Nahant 2015

I'm realizing I have old pictures I never put up. These are a couple from Nahant... I don't have a lot of pictures of that, but Julia and I did awesome matching hair and blue and white outfits.

Formal Tea

The next big dressing occassion was formal tea. I wore an old (but still beloved) project - my lavender and white striped trained skirt. Then I made a brand new hat to go with it, covered in rose velvet with a giant blue shot pink silk bow on top. Unfortunately, I failed to pack the intended blouse, but I made due with what I had. I lent Julia my even more fabulous black and white trained skirt. They are made from the same pattern, but I installed an enormous thick and wide black ruffle in that one, which really makes the train look fabulous. I think I either need to do the same for the lavender and white skirt, or maybe I can get away with making a really fantastic petticoat. Either way, I better get on that. I also made Julia wear a fabulous three plumed hat I made, even though it freaked her out when the wind kept blowing them. Mother wore a lovely linen skirt with pretty flanges (they look really good in motion), and I trimmed a hat for her at the last minute with pretty yellow striped silk and a plume of ostrich feathers I dyed orange.

Fabulous skirts

And more!

Matching skirts, but hers looks better

Nice hat, Mother

This landscaped pond is easily the prettiest thing on campus

I couldn't pick a favorite

Protect the hat!

Pretty pretty

Nice hat on Adrian, too.

Walking home, looking silly...

Seaside Tea Dance

The next big dress-up event at Newport was the Seaside Tea Dance. My sister Julia and I wore adorable vintage-style bathing suits with hilarious Gibson Girl hair. Pictures...

The bathing beauties on the carousel!

On the actual beach!

And again!

Ok, I admit it. At this point I was having trouble sorting out the good pictures.

Lucky you! A whole set of cute gibson girls on the beach!

Oh, one more! You can't tell, but it was raining when we were out there.

Phew, indoors now. Time to dry off.

And watch the pretty dancers.

Oh, more of them!

Carousel!

I like the back of my head. Fun hair, don't you think?

We were pretty tired by this point.

So we watched other people dance. How nice.

Events Attended: Peformance at the Salem Athanaeum

A couple weeks ago CVD did a dance performance at the Salem Athanaeum for the Dickens Fellowship, at an event called "Tea for Mommy, Me, and Teddy." So we threw together a last minute Teddy Bear's Picnic choreography, put on some cute early 20th century outfits, and danced in the lovely back garden area. Of course, I had just gotten over the worst, most feverish parts of my flu at this point... so don't hold that against me! I put my hair up in delightfully silly puffs. Julia brought her charming British bear. We hit the town to get some lunch. Of course the shocking bit is at the very end of the post.

And then Nick Wurst (of our fake barbershop quartet) turned into a skeleton!!!

Jewels, Gems, and Treasures at the MFA

About couple of weeks ago (but oh, I've been busy since then), I went to the MFA with a dear friend. At the moment, they are having an awfully sparkly exhibition called "Jewels, Gems, and Treasures." There were some cool ancient things, but obviously I'm most interested in jewelry that I could wear to a dance event. If only it was mine! Here are my favorites.

Oh, if I could have stolen one thing, it would have been this. The picture does no justice to the size of this thing! It is an 1890s corsage ornament. I found a website with what I think is the same item (or something very similar, at the least), and it claims to be 23.5 cm long. Wild, don't you think?

A detail of the 1890s corsage ornament. Look at those diamonds glitter!

This early 1860s set belonged to Mary Todd Lincoln. Cool.

1870s amethyst suite. You know, I really like amethyst. It is so pretty!

I am sure I have seen this one in books. It is a Lalique hair ornament with antennae, from approximately 1900. So cool! I really do love it.

Another view of the same. It was symmetrical, but my camera makes it look funny.

An 1890s Faberge diamond necklace. Oh yeah.

Close up!

And the winner of creepiest jewelry set, this 1870s set is composed of taxidermied hummingbirds. Eww! They have rubies for eyes and little gold beaks. Creepy.

Fringe Tiaras as Bodice Jewelry

Fringe tiaras are beautiful and fabulous. They look like this, and have been favorites of royalty throughout the 19th century and beyond. Sometimes they have rounded points, or pointy points, or two types of interlocking spikes... but they all have this approximate Russian-kokoshnik-esque shape. You can wear them perched on your head, or if you're from the 1920s slide them down to the forehead like a bandeau.

 

 

A lot of these tiaras can be worn either as tiaras or necklaces. Extra bang for your buck, right? Actually, convertible tiaras are surpisingly common, and you can find all kinds of cool things (like tiaras where you can pop the jewels out and they are mounted on clips or broach backs, or the tiara breaks into pieces to be worn as a set of bracelets and rings... all sorts of things!). But since I'm focusing on fringe tiaras, let's stay on topic. I think it is neat that the nature of the many-pointed-pieces lets the tiara spread out to lie flat as a necklace. It is very simple and clever.

 But wait, there's more! I think this is totally neat and brilliant. Here is Queen Alexandra wearing what I believe is one or two fringe tiaras... around her waist, attached to the pointed bottom of her bodice. Like an amazing sparkly spikey belt or girdle! HOW COOL IS THAT?

 And here is a picture of Lilly Langtry, doing what looks to me like the same thing. Awesome!

 This is different, but here is are two cool dresses with beaded trim, applied to create a similar effect. I guess this is what you do if you can't afford an amazing fringe tiara. Oh, I need one! Or rather, two (to go around my waist, obviosly!).