Making of: My (Sort of) First Ever Robe a L'anglaise

Hello, world! Today I will talking about my first ever historical 18th-century dress! (Okay, third. Lets just not talk about the first two.)

I finished the mockup and am using the amazing J.P. Ryan robe a l'anglaise pattern. I only added one sleeve to practice putting on sleeves the 18th century way. (I used this wonderful tutorial to learn how)

I think it fits pretty well and am really proud of myself. I am just waiting for some fabric swatches so that I can decide on the fashion fabric for the dress as well as the lining. I only had to make a few minor alteration to get the mockup to fit.

I got my inspiration from these wonderful resources:

Stylish Saturdays: Franz Xaver Winterhalter's Paintings

Hello! I am starting a new segment on my blog where I will post something stylish from history every Saturday. This week is Franz Xaver Winterhalter's paintings and his deception of the most gorgeous victorian dresses like the ones below. Stylish Saturday's are not to share information on the history of clothing or artists but just to admire fashion of the past.

So many beautiful dresses, they just take your breath away! 

Comment:

Which dress is your favorite?

Top 7 Things To Love About Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette

 I am going to tell you the top seven things I love about Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette movie because this movie is my everything!

In no particular order, here I go!

1) Mops the dog (who was actually a real life dog) I mean, just look, he is too cute!

And below is the real Mops:

2) The costumes! They are historically accurate and full of bright silks and printed cottons. 

3) The soundtrack is amazing and although some people hate it (why?) it makes the movie real. This wasn't "just history" back then.

4) Marie's relationship with Louis, so accurate

5) The handover ceremony, I have no words, it was so perfect!

6) The fans, necklaces, and silks

7) How they really filmed in Versailles, the real Versailles!

Happy Valentines Day,

Abigal

Big Sleeves of The 1830s

I have a love, hate relationship with clothing in the 1830s. I love the movie “The Young Victoria” If you haven’t see this movie, watch it! Okay, so they may have chucked out some parts of history for stuff that isn’t even true but on the bright side the costumes are gorgeous! The dresses are made of scrumptious silks in soft golds and airy cottons in deep reds and sunshine yellows. The dresses are gorgeous, absouletley gorgeous. 

I mean just look, how can you not fall in love?

The costume designer was Sandy Powell who also designed the costumes for Shakespeare in Love (1998)

                                 And of course, Prince Albert, I love them together so much!

Anyway, onto what this post is actually about:

One thing that was BIG (no pun intended) in the 1830s were large, puffy sleeves.

Just look at these fashion plates and you will see!

And later in the 1830s sleeves became smaller and more elegant:

Women would get the slightly bell shaped silhouette by piling on petticoats until finally they got the beautiful shape above. 

The large, puffy sleeves are called gigot sleeves from the French word “gigot” which means back leg of an animal (because apparently that's what gigot sleeves look like)

One way to get the look was through sleeve plumpers:

From the L.A. County Museum of Art

The late 1820s saw a rise in big puffy sleeves. As romantic, extravagant styles became more popular in the 1830s, the gigot sleeves became a gigantic fashion trend. Some critiques hated the sleeves and nicknamed them ”imbecile sleeves”

Bibliography:

"Gigot Sleeves." The Fashion Historian. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2017.

"Gigot Sleeves." Gigot Sleeves - Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2017.

Dream Dresses #1

Hello! Today I will be showing a few fashion plates that I would love to re-create in the upcoming months (if I have time and materials!)

Reddingtons are gorgeous and I love this pink reddington with the big purple hat and hedgehog hairstyle! I need this in my life! Although, I would change a few things, I would wear a white petticoat instead of a blue one and the yellow bit would be pink. Overall, I am obsessed with this dress, especially the zone front like aspect.

 Okay, so this isn't technically a dress but I love historic hats more than anything and plan on re-creating the pink hat on the bottom right corner so I felt like I should include this in my first dream dresses post.

 Look at the gorgeous fuschia silk and cording on the back (I thought that was only a 19th-century thing until I saw this fashion plate) I love, love, love the Turkish inspired sleeves although I don't love the yellow accents and would prefer mine to be white.

 Look at the color of this frock, it's gorgeous and the white accents make this my ultimate dream dress.

I couldn't help but leave the best for last, this beauty has my favorite (Turkish inspired sleeves!) a stunning white sash, an anglaise back, ruffly trim and the most amazing blue color and train. This dress was love at first sight and might be my favorite fashion plate of all time.

Making these dazzlingly 18th-century dresses is going to be quite a feat. I only started working on my first ever 18th-century a few weeks ago and am going to have more updates on it when I get more fabric in the mail. But, a girl can dream!

-Abigal