Author: TheQuintessentialClothesPen

The Quintessential Clothes Pen creates historical clothing and accessories as well as modern garments.

Newport Vintage Dance Week Part II: Seaside Tea Dance at Easton’s Beach

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Here we are again, for the second installation of the Newport marathon of awesome-ness. If you missed it, you can view the first installation, the 1920s Gatsby Ball at Rosecliff, here.

The Seaside Tea Dance took place on Tuesday. It was held at a venue right on the beach that also houses a operational carousel! In fact, the carousel was shut down for the public so that those of us at the ball might ride it with our other costumed companions. If you’ve ever been to Newport, this beach area is the one just down the hill from Bellevue Avenue (where many of the mansions are). Actually, many of the mansions along the left side of Bellevue Avenue actually have a view of the beach area where this event was held. The day events did not have specific time periods, thus you’ll see a variety represented in the pictures. It’s nice to be able to choose, but I enjoy the atmosphere most when everyone is wearing clothes from a short time span (as is the case at the formal evening balls).

It wound up being a rainy afternoon, which caused some stress, but we managed to overcome our various situations and have silly, fun time anyway. You’ll have to look through the pictures to see the adventures! Onward!

I hardly danced at this event–I wasn’t in the mood. BUT, I did ride the carousel!
Carousel!
Hm… not actually smiling, but with the same look on their faces.
More of the fabulous young set…
Being proper ladies, we were obligated to ride side saddle! (And you can see the back of my newly decorated hat.)
Now you can see the front of my hat.
This was ride number two. I was practicing my princess wave.
As I mentioned in an earlier picture: we didn’t dance much. We did spend a lot of time sitting and discussing things (I don’t remember what things… I think mostly that we didn’t feel like dancing…). You can also see the fabulous knot I made on the blue belt! It was all pinned in place at the last minute, but I do like it.
We, the young set, might not have been dancing, but that didn’t stop other people!
If you’re going to wear matching bathing suits, you must take pictures on the beach!
Oh no! The picture has been crashed by a random modern guy! Eep!
Single occupant pictures are always essential.
Here I am: 1900. New skirt, blouse from 1913 (shhh…), new belt, and newly trimmed hat (that appears to be listing to one side… oh well, it’s jaunty, right?).
From the back.
Close up. I love that I finally have a picture of this blouse that shows the details!
Another good blouse shot. I can’t resist including lots of pictures of new clothes!
Silly fun! We went wading in the ocean, in the rain! It was pretty warm, so the water didn’t feel cold.
It is for spur of the moment events like this that it is always useful to wear historic underthings… You never know when your combination legs might be seen!
Look, you can see one of our faithful cameramen!
After getting our feet all sandy, we had to hose down a little bit.
My ostrich feathers were rather bedraggled when we finally went inside… but I fluffed them and they dried looking just as wonderful as before the rainy sea adventure.
Walking to the car. More petticoat ruffle is always better!

Final picture tally: 22 pictures out of 655 total from this event… You made it!

Newport Vintage Dance Week Part I: 1920s Gatsby Ball at Rosecliff

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Remember I recently promised you lots of awesome pictures and recounted adventures? Last week was the 25th annual Newport Vintage Dance Week hosted by the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers. The week includes vintage dance classes during the day followed by fabulous afternoon events and formal balls in the evenings. All of the events are held in lovely places including some of Newport’s famous historic mansions!

My friends and I took a whopping 4,796 (ish) pictures during the week!!! Yikes! I promise I won’t put up ALL of them… but even after sorting, there are still mounds of great ones to share. Get ready, because a marathon of awesome-ness is beginning… right now!

Part I: the 1920s Gatsby Ball at Rosecliff:

Commissioned by Nevada silver heiress Theresa Fair Oelrichs in 1899, architect Stanford White modeled Rosecliff after the Grand Trianon, the garden retreat of French kings at Versailles. After the house was completed in 1902, at a reported cost of $2.5 million, Mrs. Oelrichs hosted fabulous entertainments here, including a fairy tale dinner and a party featuring famed magician Harry Houdini. (From the Newport Mansions website about Rosecliff. The site also includes really beautiful pictures of the mansion. I encourage you to click the link to look at them!)

The setting: Rosecliff as we arrived in the twilight. (Rargh, lions!)
Ready Newport? We’re here and it’s the 20s!
The yawning red carpeted grand staircase just inside the entrance.
It turns out that we were wearing complementing shades of green and gold!

I made a new green dress for this ball–my first 20s dress. I’m not really a huge fan of this particular period, but it was fun to branch out and build something different. In fact, I know at least 4 of the 5 dresses we were wearing were built new for this ball (some were finished just before the ball…). It’s really neat that without realizing it we all coordinated, but each of us managed to incorporate different design pieces into our dresses: one has panels, one has beads, one has asymmetrical draping, one has fringe, and one has an overskirt. All similar 20s shapes, and all totally different and entirely unique!

The staircase required lounging and looking elegant.
More lounging… we lost a few people from the last shot. Oh well!
Just practicing a bit of Charleston before entering the ballroom…
I’m not sure what we’re discussing, but we look rather intent on the topic…
The ceiling of the ballroom!
The live orchestra (I believe this ball had music by the New River Orchestra).
Looking in on the ballroom from the lovely patio.
Contrary to the impression in the following pictures: there were actually lots of other people at the ball in addition to us…
We really enjoyed the Charleston and more importantly, we enjoyed Charleston-ing together!
More Charleston!
Kicks and flying Charlestons were not to be left out! I am particularly amused that this picture captured some of us in midair!
Look, we’re all kicking the same way at the same time! How cute!
This became one of our signature dances for the week: Charleston in a line!
It accompanied one of our other signature dances: the Raise the Roof Charleston (which I don’t think I have pictures of at this ball–but perhaps at another ball I’ll find some). Raise the Roof Charleston is simply regular Charleston footwork while raising the roof with your hands–it’s super silly and super fun!
I think we took most of those Charleston pictures during mid-ball refreshment time, which is why the ballroom is empty behind us. But here is more proof that there were other people at the ball, too!
There were other lovely rooms in addition to the ballroom that we could wander through… isn’t this one cosy?
And this one, which is grand and fabulous! I love the curtains!
Okay, part of my love of the curtains is related to my love of tassels, especially giant upholstery/drapery tassels!
It was, of course, essential that I have my picture taken with the fabulous drapes!
There were a lot of poses… this is only a few!
Trading places: I’m behind the camera now…!
Another view of the same room. Isn’t is wonderfully fabulous???
Here I am, be-feathered, be-pearled, be-gloved, and enjoying the mirror doors!
Mirrored doors are mesmerizing and fantastic photo opportunities! More feathers! More jewels! More pearls! More gloves! More awesome! (More adequate! Inside joke…)
Just one of the many fabulous chandeliers hanging from one of the fabulous ceilings!

It was essential that every day include at least one super silly moment. Most days, of course, there were many silly moments…

This was just one silly moment from this ball (in case you can’t tell what’s happening–and I don’t blame you, because honestly, I can’t really tell either… I only know because I was there–we are attempting to imitate the statue behind us).
Another silly moment, diving into the fountain!
Ok, so we didn’t actually dive into the fountain… but we did briefly consider it!
Strike a final pose before the night ends!

Congratulations! You made it through all the pictures!

Final tally: 35 pictures out of 890 from that event.

I leave you with vicarious memories of a window into a glorious evening of the past–tonight, the 1920s.

Edwardian Gown Eye Candy

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This fabulous vintage Edwardian dress was recently brought to my attention by one of you fabulous readers. It is for sale on eBay for $2,250! I certainly won’t be purchasing this original, but I absolutely think it is something to add to my body of inspirational images of clothing for future projects… The seller has included many pictures of the dress as well as background information on the dressmaker and a detailed description of the garment. I have included some of that information in addition to pictures for you to view here in this post.

The lace is exquisite! The rhinestones add even more sparkle! I love that there are pictures which show the closures and construction details. I classify this gown as “drool-worthy.” What do you think? Do you like it? Or not? Why?

Some of the information from the eBay seller, labellevintage_inc:

“This was created by Mrs. Catherine Donovan who was originally from Ireland (b.1826) and studied fashion in Paris. She owned the couture shop “MRS. C. DONOVAN & CO” which was located at 29 East 55th St.in New York. Her dresses in 1910 were billed at $100 and up which was extravagant as a gown from her would cost over $4,000 today!

Many of her garments are found in Museums throughout the world. There are 4 dresses at the Metropolitan Museum of Art alone. But the detailing and workmanship of these garments are worth every penny in my opinion.

FABRIC:
This is made of peach satin (formerly peach silk) and covered in exquisite ivory lace with re-embroidered patterns done with silk thread. The lace gives hints of Orientalism (which was made popular by Paul Poiret ) with its Royal Pavillion shapes on the back panels. The rosette and belt details are done in peach silk.

This enchanting garment features a fitted satin strapless bodice covered with a blouson bodice of lace. The bodice features a low square neckline and the dolman sleeves are short. Both the neckline and arms are decorated with cream glass and gold painted cut steel beads. There is an inner netted bodice which helps with the weight of the dress.

The empire waist is decorated with a ruched sash which is adorned with rhinestones, each individually sewn on a gold lame’ backing in the shape of a buckle.

The straight satin skirt is covered in two tiers of lace at the front. Each tier is decorated with cream glass beads and gold steel cut beads in a chevron shape. The tier is separated with a silk band featuring a large silk rosette. The top tier is adorned with crystal cut glass beads around the hemline.

The back has a surplice detail on the bodice with the silk band closing at the back decorated with more rhinestones.

The lace skirt is made of 3 tiers with one extra panel which attaches to the finger as a drape or can be left hanging as a short train. The top tier and second tier are both decorated with crystal cut glass beads.

This closes with several snaps, hook & eyes and tiny crochet buttons at the back.”

Thank you, Kimberly, for bringing this dress to my attention!

Fun in the Sun Part II (Regency Picnic 2012)

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As you might recall from my last post, I have more Regency picnic game pictures to share with you! I’m excited! I hope you are as well… We left off with the four of us playing “Graces” and coming up with innovative methods of playing to keep us amused and challenged… let’s just see where that led us! I had a hard time condensing the photos… I hope you’re not overwhelmed!

Lost my bonnet, but I caught a hoop on each arm! Success!
Yes! Bonnet still on head and two hoops! Wow!
Double hoop-age and a silly looking action shot! What could be better?
Reach! Somehow, I think this is much more graceful looking than the last photo…

Okay… now we get silly!

Wand attack pose. Not very Regency-like, but amusing, nonetheless!
Strike a pose! Conduct an orchestra! ???

Attempts at being graceful and Regency-like…

Very graceful hoop catching.
Waiting to catch the hoops.
Gracefully catching the flung hoop.
Another graceful pose. Okay, okay, so I wore my sunglasses for much of the picnic. Shhh!

Bloopers?

Graceful, certainly, but I don’t think I caught the hoops that time…
This certainly looks like one time when the hoops are going to hit the ground…
(More sunglasses… didn’t they have those?)I think I’m confused about why the second hoop is on the ground by my right foot…

Fun in the Sun Part I (Regency Picnic 2012)

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Vacationing is lovely while it lasts, but it does seem to make real life a bit overwhelming. I’ve been slow on the posting lately because of my vacationing. And, to be honest, life + vacationing is most likely going to be slowing me down some more over the next month or so. Some of my vacations will generate some really great pictures, though, so stay tuned for those in August!

It’s been roasting-ly hot here in Massachusetts for the last few weeks, but the heat didn’t stop the Massachusetts Costumers from enjoying the annual Regency Picnic. It was toasty, but we tried to spend lots of time in the shade. And despite the heat, we had a marvelous time! Join me in recalling the fun through viewing (just a few of the 300 or so) pictures we snapped that day.

Our idyllic setting at a lovely park in Bridgewater, MA.
Okay, so our food and table setting was not historically accurate. But the colors were so nice and summer-y! (And the pink lemonade was quite refreshing.)
After eating, we strolled through the park and took pictures (and coerced random passers-by to take photos of us…). Lovely group of ladies, don’t you think?
Then we played a Regency game called… “Graces?” (Ack! I can’t remember the name… Jenni, help me!)
Basically, each person has two long sticks which they use to fling the be-ribboned hoops at the other player. The second person catches the hoops on their own sticks before flinging them back again.
I’ve included pictures where you can see the hoops in midair. Despite the fact that we often seem to be catching the hoops, I also have many pictures where we, um, didn’t catch the hoops…
Eventually, we got the hang of it and decided to make it more challenging. In this instance we had two hoops going at once, one flung by each player!
It took a little time to get used to the coordination of flinging and catching in quick succession.
But we got the hang of it and then we started flinging two hoops at the same time in one direction! That meant the person catching had to catch two at once! Eep!

After that challenge we thought we were finished with the game… but then one of us (I can’t remember who…) had the brilliant idea to attempt to make graceul, Regency-like poses, while playing the game. That kept us going for awhile longer, with some amusing photos and lots of laughs, but you’ll have to wait till my next post for those photos (I don’t want to overload you with too many fun in the sun Regency picnic photos at once, you know!). In the end, the heat wasn’t so bad!

A Series Of Striped Shoes

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Since I seem to be on a shoe spree, I thought it would be a fitting time to share with you a series of striped shoes from the 19th and early 20th century. The continuity of the adornment over the changing shoe styles on these first three pairs is so interesting.

Striped evening slippers. 1840-1849. The Met.
Striped evening slippers. 1860-1870. The Met.
Striped evening pumps. 1920. The Met.

Do you have a favorite amongst these? Personally, I like the pair from 1860-1870 best (maybe it’s the rosette that appeals to me in addition to the stripes!). You can also pick from these next few pairs, which I’ve included just for fun.

Striped slippers. 1795-1810. The Met.
Striped shoes. 1845-1865. The Met. (These kind of look like Toms?!?)
Striped evening shoes. Late 1920s. The Met.

Astorias In Action

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As I recently mentioned, my American Duchess Astorias have gained a coat of paint and are now ivory. The buttons have also been moved and now it is time to officially show you how fun they are with feet in them! (By the way, I did include a picture where you could see them on my new portfolio page, which was unveiled before this post… it was a spoiler, though I don’t think it was very noticeable!)

Here’s the spoiler picture.
They’re a little buried in the grass, but here they are!
A close up!

 Super fun! Now I have outdoor shoes to wear with Edwardian clothes!

Product links in this post contain an affiliate code, which provides a small benefit to my shoe fund. This does not affect my impressions and reviews of this product.

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Introducing The New Portfolio Page!

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If you’ve looked along the top of this blog, right above that lacey petticoat picture, you have probably noticed the different pages listed there. Hopefully, you’ve even clicked on one or two of them and conducted a little bit of exploration! Well, as of today, a new page has been added: The Portfolio Page.

“What is the Portfolio Page?”   Well, click and see!

If you’re like me and you want to know before you click, here are the details: The Portfolio Page is a gallery of my past work with links to the blog posts about the different garments. As I continue to construct new things, I’ll add them to the page so that it constantly reflects a quick-view of my work. The Portfolio Page also contains a link to my professional portfolio, for those of you who are interested in learning more about me or seeing my expanded, professional work.

My professional portfolio: www.quinnmburgess.com

Why do I have a separate professional portfolio? Well, this blog is a collection of posts relating to my personal hobby of historic costuming; however, as a professional costumer there are many other things that I make and shows that I work on. These are things that I have chosen to keep separate from my personal blog for many reasons, but they are still representative of my costuming skills. The new Portfolio Page of this blog is a great opportunity for me to include all my personal projects that show a high quality of work but which do not belong on my professional portfolio! So go, visit my Portfolio Page and then take a little trip to see my professional portfolio, too!

In fact, here’s a taste! Here are just a few things that are available to be viewed on my professional portfolio, but which are not included on this blog.

1930s bias Vionnet evening gown in silk crepe back satin with matching underwear set.
c. 1940 three piece suit.
1627 wool doublet and breeches.
One of my hand quilted projects: a Shoofly pattern lap quilt.

 

Back Detail of the 1912 Tea Gown

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A few posts ago, while I was sharing pictures of the Titanic Weekend in April, I included images of the front of  my new 1912 black and ivory silk tea gown and mushroom hat. Unfortunately, I didn’t have good pictures of the back of the dress at that time… but now I do, and it is time to post them!

The back of my 1912 tea gown. I like the belt that crosses and swoops up (hard to see, except that the line of beading is interrupted by the belt) and the side back seams that end in pleats (it looks really cool while I’m walking!).
It’s a little hard to see in the first image, but the side back seams make a few intentional right corners before opening in inverted box pleats that help form the train. Here is a close-up of those seams: unfortunately, they pucker a little in the silk charmeuse because I didn’t think to stabilize them before starting to sew and snip corners… Let that be a lesson to you!
Another view of the back seam and pleats.
Here’s a side view, so you can see the front and the back.
And a recap picture of the mushroom hat.

I was able to wear my freshly painted and moved-button Astorias with this dress and others at Dress U recently, but you’ll have to wait to see pictures of the finished shoes–they’ll be coming in another post soon!

Freshly Painted Ivory Astorias

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Ivory Astorias, yay!

Yes! My leather painting was successful! My American Duchess Astorias are now a lovely shade of ivory–hard to notice the difference now that they are painted, but compare the two shoes in the picture below. Can you see the difference? I certainly can. I still need to move the buttons so that the straps do not gap, but half of my plan is complete! Only a few days left for me to do that before I wear them…

This link contains an affiliate code, which provides a small benefit to my shoe fund. This does not affect my impressions and reviews of this product.
Left: Unpainted, the original color
Right: Painted ivory to match the fabric at the bottom of the picture
Getting ready to paint.

How did I go about painting them? Well, as I mentioned in my last post, I bought Angelus Leather Paint in three colors: yellow, white, and champagne. Technically, ivory is a very small amount of yellow diluted with mounds of white, but when I went to order the paint I had a great gut reaction thought that the champagne might make a better ivory than the yellow. It turns out that the yellow was just too strong! I made a little swatch card (so I could find the right shade of ivory, see what the shades looked like when dry, and so I could repeat the color if I needed to mix more paint). I tried the yellow first, and just one drop of yellow in a fair amount of white made a light yellow color, not at all similar to ivory!

Trying to make ivory paint from mixing yellow and white.

So back to paint mixing: I next tried the champagne. I kept adding more drops of the champagne color to the white to see what depth of shade I would want.

Ivory fabric, top left: that’s the color I was aiming for
White toe of the Astoria, bottom left: unpainted
My swatch card, right side: with an arrow at the shade I like

Then on to the painting! The Angelus paint worked wonderfully. I did two coats: a light first coat and then a second coat to blend away all the brush strokes and even out the color. I thought about mixing my paint with a little water, but actually liked the consistency straight out of the bottle. I had no trouble getting smooth looking paint after the two coats I applied.

If you look carefully, you can see that the back of the shoe and the heel have not been painted yet. The front was only just receiving the first coat of paint, so it was not super smooth or opaque yet.

 As I said, the change is not drastic, but it is noticeable. The shoes no longer glare white at me.  Yay! Here’s a final picture of my whole swatch card with the newly painted ivory Astoria!

Freshly painted Astoria, with my swatch card. Champagne ivories on the left and yellow not-quite-there ivories on the right.

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