Real Life Pretty Pretty Princess

After the 1890s ball we went back to our room and decided to be awfully silly. Do you remember the game Pretty Pretty Princess? Honestly, I hardly do, but I do remember there was a box of cheap plastic jewelry and the winner of the game got to put on all the jewelry and the princess! Or something like that. Of course, instead of cheap plastic we had all the (fairly fabulous) rhinestone jewelry of a weeks worth of fancy balls. Including a ton of brooches because I freaked out while packing and just took extras instead of making decisions. Anyway, here we go:

I was the clear loser. Julia counted that I was wearing 20 pieces of glitter during the ball, and here I have stripped down to one measly tiara. But I get points for style on my teased monster hair, right?

Quinn is rocking two tiaras, and some assorted necklace bling.

Julia R with a number of necklaces and a great brooch.

Raven in at least one tiara, plus pearls, rhinestone collar, and some fabulous matching dripping flower brooches that I have plans for but haven't yet debuted.

But here we have our undisputed victor. Can you even tell how many brooches he's wearing? And doesn't he have great hair for tiaras? He can really pull off the look. Not to mention that I love the iron man pants. Congratulations Nick - the rest of us never had a chance.

1890s at the Roger Williams Casino

For the 1890s ball, we went all out on the glitter. For me that meant a tiara, two necklaces, and 14 sparkly bow pins. Excessive? Since it was all about the sparkles, I made the dress out of black velvet for maximum visibility. Add some big hair, and it's a thing. I started Mother's dress for Newport last year, but we didn't get as far as a bodice. Everything this year was a little rushed (I lost about a month of preparation time to the flu followed by a vicious cold), but the fabric is lovely. It deserves to be trimmed with something pretty next time, though. Julia's dress was also new (and unfinished). I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but it is the most amazing fabric ever. Pretty green gauze all covered in gold and embroidery. Wow. Pictures!

The lights are making my tiara difficult to distinguish, but it is a fabulous one, all fleur de lys and sparkles!

Black velvet shows off the bows. I think I need more for the bodice, though. What do you think?

Sitting.

All the angles.

With Julia. This doesn't do the green dress any justice. It is amazing.

With Adrian

Pugliese girls, covered in sparkles

People dancing

More people. More dancing.

Zombie cakewalk!

More typical cakewalk. You can't see me behind Julia, but you can see my foot.

I believe they call this the pimp polka

Great Gatsby at Rosecliffe

The first formal evening event of Newport was a 1920s Great Gatsby party at Rosecliffe. I am fairly in love with my dress, which was a 1980s party dress I bought at a thrift store. Then I changed the sleeves (which were ugly and wrong), changed the skirt (which did not allow for the Charleston), and ended up with a fun 1920s party dress, gauzy and beaded all over! I am awfully pleased with it still, even though it was last minute like everything else. Also, I should talk about my headdress. I bought a band-shaped tiara (with swirly cast pieces covered in rhinestones, and freshwater pearl bands), and bought two matching brooches with dangles. Then Julia R had silver thread (genius!), and I lashed them together to make a fabulous 1920s headdress with side dangles (remember this post?). I adore it!

Mirror Doors

Silly!

Here are more pictures, but now of all the cool kids. I particularly insisted on the picture with us in a line with our feet in the air, like that original one you see everywhere. I think we need to practice being silly, because they look a little more ridiculous than we do.

Don't they look particularly silly?

I think next time we'll be sillier...

We sure do look cute, though. I love all the green dresses.

Charleston! Everyone else is eating, but we stop for nothing!

Also, we can fly. Did you know that?

People having fun in the ballroom...

... while the help cuts up outside

Everyone looks happy

Impromptu charleston lesson! There were not nearly enough charlestons in the evening for a 20s event. So tragic!

I like those mirrored doors a lot

Yes, other people attended. But my friends are really pretty, so they dominate the photos.

As though we were having fun or something!

Awww, cute.

Of course, by then I was tired

But nothing will stop the charleston!

Take a minute to appreciate Julia's bling, not to mention her wig. It looked really smashing on her.

I love this picture. We were trying to be the statue, but mostly we just look silly!

Goodnight, ghostly fountain!

Olga Paley's Corsage Ornament... or Hat Ornament!

Because of that MFA exhibit, I've been very interested in the idea of corsage ornaments, which as far as I'm concerned basically boil down to monster brooches, sometimes articulated or sometimes shaped to match the neckline of a dress. It seems to me you can call them any number of things, but they are just a category of sparkly ornament that you usually wear somewhere on your bodice. But something I've been learning (and which delights me, I must say) is that once you have a purpose-build piece of sparkle, nobody seems to care if you wear it somewhere else on your person. Got a cool necklace? Let's wear it as a tiara! Nice tiara... I'm going to drape it down the front of my dress. What a pretty brooch. I'm going to pin it to my hair. Oh yeah! Case in point, here is a picture of Olga Paley's Cartier Corsage Ornament/ Stomacher/ Massive Sparkly Brooch Thingy. And then there it is in her hat (in about 1912-1913)! Why not?

 Of course, now we're going to speculate on things I am not sure about. I know that the hat ornament is the Cartier stomacher. But what about her necklace? Doesn't it look a lot like a convertible fringe necklace? I don't know if she had access to one, so I cannot guess at the likelihood, but since everyone else likes to wear fringes as necklaces, why not? Another thing, I am pretty sure she owned one of those tiaras that are large diamond-encrusted circles, and you can hang drop gems in the windows (big honking diamonds? emeralds? pear shaped pearls? oh yes!). Is it just me, or does it look like she has one of those tacked to the front of her bodice?

There you have it! A serious lesson in alternative jewelry uses. Also, extra credit for the delicious fur, fringe, and bow ornament on the cape. I'm working on a bow-brooch post, too.

Early 20th Century Tiara

I love tiaras, and as far as I am concerned, sparkles are always fashionable. But having a headdress with dangling temple ornaments really strikes me as a 1920s kind of thing, making this particular tiara distinctive and cool in an early 20th century way. I really love it. I also spot some Greek key and laurel-like influences. This is so pretty and striking! Way to take hair ornamentation to the next level, don't you think?

This is How I do Homework

I have been very bad about posting. This is because I am writing a giant paper for my senior thesis and applying to graduate schools and having a dangerously large dose of REAL LIFE. I will try to be better, but here is an apology picture (or two) of me doing homework in a tiara. Because I have found that this motivates me shockingly well.

This is a new tiara, and I am pretty in love with it. It kind of reminds me of this one, worn by Princess Karoline Reuss of Greiz, shape wise. Or maybe even the one on Princess Katharina Henckle von Donnersmark, minus the massive pearl on top. I will have to wear it some time with at least that many necklaces, to really complete the effect, though.

When One Tiara Is Not Enough

Sometimes you need a really spectacular, jaw dropping, sparkly, incredible, gorgeous tiara. And then there are those times where one tiara won't do the trick. In that case, I suggest you take a page out of Empress Josephine's book and wear TWO TIARAS AT ONCE. Or at the very least, a tiara and a fabulous matching comb, or a band and a tiara... or even a tiara in front and a crown in back. WOAH! It actually never occurred to me that you could do this, and then I thought it was perhaps just and odd thing about Josephine. But I have now concluded that this trend can be identified in the Regency period not just in Josephine, not just in other Bonapartes, but in lots of people! Or at least royal people totally decked out in court dress. Observe!
First, Josephine Bonaparte: these are the images I most think of.

This one is interesting too... a big band, and two other somethings in the back?

 This is obviously a tiara and a comb, but it is still pretty cool.

Not sure here, but the stand up pearls in the back suggest more than one tiara-object going on.

Look! Tiara plus crown. Oh yeah.

And this one is also a tiara plus crown, I think, even though it is really difficult to see. Not sure how to make it clearer, but I'm pretty sure that's what is happening.

But now let us look at someone who is not Josephine sporting a similar look. Awkwardly enough, it is Maria Louise, Napoleon's second wife. Nice tiara and crown.

And here is Marie Pauline Bonaparte:

And let us not forget Hortense Bonaparte. The first one is quite subtle, but there is totally something far back on her head with green gems in it. For the other one, she certainly has a band of some sort in front and a small tiara further back on her head. Cool.

But it is not just the Bonapartes who wear this double-crown look. Here is Empress Maria Anna Carolina (yeah, I'm using some things that are definitely later than regency... but they are such cool examples that it can't be helped).

Anna Maria 7th Duchess of Bedford.

Maria Isabel de Borbon.

Queen Teresa of Bavaria, who wins my vote for favorite tiara plus crown combo. Not only that, but she is totally mixing gold and silver, which I am always nervous to do. Very nice.

Karoline Auguste von Bayern.

 Queen Desideria.

 Princess Auguste-Amalie of Bavaria.

Caroline Murat, one that is dim but really looks to me like there is a second hair ornament in the back, and one that is just too complicated to be a single tiara, though I can't make out the parts and it seems asymmetrical (like a tiara, a comb, and a crown? I just don't know now!).

So isn't that cool? I want to wear piles and piles of jewelry!