Mardi Gras dress

Family and friends of all ages have also participated in this entirely hand-sewn train. The 18-foot train is fashioned in Queen Worth's favorite shade of green cut silk velvet in a damask pattern with a regal gold and is bordered with gold brocade raffia. The champagne fox fur border is embellished with multi-loop duchess silk satin and rhinestone bows. The brocade is encrusted with large rhinestones and medallions of Swarovski crystals. At the base of the train is a shell which is the symbol of Saint James. The shell along with crosses interspersed throughout the train was chosen by Queen Worth to reflect her strong spirituality. The shell is created in a deep gold silk shantung and is adorned with a crest that combines the Wentworth and Morrissette family crests. The top of the shell has angel wings in memory of her godmother and grandmother, the two angels in her life that she has recently lost. Above the shell are her intertwined initials, designed by another cousin who used a 19th-century duogram for inspiration. The duogram is Queen Worth's official symbol and will be featured throughout the season. As the focal point of the center of the train, the letters are created in deep gold and ivory silk overlaid with Austrian crystal entredeaux accented throughout with floral clusters of brilliants and baguettes and large emerald cut stones.

Via J-Walk.

"Destroyed cotton" t-shirt

Fashionable.  And expensive.  Discussed at Reddit (twice).

I'm setting this image into an interesting juxtaposition with the one in the post below this, of refugee children living in a slum.

Lady Gaga is jealous

Via Reddit.

"Fanny packs" become high fashion

The Wall Street Journal reports that fanny packs are now fashionable:

His $325 DVF belted satchels hitting stores this month aren't actually called fanny packs, of course. Mr. Mispelaere refers to them as "hands-free bags"—a name, he says, that helps convey "a functional shape, but with a touch of glamour, a touch of luxury and a touch of seriousness."..

Fanny packs, small bags that fasten around the waist, are among the most reviled accessories in modern culture, carrying inevitable associations with "scary American tourists at the Louvre," says designer Isaac Mizrahi.

As it turns out, more sartorial types now are butting in on the look, even as they shun the "f" word. Korean-American handbag designer Sang A Im-Propp, who sells an alligator version for $1,995, calls hers a "belt bag." The term "fanny pack," she says, "is just eww, so cheesy, so tacky, so horrible."..

Louis Vuitton helped reignite the fanny-pack fad last year after putting new styles on the runway. Hermès gave the trend a luxury lift with its slender $4,675 "Kelly Bandeau," set to arrive in stores for spring.

Some international designers have a cultural reason to back away from the word "fanny." Innocuous slang for the gluteus maximus in the U.S., the word is an obscenity in the U.K. and Australia, where it refers to female genitalia. In those countries, fanny packs are typically known as a "bum bags."

More at the link, including a gallery of photographs.

Image credits:  Getty Images (top) and Louis Vuitton.

Camelflage

"Camelflage" is a cleverly-named feminine "visual privacy undergarment," described by the manufacturer as follows:

If you are an active, fashion conscious or contemporary woman then Camelflage panties are for you. These aren't your ordinary panty, they were specifically designed to smooth out your feminine parts under tight clothing. Yoga and exercise pants, leggings, tight shorts, skinny jeans or even some work trousers can have a shorter inseam. You have enough to worry about these days; the last thing you need to think about is your panties riding up during your cardio kick boxing class.

Grammatically awkward, but reasonably self-explanatory. Via Fritinancy, which presented this as "relief for the heartbreak of cameltoe."  Those unfamiliar with "cameltoe" can read about the subject at Wikipedia.

Butterfly dress from the 1890s

This blog has featured quite a few butterfly-related items, including ladies dresses (here, here, and here).  This latest addition comes from the curiously-entitled tumblr Sex, vintage, & Royals.

Edwardian girl (1911)

Apparently a companion piece to this photo ("Vintage hand colored real photo postcard, circulated in 1911, divided back, published by Gustave Liersch & Co. (GLCo), Berlin, Germany. © Casas-Rodríguez Collection, 2009. Some rights reserved.)

Found at Vintage Photography.

Queen Marie of Romania

Click for bigger/even more dreadful.


Source, via Vintage Photography.

A top new model. Male model.

... 19-year old Andrej Pejic is not your usual male model as you can see from these pictures showing his two starring turns on the catwalk this past week for Jean Paul Gaultier.

The gorgeous blonde Veronica Lake ringer in gold and furs at Gaultier's menswear show? Pejic. The beautiful hourglass bride at the finale of Gaultier's haute couture show in Paris, resplendent in ruffled tulle and feather headdress? Pejic again.

More at the Telegraph.

A mourning buckle

An interesting item from the Victoria and Albert:

Jewels commemorating the dead were widely worn during the 17th century. This mourning buckle contains panels of woven hair, decorated with an elaborate inscription in gold thread and a small enamelled skull, all set behind rock crystal. The inscription, partly in Latin, tells us that the piece commemorates Elizabeth Harman who died on 11 April 1698, aged 27.

I couldn't find a way to rotate the photo 90 degrees to orient it more "buckle-like," so it looks a bit odd.  The hair runs around the perimeter of the buckle, underneath the inscription.

Image fixed, with a hat tip to nolandda!

"Pants on the ground"

Photo found at Nothing To Do With Arbroath, so I decided to see what I could find out about this fashion trend.  Wikipedia has a page on it, with a link to President Obama's comments on the subject.  A Snopes article discusses the origins and non-implications of the trend.

At some sites this type of dress is referred to as jailin' or saggin' - the popularity of the latter term perhaps influenced by what it spells backwards...

The Elizabethan ruff

One of my Christmas gifts this year was the book shown above, about the Shakespeare-Oxford connection. I'll review it later this winter, but by coincidence I encountered a nice post this week at A Polar Bear's Tale which featured five paintings of seventeenth-century ladies wearing similar collars, including this "Portrait of a Woman" (1628) by Michiel Jansz van Miereveldt:

Was there any practical purpose for such an elaborate collar?  Inquiring minds want to know.  First stop: Wikipedia -

The ruff which was worn by men, women and children, evolved from the small fabric ruffle at the drawstring neck of the shirt or chemise. They served as changeable pieces of cloth that could themselves be laundered while keeping the wearer's doublet from becoming soiled at the neckline.

The discovery of starch allowed ruffs to be made wider without losing their shape. Later ruffs were separate garments that could be washed, starched, and set into elaborate figure-of-eight folds by the use of heated cone-shaped goffering irons. Ruffs were often coloured during starching, vegetable dyes were used to give the ruff a yellow, pink or mauve tint. A pale blue colour could also be obtained via the use of smalt, though for an unknown reason Elizabeth I took against this colour and issued a Royal Prerogative "Her Majesty's pleasure is that no blue starch shall be used or worn by any of her Majesty's subjects."

At their most extreme, ruffs were a foot or more wide; these cartwheel ruffs... required a wire frame called a supportasse or underpropper to hold them at the fashionable angle...

I suppose in an era when washing-up was not very meticulous, the removable collar did protect other clothing from stains.  For "goffering irons" I had to retreat to the OED: to flute or crimp, from the French gaufrer "to stamp figures on cloth."  And "smalt" is also of French derivation (ultimately related to the smelting of ores), and refers to a deep blue glass colored by cobalt oxides.

For those interested, the starching process is explained in detail, with pix, at Elizabethan Costume.  Detailed instructions on how to actually make the ruff are explained here.

"The ruffs, or collars, framed the face and dictated the hairstyles of the age which were generally short for men and swept up look was required for women."

"Adultification" of young girls

The above is one of five photos assembled at Sociological Images, from a photo spread in the December issue of French Vogue (article title Cadeaux = "gifts").

The series of photographs is another piece of evidence of the adultification of young girls, an adultification that looks suspiciously like child porn, given the sexualization of adult women. New York Magazine reports that the girls are 6 years old. Don’t miss the lipstick, high heels, and disinterested pouts.

More at the source, with links to previous posts on this rather disturbing topic.

Do your clothes still have manufacturer's tags attached?

The fashion reporter for the Wall Street Journal comments:

The square tags tacked to the sleeves of suit jackets are merely a retail tool, making it easier for shoppers to flip through a rack of suits... When you get home, that outside label should always come off.

Once, I couldn't resist telling a 20something man that he had forgotten to remove that label. He countered that he had no intention of taking it off; the label telegraphed to his friends he was wearing a "designer" suit. While many folks favor showy logos and labels, I believe clothes should broadcast their quality through great style, craftsmanship and fit.

As for the basting designed to hold lapels and pleats in place until the garment is purchased—pull out those stitches before you get dressed.  The lone exception is the stitching that sews jacket pockets closed. Many stylish wearers prefer to leave the pockets stitched tight. That renders the pockets useless but also prevents the fabric from bulging or sagging...

As for the logo patches on the back of jeans, which don't detach so easily— they still need to come off, in my opinion. I have never liked the billboard effect of those insignias...

Long woolies - 1913 Sears catalogue

Via Centuries of Advice and Advertisements.

Seagull fashion accessories

Late 19th-century accessories for the fashion-conscious Victorian lady.

Found at Ye Olde Fashion, via Fuck Yeah, Victorians!

Décolletage

A photograph of Lina Cavaliéri, actress and singer.  Note that this portrait was created in 1900.

From the musée d'Orsay, Paris, via Réunion des musées nationaux and A London Salamagundi.

Evening dress, 1925-26.

Evening dress designed by les Callot Soeurs, 1925-26

One can't help but be impressed by the transparency of the dress, apart from the applique design.  Does anyone know whether/what kind of an undergarment would have been worn with this?

Found at Hats and Laces, which is well worth browsing for those interested in the history of clothing.

Gown from the 1870s

From the collections of the Kyoto Costume Institute; country of origin not specified.


Via Hats and Laces.

Body jewelry

Found at Maisie.