Monday, February 21, 2011

Extant Clothing......

I think it is obvious that I like clothes. Even when I was little, nothing made me happier than a new dress. One of my moms favorite stories is when I started Kindergarten I had a new outfit for everyday the first week. Apparently I thought I was going to get a new wardrobe every week, and I kept asking where my new dress's were the next week, after the first week, school had lost it's appeal.
I worked in a small clothing boutique during my college years, and even though we mostly catered to little old ladies, I even enjoyed dressing them in the polyester they craved. I could have worked that job forever, but the pay was dismal, and well I had a degree now so....I thought I needed to use it. Somehow that landed me in a banking job, which was the worst job experience of my life, and how my history degree translated into banking is still beyond me. I have digressed....
My love of clothing goes beyond the things in my own closet. I have always been interested in clothing from earlier time periods. My favorite time periods have to be the Georgian and the Regency periods. The Georgian clothing was all about flash, decoration, excess,tafatas,brocades,furs. The Regency was about minimalism, Greek and Roman inspiration. Slim column dresses, empire waists, light colors and muslins. I also love to look at more recent "vintage" 1930's, 1940's and 1950's are favorites, hence the girls in my header. Anyway while I appreciate people who can recreate the dress's from the earlier time periods (especially because I can't sew), I am always more interested in looking at things created in their own time period. Can you imagine making a dress for someone like Marie Antoinette, the amount of time it would have taken, no sewing machine, tons of fabrics, and the details?
I use Google to look up extant clothing from different time periods. I like looking at the undergarments as much as the over ones, reading how to get dressed in these items. Last year when Princess Di's famous black evening gown was sold at auction, I was curious about it. I went to the website that was hosting the auction along with other Di clothing memorabilia. They had the muslin prototypes of her wedding dress, her engagement blouse, etc. What even excited me more was that they LOTS of extant clothing from all different eras. I was in heaven, because they take decent pictures, and go into decent detail about the products. I joined their mailing list because I could spend hours going over their goods, and I just got my email today for their next auction. If you want to look at some exquisite pieces then go here Kerry Taylor Auctions. They are selling the dress that Kate Middleton wore at a charity modeling show, I thought it was ugly...but I am sure it will be worth a lot to someone!

1 comment:

jadedj said...

You are a clothes person, for sure, darlin'.