Retro Rack

One of the things the Victorian era saw, Fashionable Reader, was an exploration of that liminal space through casual around the house wear.

Wrapper 1855  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Here we have the wrapper that was only meant to be seen by family.

Dressing Gown  early 1870s The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dressing Gown  1875  The Kyoto Costume Institute

 Dressing gowns, banyans and wrappers are often quilted all or in part.

Wrapper early 1860s  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of the signs of a wrapper is that the waist is designed to be loose or tied tight. Often they split up the front, like a carriage dress or a robe so they can be pulled over a nightgown or underpinnings, like a dressing down but slightly more tailored. Still NOT designed to be worn over a corset.

Peignoir 1860-1865  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Peignoir  1880s  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 Peignoir seems to be a catch all term.

Morning Dress  1860  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Morning dresses were initially gowns for the breakfast table that did not require a corset.They're characterize by a looser top lots of details in the neck and sleeves.

Morning Dress  1872-1873  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of the things we see evolving (and limits being tested) after the 1950s through the 1900s is the idea of what was not meant to be seen (undergarments and nightgowns) to what was initially only meant to be seen by family or lovers (wrappers & peignoirs) to receiving casual around house guests at breakfast (morning dresses) to I'm comfortable at home and I want to show my wealth with yet another space & occasion specific outfit (the tea gown).

Tea Gown  late 1870s  The Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Tea gowns were an evolution of the morning gown.

Tea Gown  1875  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tea Gown  1875-1880  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

1Harpers Bazar New York Sat June 13 1891 Dressing Gowns Nightshirts

This evolution is coupled with the rise of the middle class, the sexual revolution (including contraception and woman's suffrage) and various other factors.

Bed Jacket  1885  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dressing Jacket  1885-1890  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 We see a culmination in this towards the turn of the century in the popularity of (and wide-scale use of the word) negligées and lingerie sets, which specifically implies an article of clothing that is sexual in its nature for it is meant to be seen by a lover.

Negligée  1880  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This kind of clothing, prior to the first sexual revolution, would not have been acceptable for a fashion house to make, let alone a fashionable lady to purchase.

Negligée Callot Soeurs, 1898-1900s The Metropolitan Museum of Art

There was also head wear that was designed to be worn exclusively around the house, but that's a whole other story...

House Cap 1900  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

For Primrose!

Boudoir Cap 1895 The Metropolitan Museum of Art

nightgown 1894  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dressing Gown  1897-1899  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

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.

I had an interesting encounter the other weekend, Fashionable Reader.

I was at a barbecue. You know, that thing, in the back yard, where you burn the meat?

This was no a high fashion event ~ suburban in location, and 30-something anti-hipsters in attendance. These were not my friends, I should add.

Now, where was I? Oh yes . . . the encounter.

For Felicity in the Parasol Protectorate Series 

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

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.

The third book in my Custard Protocol series is out now!  This book is set in the mid 1890s and I have concocted a pictorial guide to a possible outfit that a young lady of Prim's rank might wear during this time period.

The images run with what she would need to put on, in order. Ready? Here we go...

On the bottom half:

1. 1890  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

2. 1890s Stockings The Metropolitan Museum of Art

3. 1899 Garters  1899  The Chicago History Museum

4. 1895-1905 Oxfords   The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 Note that shoes have to go on early? Well before the corset and also the rest of the dress for bending and hemming reasons.

Combination  1890s  The Metropolitan Museum of Ar

Combinations are a hard one for me, as an author. Because they were totally UBIQUITOUS undergarments at the time of the Custard Protocol books. They were the most common form of underwear. However, the name and the concept is entirely lost to the modern mind set. Most of my readers would have no basis for comparison should I drop the word "combination" into, for example, a shape change or a nookie scene. I must, therefore, use the word in correct context so as to make it clear that is what the character is wearing. Or have it described to another foriegn character. And yet, it's not something that would be described. So I have to have said foreigner describe it and everyone else get embarrassed. Oh! I like that. Forget I said anything, OK?

On the upper half:

Bust Improvers  1890s  Whitaker Auction

Prim wouldn't need these, but I include them because I think its so fun that they exist at all!

5. Camisol  1895-1905  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

6. 1893  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

7. Sleeve Supports  1890s  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

And over the top:

8. 1895  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

9. 1894 Evening Dress  Charles Fredrick Worth, 1894  The Kyoto Costume Institute

10. 1890s  The Goldstein Museum of Design

11. 1895-1905  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

12. Muff and Hat  1890s  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Alternatively, here's a look at more sporty options...

Stockings  1890s  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Combinations undergarment, England, 1875 - 1900

Corset 1890s Summer Corset   The Victoria & Albert Museu

Corset Cover  1895-1900  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

And sportswear on the outside:

Gym Suit  1895-1899  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cycling Ensemble  1895  The Kyoto Costume Institute

Shirtwaist 1894 The Museum at FIT _ OMG that dress!

1890s Under The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Travel Suit  Jacques Doucet, 1895  The Victoria & Albert Museum

You don't have to take the pictures as proof. Here's some research to back it up...

Gwen Raverat at the end of the century describes the modest dress of a respectable female.

"Women were incredibly modest . . .  even with each other. You could see a friend in her petticoat, but nothing below that was considered decent. At school, the sidht of a person in her white frilly drawers caused shrieks of outraged virtue; and I should have thought it impossible to be seen downstairs in my dressing-gown."

~ Judith Flanders The Victorian House (pg. 269)

americangothgirl-tumblr Catalog Photographs, Front and Back Views of Woman In Corset, c. 1880s. Albumen Prints

"This is what a young lady wore, with whom I shared a room one night...

1. Thick, long-legged woolen combinations.
2. Over them, white cotton combinations, with plenty of buttons and frills.
3. Very serious, bony, grey stays, with suspenders.
4. Black woolen stockings.
5. White cotton drawers, with buttons and frills.
6. White cotton 'petticoat-bodice', with embroidery, buttons and frills.
7. Rather short, white flannel, petticoat.
8. Long alpaca petticoat, with a flounce round the bottom.
9. Pink flannel blouse.
10. High, starched, white collar, fastened on with studs.
11. Navy blue tie.
12. Blue skirt, touching the ground, and fastened tightly to the blouse with a safety-pin behind.
13. Leather belt, very tight.
14. High button boots."

  ~ Judith Flanders The Victorian House (pg. 269)

Undergarments ca. 1900-03  From the FIDM Museum

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

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.

A brief moment of muffs today, Fashionable Reader.

I own a few muffs but I very rarely use them. Even though my hands are always cold and I like that they can just be shoved up the arm and worn without occupying a hand (as clutches are wont to do). Not quite sure why not, but there it is.

I even sewed one, once, with a secret pocket. It's one of the hardest things I've ever sewed.

Here's a bought one, big and fluffy and black and adorable, and yet rarely used...


Here's a photo shoot where it made an apprentice, this was a drive con so I could afford to pack something so fluffy.

photographed and copyright by j daniel sawyer

I also own a vintage fur one that is a wrist muff, very small but so cute.

Muffs of History!

damesalamode- Gallery of Fashion, evening dresses, February 1795

Le Follet Friday, January 1, 1864 v. 43, plate 97

via colourthysoul- Frederick Childe Hassam - A New Year’s Nocture, New York (1892)

1900 muff via livingnowisliving- Found on geheugenvannederland.nl.jpg

1905  muff The Victoria & Albert Museum

Fashion by Jacques Fath, 1952 theniftyfifties

vintagechampagnefever-tumblr Gloria Vanderbilt and an unnamed model showcase furs for LIFE magazine (1952)

Model wearing an ensemble with a fur muff for Vogue, 1956 theniftyfifties tumblr

bcbg-rtw-fw 2014-runway blue

photographed and copyright by j daniel sawyer

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

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.

I realized recently that I don't have a place on the interwebs where I chronicle my parasol collection.


How could I be so remiss?

My parasol collection has been the work of years, people have gifted me with vintage ones, and I have purchased quite a few for myself.

Here for you enlightenment is my parasol collection! 

Modern

These ones are modern, in other words I bought them for myself from a vendor.

Black & Grey Lace

Technically an umbrella, this one folds so it packs well and it's pretty enough to also be a parasol. It came from Amazon for $15. It's probably the most versatile piece in my collection.

Tenticular Paper Parasol 

Strictly a parasol as this is made of waxed paper, I bought mine from Donna (the Alexia books' cover model) when she owned Clockwork Couture. It's now available other places online. You can find it online for about $20. 

I find I use it a lot because it goes with everything. It's got both brown and black in it, and it works for both a retro look and a steampunk look.



It doesn't, however, pack well. Although, for paper, it has been surprisingly resilient.

Blue Pattern Parasol 

This is the parasol that appears in my standard headshot (see the top of this post). I love it for its uniqueness. This is not a parasol I've ever seen anyone else own, also it feels really vintage to me. I bought it from Lace Parasols online shop years ago, it's still offered for $37.


This one is cream lace and I modified it with royal blue ribbon threaded through. However, I am more likely to use the other blue one above, so I will be giving this beauty away in a forthcoming Chirrup.

This parasol style is pretty common these days. So I like suggesting if you get one, adding ribbon, or painting sections or some other DIY. If you are looking for a particular color of parasol this particular style has you covered for round about $20.

I, however, when I was looking for something cream really wanted something more embroidered and solid then lace, and really big and vintage looking.

Big Lace Parasol

I ended up with this one, again from lace Parasols online, which I have been really happy with over the years. It now is priced at $45, I can't remember what I paid for it.


While quite beautiful, it is REALLY massive so I never travel with it.

Gold Lace Parasol

So I invested in this...

It's a cream and gold sunshade umbrella that folds very small and has it's own cute little container. I get a lot of compliments on it. It's one flaw is the inside is LINED in solid black, so it doesn't photo well when carried over the shoulder. I found it on Amazon for $33. 

Baby Parasols

I also bought this set of three tiny parasols for $40. The smallest two I mostly use for decoration around the office, and for pretty photos with books.

The largest one, however, I would really love to find a way to add an extending folding handle. At various times, but particularly in the late 1880s, ladies carried very small parasols with very long handles. I'd love to make this into a cream version of that. (See the last parasol in my collection below.)

Vintage

1920s Double Brolly

For a girl who loves vintage and parasols, I only own two vintage parasols. They are so delicate it's hard to find nice ones that have survived in tact and are still reasonably priced.


This is, technically, and umbrella not a parasol. It has double lining and a beautiful interior decoration with scalloped flutter edge. The outside is plain black. It has a beautiful metal handle with an ostentatious crystal. It's bent a little and somewhat sun bleached but otherwise in pretty good condition.

This was a gift to me from one of my mother's dear friends. I'm not sure on the age but my best guess is 1920s.

Folding Parasol 

My black tilt parasol. This is probubly late Edwardian and it isn't in great shape. It's black silk with ruffles an the silk is torn in multiple places. I basically just stopped it from tearing further with clear nail polish, the old nylon trick.

Not only does it tilt, it folds, which makes is the perfect travel companion. I love this parasol and you will see me with it at steampunk events all the time.I even made it a special holster out of a pair of cargo shorts. You can find a step-by-step guide on how to DIY your own here.

I see tilt parasols turn up on Etsy or at vintage fairs regularly, but because they are mostly silk from this time period, and silk is easily damaged by sun, they are almost always in disrepair. So be careful if you are looking to buy one.



Finally I also have this lovely mother of pearl pin, which was a gift from a reader. It means I can allude to the parasol, even if I am not actually carrying it!

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

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.

Hats make me happy, Fashionable Reader. I hope this comes as no surprise.

Image taken by Gail Carriger, do not share without attribution

Apparently Degas was a big fan, too. This exhibit I went to included others who were fans of hats, as well as some hat making displays, and of course the hats themselves.







This last is a double whammy of Gail's loves: hats & parasols!

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

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.

1900  The Philadelphia Museum of Art

2014 Sass & Bide

Hail The Victorious Parasol Shirt

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

quotes Gail likes