Newport Vintage Dance Week Part III: Formal Tea on the Lawn at RWU

August 16, 2012August 16, 2012 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ Leave a comment

As I was in a bit of a hurry when I posted pictures of the Seaside Dance at Easton’s Beach, I failed to include some interesting information that I am going to include here, now! Other ladies in the fabulous young set at Newport maintain their own blogs and have also posted pictures of the Newport events with their own unique commentary. If you’re vicariously enjoying the fun of the week, I encourage you to check out their posts and extend your fun! #1: Antonia’s Experiments in Elegance “Speed Virginia Reel at Ochre Court,” for example; #2: Raven’s Plaid Petticoats “Project Newport,” for example; or #3: Barbara’s Recreating the Nineteenth Century Ballroom “The White Ball at Rosecliff,” for example.

On this blog right now, however, we are going to continue the marathon of awesome-ness that was Newport and reminiscence about the Formal Tea on the Lawn at Roger Williams University. This event, being an afternoon event, did not have a specific time period, so you’ll see a variety of clothing styles. Here we go!

On our way to the official lawn for the tea, we stopped to take pictures here by the boats.

Here I am: 1903. The blouse was made last year and the skirt earlier this summer (though I haven’t posted about that yet…). The bolero and hat were additions to complete the look.

A side view. You can really see the silhouette.

It’s like Where’s Waldo. Can you spot one of our faithful photographers caught on camera? He blends in with the boats.

Another beautiful distraction before we even made it to tea.

I wish there weren’t modern buildings behind the pond… but there were fish in pond!

Looking picturesque. Again with the modern buildings…

Close up. Such a lovely line with the skirt and all! And the buildings are much less obvious.

IMG_1540 (2) — Finally we stopped getting distracted and made it to the tea, where we saw this lovely group of people playing croquet!

This is only the beginning of the croquet poses…

So we didn’t actually play croquet… we just borrowed the mallets for our photos!

Hard to see that they are different lengths in the last photo, but not in this one!

The long one was great for striking a pose that didn’t involve bending over.

I’ve whittled it down to just this one close up hat picture…

We got our young ladies together to take pictures in a line. We do love back side photos!

Swirling skirts and stunning backgrounds. What more could we ask for?

Silly moment! We like to try and walk toward the camera slowly, which always means walking like we’re either zombies or underwater, depending on your inclination.

Awww. Aren’t they lovely together? Look at those trains!

IMG_1534 (2) — The neat looking knot-thing to finish off this particular sash–finishing off sashes in neat ways this was a theme of the week for me!

Sitting with one of the little girls for a photo. We had to bribe her with lemonade… shhh!

It’s possible that we were also distracted by cattails on our way out…

I really wanted to reach them, but they were just out of reach.

We had to return to reality–the modern world. But did we walk on the sidewalk? NO! Up the middle of the road is the only way.

More silly! Lifting the skirts and walking is always essential for sillyness. We are on our way to get ready for the evening 1860s ball at Ochre Court!

Final tally for this event: 27 pictures out of 298 total. Whew!

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

August 13, 2012 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ 2 Comments

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!

Hm… not actually smiling, but with the same look on their faces.

IMG_1124 (2) — Being proper ladies, we were obligated to ride side saddle! (And you can see the back of my newly decorated hat.)

IMG_1127 (2) — Now you can see the front of my hat.

IMG_1254 (2) — This was ride number two. I was practicing my princess wave.

IMG_1365 (2) — 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.

IMG_1366 (2) — We, the young set, might not have been dancing, but that didn’t stop other people!

IMG_1291 (2) — If you’re going to wear matching bathing suits, you must take pictures on the beach!

IMG_1301 (2) — 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?).

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

August 7, 2012August 7, 2012 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ 8 Comments

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 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!

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…

IMG_0928 (2) — 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!

IMG_0962 (2) — 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

July 28, 2012 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ 5 Comments

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!

A Series Of Striped Shoes

June 29, 2012 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ 7 Comments

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.

54.61.31a-b_CP4 — Striped evening slippers. 1840-1849. The Met.

54.61.70a_CP4 — Striped evening slippers. 1860-1870. The Met.

67.110.85a-b_CP4 — 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.

19562579601826355_1LwhFqH4_f — Striped slippers. 1795-1810. The Met.

19562579601456223_olfplt3k_f — Striped shoes. 1845-1865. The Met. (These kind of look like Toms?!?)

19562579601456286_vCzmw5wx_f — Striped evening shoes. Late 1920s. The Met.

Astorias In Action

June 23, 2012March 25, 2018 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ 2 Comments

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!)

7346824448_d3b68f62ef_h — Here’s the spoiler picture.

7165821271_79c9326196_b — They’re a little buried in the grass, but here they are!

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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Back Detail of the 1912 Tea Gown

June 9, 2012 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ 5 Comments

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!

7165820479_2b3a6be0fd_b — 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

May 29, 2012March 25, 2018 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ 5 Comments

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

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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Finally, My Astorias Have Arrived

May 23, 2012March 25, 2018 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ 6 Comments

Five months after my super intense excitement of the pre-order of my American Duchess Astorias, they have finally arrived! Luckily, I still have events coming up for which they will be great, though they did miss out on being worn at the Titanic Weekend back in April. Despite their innate cuteness, however, they are going to need some adjusting before I wear them. Here they are, unadjusted.

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.

Reasons I love them:

The straps are just so cute! There were a wide variety of shoes with this kind of detail in the Edwardian period and this modern shoe does a fantastic job of capturing that perfectly Edwardian spirit!
They are super comfortable! It hardly feels like there is a heel on them and the shape of the toe box is just right for comfot.

Things I’m disappointed with and want to change (and my plans for doing so):

Due to my very narrow flat feet at least half of the straps are about 1/2″ too big, causing unattractive gaping over my foot (the crossed straps look really outstanding when held taut against my foot, but when they gap the shoes just looks messy). The plan: to remove the buttons from their original location and restitch them at the point where the straps want to be when tight. Overall, it’s a pretty simple solution that just takes time to execute.

I ordered the ivory color of the shoe, and to my eyes it looks very white. Since I plan to wear the shoes with many clothes where ivory is a featured color, it is important to me that my shoes are ivory and not white. In the photo below you can see how different the shoe looks from the ivory silk background. The plan: to paint my Astorias with Angelus Leather Paint from Dharma Trading Company to be a suitable color.

Well, that’s the plan. Time to start–I’ve got two weeks before I wear them!

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Titanic Weekend Part III: Pictures of the Events

April 25, 2012 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ 2 Comments

Here we are, a third and final installment of posts related to my recent Titanic-themed weekend. You can read more about my tea gown and matching hat as well as my evening gown in previous posts. I think I’ll limit my commentary to captions. Here we go!