one thing remains clear throughout 130+ years of letters to Santa, despite the rapidly changing world around them - children have always been children.

I hope you enjoy these letters as much as I do! (All decade+ of posts are tagged “Dear Santa” if you’d like to see more than just this year’s selection.)

I wish you all a wonderful holiday season! I hope you can delight in whatever brings you joy, be that family, friends, food or just curling up with a hot cocoa and a good book.

But whatever you do, please don't forget the true meaning of the season - feeling awful sorry for Patti.

Hapy Holadays and Marry Crimes!