ohhhhhh myyyyyyyyyy

[chocolatepot]

Today I dressed a dress form for the museum's gala, which went trickily. I'll quote myself from elsewhere:

See, the original gown I intended to use (a grey silk damask evening dress made by Moshier's of Utica around 1895) turned out to have been made for a woman whose build did not match any of the dress forms. She was rather robust, with broad shoulders and a long torso, but her waist was still somewhat narrow. I tried a male dress form first, but the waist was not small enough. I tried a female form next, and it proved impossible to get the shoulders big enough because the padding squished down and in and the bodice just kept falling off.

After more than an hour of futilely wrestling with this, I tried another dress. Needing something that didn't require much under the skirt, I tried a beautiful late-1830s evening dress made from an 18th century brocaded blue silk. A little clumsy, but so pretty. But late 1830s evening necklines are quite wide, and I ran into the same problem. On a mannequin, with a relatively full body, you have arms to help hold up a wide neckline, but on a dress form, just very soft stumps at the shoulders. Finally put it back.

Third try was another mid-1890s evening dress in various shades of purple-grey. (It was worn, according to the donor, to one of Mrs. Astor's famous New York balls with extremely restricted guest lists. It's not what I would call ball dress, though ...) This had a narrow neckline, not-too-broad shoulders, and a shorter waist, and it went on the form ... I wouldn't quite say "without a hitch", because I had to do some jiggery-pokery with the skirt to get it to stay on, and I also missed a button halfways down the bodice and had to undo and redo so many small silk buttons. But it fit and I was able to walk away, and that's the important thing.

It was a pain in the ass. But it was soooooo nice to look through hanging storage! Just ... so many beautiful things. So many fan-fronts. There's a white organdy and satin dress with short sleeves and a half-high lining, so adorable! And this luscious early 1830s dress in an intricate cotton print with a crossover. And so many pieces from this era, I can't get over it, so many details and tiny points of perfection. Honestly, I do always get kind of choked up when I see historical clothes in a collection I manage. It's hard to describe - it's like this intense feeling of gratitude that I'm able to see them close up, and admire them, and interpret them to other people. A warm glow!

Comments

[ktlovely]

I totally get the gratitude thing. I got to visit Winterthur twice with a private guide and look anywhere I wanted, and I was just so struck by, "every bit of this was made by someone's hands and I get to see it ALL."