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Vintage Style In A Modern World

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Ada Lovelace Day Fashion with Gail Carriger


Today is Ada Lovelace Day!

"Ada Lovelace Day is an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM)."

Here's one of my picks... Tempest Anderson: Pioneer of Volcano Photography

I am going to trivialize the entire operation by doing a fashion post based on one of Ada's most famous portraits.

Ada Lovelace Day Fashion with Gail Carriger
Ada Lovelace portrait

A similar actual historic dress.

Ada Lovelace Day Fashion with Gail Carriger
1860 Robe à Transformation The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Ada Lovelace Day Fashion with Gail Carriger
1860 Robe à Transformation The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Ada Lovelace Day Fashion with Gail Carriger
1820 Pocket Watch  1820  Sotheby’s

Stuff from my own collection that might go with...

Ada Lovelace Day Fashion with Gail Carriger

Ada Lovelace Day Fashion with Gail Carriger

Ada Lovelace Day Fashion with Gail Carriger

Ada Lovelace Day Fashion with Gail Carriger



You can shop my recommendations via the following lists:
Steampunk, Retro Jewelry, Makeup, Retro Clothes, Lifestyle


Product links on this blog are usually to Amazon using my associate code. At no additional cost to you this means I get a slight kick back if you make a purchase. Thank you! This allows me to continue to produce this blog without sponsors.

Gail Carriger: Shopping My Closet ~ Discoveries


Because of my recent big investment in a custom corset (designed for 1950s style) at Dark Garden I haven't been doing much shopping recently. What I did do (in an effort to put together that Edwardian outfit) was upend my costume collection.

I found these shoes:

Gail Carriger: Shopping My Closet ~ Discoveries

I forgot how useful they are, being both white and cream.

Gail Carriger: Shopping My Closet ~ Discoveries

I discovered to my delight that my Regency Evening Dress, which hasn't fit me in YEARS, actually fits me again since the Rack Reduction. Although I need help buttoning it up the back. It's designed to go with the accessories from my 1850s Picnic Dress, although with a proper bonnet, of course. Royal blue and cream is a favorite combination of mine.

All I'm saying is... bring on the Austen Ball people!

Gail Carriger: Shopping My Closet ~ Discoveries

I found this cute little top hat which was a gift, but is hard to travel with so I haven't worn it much. I think I might putter about concocting something to go with it, possibly using my grey corset. 

I also discovered that several of my dresses and skirts need some serious repairs. And when am I going to have time for that, I ask you?

I have Gaslight Gathering in San Diego coming up and I can pack anything I feel like for that event because 1. I'm flying Southwest, 2. It's not far away, and 3. It's mostly indoors and clean and not too hot. I'll be debuting the updated and modified to be more steampunk (and less bust) corsets there. I have an old Mini Murry cosplay I might dig up, and yes I happen to own custom fangs. What you doubted me?

Expect to see some really fun pictures from that event next month.
Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

You can visit the following shopping lists: Travel Dork, My Steampunk, My Wardrobe.
Product links on this blog are usually to Amazon using my associate code. At no additional cost to you this means I gets a slight kick back if you make a purchase. Thank you! This allows me to continue to produce this blog without sponsors.

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger


I can't remember when I first heard about the Swiss Waist, Fashionable Reader.

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
From my personal collection
Popular in the 1860s this was a boned belt, with at least one peak (either up or down). It usually laced like a corset, only up the front, sometimes is was exactly corset-like with a busk up the front and laces up the back. The Swiss Waist was worn in addition to the foundation corset. It is, so far as I can determine historically, the only corset-like garment that was worn on the outside of a dress.

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
Daguerreotype from my personal collection
Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
 1860s  The Victoria & Albert Museum Swiss Waist; my own version from Dark Garden

Here is a retrospective on the idea of the Swiss Waist. They aren't necessarily exactly this article of clothing, but they all suggest the peaks that I associate with this garment.


Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
1829  Kerry Taylor Auctions
Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
1872 Godeys Sept 1872 Dicky
Described as: "Overwaist of blue silk, trimmed with black lace; it is to be worn over a black silk dress, and is very dressy and pretty."

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
Tea Gown  1875-1880  The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
[stage costume] Leonora of Mantua (1873), Valentine Cameron Prinsep via British Paintings tumblr

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
1880 Striped Princess Bodice

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
1889 Evening Dress The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
 1890-1895  The Goldstein Museum of Design; Liberty & Co. dress, 1893-94  From the Victoria & Albert Museum

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
1895 Golf Ensemble   The Kyoto Costume Institute

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
 1896-1899; 1900 Ball Gown  Driscoll both The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
1900 Dress  Jean-Philippe Worth,  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
1900s Gustave Beer, Antique Dress

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
1901 Ball Gown  Jeanne Paquin,  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
 1900s  theoryphotoart tumblr; on our merry way tumblr vintage-impressions- Portrait, ca. 1906

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
1906-1908 Evening Dress  Jean-Philippe Worth, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
1940s Dress I. Magnin, Kerry Taylor Auctions

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
v-isfor-vintage tumblr 1950s style sass

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
1950s  Timeless Vixen Vintage blue

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
1950s  Timeless Vixen Vintage

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
1950s Carrier airconditioning advertisement. via theniftyfifties tumblr
And now for the modern age...

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
 2013 Aigner Fall 2013 collection via nymag.com; 2013 Ralph LaurenSpring-2103

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
2013 Nidhi Sunil in Jimmy Choo Over The Knee Boots. Vogue India, 10.2013 via Booted Up

Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger
2013 Willow cutout waist belt at theOutnet.com

(A quick note, I had a whole piece prepped for today on wide belts and why they do and don't work on us curvy ladies, but blogspot ate it. I was particularly proud of it, but one keystroke and it's gone, no recovery. Note to self, do not use keyboard shortcuts in blogger! Argh. Anyway, I am hugely overworked theses days and have neither the time nor inclination to rewrite it. So we skip wide belts entirely, sorry....)

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.
Ada Lovelace Day Fashion with Gail CarrigerGail Carriger: Shopping My Closet ~ DiscoveriesDress the Cover ~ Poison or ProtectPurses, Shoes, and Hats ~ Putting Together an Outfit with Gail CarrigerPrudence Extras ~ India's Influence on Victorian Clothing in the Custard Protcol with Gail Carriger Then & Now ~ Cream SimplicityGail Carriger in Teal eShakti Pencil Dress in Boston for the Waistcoats & Weaponry TourFans For Sophronia ~ A Historical Retrospective from Gail CarrigerBelts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 4 Swiss Waist by Gail Carriger Belts ~ It's What's for Your Waist - Part 2 Matched by Gail Carriger

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