Events Attended: Titanic Tea

On Saturday morning, there was a early morning dance workshop. The sad part was that it was so early I was tired (if you close up an event and get home at 2 in the morning, then have to drive an hour to an event the next day that starts at 9, how miserable are you going to be?). But I pushed through and tried to be high-energy anyway! I can think of nothing more miserable than being in a dance class where the teacher is sucking the energy out of the room, instead of adding to it (and I have been in such a class, oh yes). We had a tough mix of skill levels, with about half the people having never done any ragtime dance at all and the other half being fairly expert! So we compromised and taught some relatively simple but rarely done ragtime variations. It warmed my little heart to see people trying them out at the ball that night! Now, after all that I have no pictures of the dance workshop. Boo! But I do have pictures of the tea that afternoon at the Hawthorne Hotel. It was really lovely, and I had the best time talking to really nice people. Plus, I got to show off a new tea dress!

I don't do group photos if I can avoid it, but everyone else looks so nice!

After tea we did a little story telling. I love Saki!

The room was lovely. It is a shame the carpet stops us from dancing!

A pretty new dress for Julia!

With a pretty sash! And a lovely hairstyle too.

The Pugliese Girls, in matching ragtime tea dresses. They are all basically based of a lovely original Mother owns. It is so simple and yet really pretty.

Posing in a window. I love windows.

Ruffles!

The tie is a vintage Harvard tie, so Adrian said he was Widener! Which was funny except that Widener died on the Titanic (which is why his mother donated tons of money to build Widener library, which is the reason we know him at all).

Check out the One Hour Dress

The workshop went really well this weekend. Of course, then I got very ill and didn't write about it. But I will now put that to rights!First of all, Katy Bishop showed us some really amazing pieces from the 1920s for inspiration. You should already be jealous that you weren't there (unless, I guess, you were). The clothing was exquisite.So much tea! We had lots of yummy food and delicious tea (also water and lemonade - it was a hot day!), plus we used my favorite pretty teacups. I should write about my tea set some day...Next, Nicole Carlson showed us all how to take measurements for the dress, and everyone got measured. Then it was time for the sewing demonstration.Barbara did it! She started at 3, and finished by 4, making this a literal one hour dress. We all watched and helped a bit. Here she is, cutting the final threads!
Here is the new dress on our lovely model, plus the rest of us who came in our one hour dresses (plus one other style).

Formal Tea at Linden Place

For a spiffy afternoon event, check out these pictures of Wednesday's Formal Tea at Linden Place. Also, we had a trolley drive us from the school to the place. Neat. I wore my (newly completely ruffled!) lavender and white striped trained skirt, and a new hat. Julia wore a matching hat, and mother made her a brand new and super amazing pink eyelet skirt, all coated in tucks and pleats and lovely details. It is really super spiffy. While you look at the pictures, be sure to note my strange hobby of jumping into low trees while wearing trained skirts (Look! It's me in a tree!), and the cute boar statue. I liked him.

A Waltham Adventure - The Tea Leaf, Gore Place, and Stonehurst

Yesterday was a grand adventure with a rocky start. A friend invited me to go see Lyman Estate, which was supposed to be having an open house as part of the Historic Waltham Days (lots of wonderful events and thing are happening in Waltham right now). Unfortunately, when we showed up at the Lyman Estate, we were informed that the open house was not Thursday, the 8th, even though all the publicity had given that date. There must have been some misunderstanding somewhere, but so much for that plan.

Since we were looking so lovely, and this is a friend who has been telling me about a particular teahouse nearby forever, we went there. The Tea Leaf is absolutely darling, and the woman who runs it is delightful. We had some delicious tea and tasty cucumber sandwiches for lunch. Yum. Definitely go there when you get a chance. We chatted, both with the woman who owns the Tea Leaf and with some other very nice people eating there, and they all suggested that we go check out Gore Place, since the Lyman Estate hadn't worked out and because Gore Place is lovely. She even called them so they would know we were coming, and they set up a special tour for us. Here is a picture taken at the Tea Leaf - note the seersucker.Gore Place is absolutely gorgeous, and the gentleman who gave us our tour did a spectacular job pointing out fascinating things. I can heartily recommend going to look at it some time. I would tell you all about the house, but there is just too much! Some highlights are the incredible stairs, the fascinatingly large billiards table, the super lovely reproduction wallpaper (especially with the birds... I love that stuff), a particularly beautiful vainty, pretty marble floors, Mr. Gore's outfit for going to court (regal, not legal, if that was unclear), etc. Too many lovely things. Here's a picture in front of the entrance.Next, we went to take a look around Stonehurst, but as we arrived a woman came to the door and told us we could take a look around inside if we wanted, which was very sweet. So we wandered around, inside and out, and I was very much photographed. My favorite is the picture with the big windows... I really love that one for some reason.
So yesterday was an adventurous day, full of Waltham History and good clothing. The end.

Albert Lynch's L'heure Du The

They are so lovely and ragtime-ey. I especially like the grey dress. Lovely.

Teacup Dresses

So, speaking of tea and dresses... check this out. The designer is Karisia Paponi. This show is "It's Four O'Clock" and it was her 4th year entry in the Antwerp Fashion Academy Show 2009. As is, I think, evident, the clothes are all inspired by teacup designs! Cool... My favorite by far is skirts with the scallop shaping and printing on the edges... can you tell how neat those are? But I also find the big saucer hat to be cool. The saucer jackets are a little much for me...

Gilbert and Sullivan Tea

Today I went to a spring tea held by Harvard's Gilbert and Sullivan Players. I've done the costumes for two of theirs shows - a production of Iolanthe and one of the Sorcerer. But as you can see, they are all very well dressed even without any help from me. This event is particularly hat-centric, and you know how much I like hats. Time for pictures!

First of all, here's what I wore. I am very into skirts with trains right now. Always good for tea, of course. And mopping up spilled tea (careful with trains... hahaha).Here I am with a friend (she helped me with the Iolanthe costumes, and also does costuming for other shows on campus).A friend with her fantastic hat, which she made from a far less fantastic hat. I believe that matching the lining of the hat with the coat was a total coincidence, but it looked great. The rest of her outfit was also lovely, especially her beautiful shoes!A particularly dashing gentleman, sporting a lovely pith helmet. He has excellent taste. The room we were in has these big murals on the wall, and I thought he looked particularly good standing in front of them. He even posed!
Another case of (I think) unintentional matching. Check out the bow tie and dress. It was a particularly lovely dress. And you can never go wrong with top hats, mini or otherwise.
The Board... a very classy bunch...
...you know, some of the time...And also some lovely pictures of pretty people enjoying tea.

Also, perhaps the coolest thing of the day was hearing that somebody actually reads this blog. Yay! Feel free to leave comments... I will read them.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the (many) pictures of lovely people, being elegant!