My Busam is Yawning for Jools!

I was just reading a fun article (for a somewhat less fun assignment) called "Embodying imperial spectacle: dressing Lady Curzon, Vicereine of India 1899-1905." Although most of the article has fabulous and interesting details about her clothing, there is a small section that discusses jewelry. Here is the important chunk:

Among the jewellery that Mary brought with her to India were her tiara, strings of
pearls, and a large sapphire necklace that was in fact a piece of costume jewellery,
with stones painted on the back to give the appearance of a sapphire. Mary wrote to
her mother in 1900, indicating she needed ‘a brooch or some stomach adornment’,
telling her ‘my “busam” is yawning for “jools” – paste not scorned!!’

Isn't that the most wonderful thing? I have claimed it for my new catch phrase - my bosom is yawning for jewels! Every time I get a sparkly brooch or necklace, that is what I think. And indeed, I've been just as inspired as Lady Curzon for some brooches or stomach adornments - which I'm calling corsage ornaments. I saw that one at the MFA, and Olga Paley's, and now here are some more! I am especially drawn to and impressed by the really large or long drippy ones, but they are all quite pretty. I'm often surprised by the dates on these - they are something I would associate with the late 19th century, with the South African diamond mines and the silver rushes and all. But that doesn't mean I haven't found several 18th or mid-19th century whoppers!

1900 Vever Cherry Blossoms (29 cm long)

1850 Diamond Spray (V&A)

1900-10 Tiffany (14 cm long)

1905 Chaumet

1906 Cartier (29 cm long)

1915 Tiffany (9.5 cm)

1920 Tiffany

1923 (Met)

1925 French

19th century - what a monster of a bird brooch! He is nesting in your cleavage!

Or maybe I spoke too soon... this one is pretty impressive too.

19th century Garrard

2nd half of the 19th century

A bodice ornament action shot!

1760 France, with unusual use of colors

1850 France

1800 France

Early 18th century, Germany

1860 Spray

Tiffany Rosebud

Another action shot, for a very long bodice ornament. That looks like Queen Maud to me.

A Romanov Russian imperial eagle brooch - this one is totally for Julia.

1850s Spanish Opals

1880-1900 Tiffany (Met)

1889, and I think the birds are just hilariously cute

1890-1910 American, I particularly like these swags!

1890, bodice ornaments as two articulated foli

18th century Italian

1680-1700 Dutch (V&A)

1760 (V&A)

1770 Portuguese

1790 Portuguese, in a later brooch fitting

Walking on Broken Glass

First of all, HUGH LAURIE.

Second of all, why is she so upset? She has Hugh Laurie. Third of all, her feet probably just hurt from running down all those stairs... the guy knows how to teleport or use the elevator, which is faster anyway. WAIT A SECOND, is that Prince George?Oh, wait... it's Hugh Laurie!

Modes Revolutionnaires, Paris, Sept. 1789

How fun! I've been going through a big Scarlet Pimpernel phase, and reading a book about fashion in the french revolution. In honor of that, I bring you this very cool plate courteosy of the New York Public Library.

Pre-Regency Jumper, Countess du Barry 1789

Apparently I have a regency jumper obsession. There aren't that many examples, but I'm finding them really interesting. Here is an example of what sure looks like a jumper, though the painting dates pretty early (1789). It is a Le Brun painting of the Countess du Barry, and I'm sure it is meant to be all artistic and drapey rather than really fashionable or a record of good every-day wear. On the other hand, if you think about the timing, fashions really were getting kind of relaxed and drapey and artistic. So interpret it as you will, but I think it is rather pretty, and it is interesting to wonder how common jumpers were and when.

Smallsword Demonstration

This week I am doing a baroque dance week at the Longy School of Music. This is neat, since I have never done any baroque dancing before. It is seriously intense, but I am enjoying the challenge immensely. But this is not the point.

The point is that we were talking about 18th century clothing, and I tried to find a picture of me in an 18th century dress. I didn't find one easily, but then I remembered that there is a video of me on youtube. So if you haven't seen this before, check it out! This is edited together, so the actual choreography I do for demonstrations with the Higgings Armory Sword Guild is shorter than that video. It looks awfully spiffy, though.

Green Striped 18th Century Dress

I am not an 18th century kind of girl. It is a lovely time period, yes, but I am firmly rooted in the 19th, and in the 1860s in particular. As my father would always say, so many centuries, so little time. But I can appreciate beautiful things from any time period, and this is one seriously smashing dress. I love it.

Enchanted Menagerie with Dances of Vice

As a rather last-minute plan (mother's car accident had me thinking we wouldn't be able to go, but she got a rental car - she is also fine), I went traipsing off to New York on Friday with mother and a friend. We had a delicious dinner with my aunt, and went to a Dances of Vice event.

The event was called "The Enchanted Menagerie," and we decided to go all out on the costuming. We both wore fantastic wigs made by Sweet Hayseed. We also went all out with the makeup, as you will see in a moment. She wore a dress (one of those "in progress" forever projects), which was delightfully spiffy with the addition of pretty butterfly fabric and rhinestones! The rhinestones don't show up well in photographs, but they looked really great, especially considering how much rhinstone-ing she did in the car. Very impressive.

I made new stuff! I threw together an 18th century underwear outfit with things I had, and then I made gold cage panniers. Bird cages! You know, "enchanted menagerie"... I am pretty proud of this last minute bit of construction. I was hitting them with spray paint up to the last minute... waiting for things to dry is such a pain. Now, to fully document the outfit!(Me, getting birds in their cages)(The back)(The front)(Friend from the front)(Us being cute)(Me, panicking! Oh no!)

The actual event was delightful. I had never gotten to see Shien Lee (the organizer of Dances of Vice) sing before, and she was really lovely. Wish her a happy birthday! Also, the band she was singing with was great. Check out Grandpa Mussleman and his Syncopators, and when they play with Shien they go by Shanghai Foxtrot. There were some other performances too, like a really impressive fashion show of animal-inspired fashions by Kristen Costa Designs, and a very strange performance piece by Sequinette involving glitter (my friend approves very much) and the most incredible violin costume. Wow. All the performers were really talented.I met a lot of nice people at the event, and drooled over some really incredible costumes (as usual), but one of the more fun moments was walking back to the car. We were photographed, we were questioned, we were repeatedly bowed and curtsied to. Keep in mind this is all at 3 in the morning on the Bowery. My friend was drukenly molested in a harmless kind of way (We frequently get questions about our clothes, so "Can I touch you," didn't seem so ridiculous at the time...). Some foreigners said something nice about Lady Gaga having a hard time out-doing us. I even met a girl who knew that I was wearing panniers, and knew how to pronounce that, and even had made some herself! Note to self: you meet the most suprisingly lovely people when you run around in crazy clothes at 3 in the morning.(Us in the street, walking to the car, hilariously juxtaposed with prolific graffiti)

All in all, an excellent adventure!

Two Hundred Years Too Late to Apologize

I don't listen to modern music frequently. I used to hear the current songs on radio on the bus to school, but college has fixed that. I do know about Lady Gaga, but only because she is such standard party-fare for college-campus parties that if I walk down the street on a Friday or Saturday night, I will hear final clubs (what we have instead of fraternities, basically) BLASTING her songs. On my own, I really don't listen to modern music.

But I do love a good parody. So, since you are almost certainly more familiar with modern music than I am, you probably know the song "Too Late to Apologize." First of all, I have a friend who is fairly obsessed with the movie of 1776, and she introduced me to the 1776 version of this. It is pretty funny... I would suggest that you watch the original music video for the song, because this mimics its format pretty effectively. And to great comedic effect. I also must admit to really enjoying the "No liberty, no tea" line. Well done.

The second one I just saw in section for a science class. The production value is not nearly so high, and the science is quite specific. So if you know a bit about apoptosis and regulated cell death systems, it is shockingly clever, but I bet the mass appeal is not so great as for the 1776 version.

So here they are, for your viewing pleasure...

Tricorn Hats for Ladies

Here are a couple paintings by Gustave Jean Jacquet of an especially girly and adorable tricorn hat. Very pretty, I think. I made a couple of miniature tricorn hats a couple of months ago, and I should probably make more. They were awfully pretty, though I have never been quite content with the way that miniature hats like that look... imagine a flat tricorn hat... since it isn't big enough to stick out around your head, it rests on a plane on top of your head, meaning that the points are kind of stuck out above the head. I don't personally like how this looks. I had only come up with two solutions to this issue. One is to make the hat smaller, but I prefer the proportions of a small hat perched on the head to that of a genuinely tiny hat plopped on the head. The other solution is to the hat plane problem was to put the hair up and make it bigger, so it meets the plane of the hat for most of the underside area. I hope that sort of made sense... the downside is that this limits the usefulness of your hat.

Anyway, it looks like this girl has just gone with it, exaggerating the tipped-up nature of the points of her hat so that it looks more intentional. I should give this a try, since it really looks quite attractive.

L Enfant Au Bilboquet

The artist is Jeanne Bole, and the painting makes me think of my friend the drummer from yesterday's post. Tricorn hats are really a lot of fun.

I have never been any good at cup and ball type games, by the way. This one looks particularly difficult. Oh dear.

A Disturbingly Pretty Drummer Boy

This is my very cool friend. Among her many other fantastic artistic endeavors, she is a drummer with the Lincoln minute men. Doesn't she look dashing?A lot of our dorm buildings have these boot scrapers at the entrances. I find them super entertaining, so I got her to pose with one of them.And with the hair out. Isn't this a fantastic outfit? She was quite (and quite reasonably) excited about it. I mean, I get way too excited about women's clothes, but I should probably remember that men's clothes could be neat too.