Galleries

La conjura de El Escorial (The Conspiracy)

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Who was Princess of Eboli?

Her full name was Ana de Mendoza de la Cerda y de Silva Cifuentes. She was Spanish aristocrat, married to Rui Gomez da Silva, having upto 10 children. Later … she was accused of the murder of secretary called Escobedo in the royal palace El Escorial and she was arrested in 1579. The movie “The Conspiracy” was inspired by this incident, staring Julia Ormond as Princess of Eboli.

Princess of Eboli

Let have a look on the dress.

Let see more

Let see the whole length of the dress.

The credit for costume design goes to Javier Artinano and Delfin Prieto. I really like how good the costume reconstruction was done to present Spanish fashion of 16th century not only of women`s gowns. The men suits are also very nicely presented.

Here are few more movie shots…:

Do you think of this stiff Spanish fashion of 16th century?

Fleur de lis

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Alias Flower Lily

Fleur de lis (how nice it sounds in French) is decorative symbol associated mainly with French royalty and especially French heraldry.

How it looks like? It is the image of golden flower with blue background. You might see it as night sky with thousands stars.

A decorative symbol of Fleur de lis

Fleur de lis can be seen on fabric of royal gowns from medieval times till the age of baroque, which we can follow on paintings as these:

King Louis XIV

Fleur the lis appeared also on European arms and flags. For example House of Bourbon had this beautiful heraldry design.

There is also Florentine fleurs-de-lis. The symbol design contains also petals and it looks like this:

Nowadays we also use this symbol…. however, not to claim our royalty status :-). Personally, I bought earnings with fleur de lis symbol.

I think my next purchase will be this beautiful fountain pen.

Would you like to purchase anything with fleur de lis symbol?

Die Mode 1790 – 1842 Book Trilogy

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Have you ever bought any book in second hand bookshops? …

I do. Really. And I found few book treasures.

My newest purchase is the book trilogy of fashion between 1790 and 1842 published in 1905 in Munich. It is in German however it is not big deal for me. The books have a lot of pictures of dresses. If you have knowledge of historical dressing, you are able to read a lot of information from the illustrations.

The pictures include portrait paintings, painting by Philibert-Louis Debucourt, caricatures, drawings, illustrations of Pierre de La Mésangère, fashion plates of Journal des Dames; Gallery of fashion London property; Hamburger Journal der Moden und Eleganz; Journal des Gens du Monde, Paris and others…

How refreshing it is to know that at the beginning of 20th century, the books of 18th and 19th century fashion were published.

1st book 1790 – 1819

2nd book 1818 – 1842

3rd book 1843 – 1878

Have you found any book treasure in second hand bookstore?

Sartor.cz

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Are you looking for historical brocades for your historical sewing?

If you go to general fabric shop, you will not find there much historical brocades … well, basically none. You need to visit historical festival or any festival of medieval crafts market. The most available source is the web. And I recommend you to visit web site www.sartor.cz.

Sartor is a Czech company which is base in Prague. Sartor is company with long term fabric selling experiences. They offer wide rage of over standard fabrics, such as historical brocades, silks, wedding fabrics, laces and other sewing supplies (for example – corset supplies).

The web site allows you to switch the language from Czech to English or German. You can pay not just in Czech koruna but also in Euros, American dollar and Polish zloty. …and the shipping is worldwide…!!!

Do you need historical replicas fabrics? Here are few of them:

Would you like any brocade?

Are you looking for silk?

They also offer linen nad wool…

Now, when you picked a fabric look for the details. There are fabric photos in various angles (which is very good help to image how the fabric will behave in move), brief description, color, content, pattern repeat, very important merit – weight and width, availability in stock, price per meter and quantity discount.

Why I brought the merits weight and width into your attention? Based on this information you can deduce the fabric thickness and how many meters you really have to buy. Not all the fabrics are in standard width of 140 – 150 cm.

I have also one little “hook” for you. Here is the list of the events in 2019 where Sartor was selling their fabrics. However the events for 2020 are not released yet.

What fabric will be on your cart to purchase?

A Dictionary of Costume and Fashion

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What a mushroom hat is?

Is it this one?

NOOO!!!

I would advice you to have a look into s dictionary….What I mean exactly?…

…A Dictionary of Costume and Fashion (Historic and Modern)

What stays in this dictionary about mushroom hat?

“Hat with downward cured brim shaped like mushroom or toadstool, sometimes wider at sides.“

And how it looks like?

Just like this:

What about other fashion expressions?….You can look them up in Dictionary of Fashion…..

Each fashion term is described and some of them has simple black and white picture.

You can also look up for types of stitches:

The dictionary contains also black and white painting pictures:

Would you like to know how silhouette developed through the centuries?

This dictionary contains much more, for example fairy tail or national costumes….(if you are interested …)

What fashion expression you do not know what means?

Reconstructing history

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Do you ask yourself: “Where to get sewing pattern of historical dress?”

My answer is: “There is more than one source where to find them.”

The most complex source of historical pattern is company based in Netherlands named Reconstructing history. The company was founded by Kass McGann since 1997. Among selling products include historical dress sewing patterns from medieval age to 20th century (including underwear and accessories), embroidery patterns, books and other dress patterns.

Dress patterns
Accessories and underwear
E-books

It is amazing to have sewing patterns in hand however…..do we understand them? If you have doubts or you want to learn more, you can visit a blog which is a part of the web site.

One of the blog posts of Reconstructing history

I have already bought some of the sewing patterns and one e-book. I may say I was very satisfied with the service. The company is very customer friendly. I highly recommend to visit this web site and read testimonials of other customers.

Another thing I have to mention it that you may buy sewing patterns either in paper or in digital form (perfect idea).

Are you ready to pick a dress and start to sew?

Victoria – Fashion Magazine

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What purchase makes you excited?

A few days ago I passed around my second-hand bookshop and looked into the window. And I found a treasure – fashion magazine “Victoria“.

To be precise, fashion magazines Victoria from 1869 to 1876 :-0, published in Berlin.

Let me present you VICTORIA – Illustrated pattern and fashion newspaper. Even each magazine has eight pages only, it is full of dress, hairstyle, hand-made crafts, accessories and home design and more. The magazine includes many black and white pictures with their descriptions. Let`s sneak peek together.

Women dress design:

Hair dress:

Accessories:

Shoes:

Hand-made crafts:

Underwear:

Swim suite:

Childrens` dress:

Carnival childrens` dress:

Home decor:

Do you know other historical fashion magazines?

Charles Frederick Worth (1825 – 1895)

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When Haute Couture alias High Fashion started?

19th century brings revolution in fashion business and mass production. During this time English gentleman Mr. Worth established his own enterprise in Rue de la Paix in Paris – “House of Worth“:

House of Worth

Mr. Worth is considered to be Father of Haute Couture. Worth`s customers is European royalty such and Princess Pauline Metternich, Queen Victoria and Empress Eugenie.

His designed dresses are exhibited in Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York:

As it is seen, the skirts have narrow shape. After wearing a large size crinoline, Worth redesigned it to be more practical which was his major success.

Shocking and radical was skirt shortening to ankles :-O. Why? Because Empress Eugenie enjoyed long walks :-)……. and walking dress were created:

What would you change in current fashion?

Cathy Hay and her projects

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Have you ever did big challenging project?

I would really like to meet Cathy Hay in person as she is one of the most inspiring lady among historical dress sewing communities.

WHY?

  1. Besides doing demanding projects, she brings support and motivates to sew historical dress on YouTube channel named “Cathy Hay” :-).

2. Cathy started to reconstruct Peacock dress worn by Lady Curzon. To show her progress with the project she started to write a blog “The Peacock Dress“. Do YOU have a courage to start reconstructing this dress?

3. Founder of award-winning sewing community “Your Wardrobe Unlock`d“. This community helps to create very ambitions sewing projects. There are also mentors such as Luca Costigliolo, Barbara Pesendorfer and Lowana O’Shea who will help you to achieve your dreams.

4. Your wardrobe unlock`d is connected with “Foundation Revealed“. It is a private interactive community, with mentor support and monthly live workshops. The site contains also members` works and results of competitions. The most of the projects are oriented to corset making.

1890s corset by Michelle Fitzgerald

Are you now motivated to start your dream project?

Romeo and Juliet

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Do you like Shakespeare?

A classic Shakespeare`s romance tragedy about Romeo and Juliet has many film adaptations. One of them is movie from 1968 staring Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting. Costume design was done by Danilo Donati.

The story was written during the last decade of 16th century. It is set in Verona, Italy. So it is reasonable to place the movie into Italian renaissance era :-).

The costume designer could be inspired by the painting by Vittore Carpaccio from 1495 – Meeting of the Betrothed Couple (detail). The red dress with V-shaped bodice, cut under breasts, ruffled skirt and fitted sleeves bind to bodice are very suitable for young Juliet.

Do you want a kiss?