Hmmm...

So, I have several projects that I have finished/am currently working on that I could post pictures of, but they are gifts, and I don't want the recipients to see them, so I have a lack of current project pictures to post.

However, I am currently working on a project for my art class about how art styles of particular periods influenced fashion.  I'll give a bit more detail once I am finished, but right now I'll leave you with some pictures I am going to use.

Baroque

The Hall of Mirrors from the Palace of Versailles, France.

Rococo 

I want to make a gown like the one on the right!

One of the hallmarks of Rococo furniture and architecture are S and C-scrolls, and this gown shows how that translated to fashion.

Neoclassical

This chair from the V & A is a very good example of the simplicity of Greek and Roman designs that were revived in this time period.

For a time, dresses lost their elaborate trimmings to echo the simplicity of the style.

Art Nouveau 

Art Nouveau style is characterized by natural, scrolling forms like vines.  Some of the architecture looks as if it was carved with water from a piece of stone (like a riverbed or stalactite). 

An Art Nouveau ring.

Art Deco 

A French airfare poster.

An elevator door.  Art Deco used a lot of solid geometric forms in beautiful designs and patterns.

An Art Deco ring.  I love this one!

A dancing adventure

So, I was going to do something yesterday as a remembrance for the centennial of the Titanic sinking, but that didn't work out. So instead, two friends and I went to a contra dance at a small town that I had heard about. We were afraid there wouldn't be anyone there to dance with, but thankfully that wasn't the case. It was a lot of fun, and we had no trouble learning the dances, because the three of us all do English country dance together, and the moves were pretty much the same.

One of the really cool things about it was that it took place in a building that used to be a train depot, and was over a hundred years old. It was interesting to think of all of the people who had walked on that same floor. They also had live music, and I told my friends that it reminded me of a dance you would have after a barn raising or a quilting bee or something.

Rebecca

Reenacting?

As of late, I have been experiencing a sort of disillusionment with 18th century reenacting. The primary site I go to is no longer offering the same reenacting opportunities, and I'm not sure where exactly to go from here. You see, reenacting is easier when you have a family that all goes to events together, but mine doesn't do that. I am, effectively, a reenacting orphan; the only member of my family who reenacts. I have a few "adoptive families" I stay with at events, but it's not the same.

However, the main thing I've realized I don't like about the reenacting I've been doing, which is site-centered, is that it limits my growth in my knowledge of historic fashion. For instance, my site encourages the use of shortgowns and petticoats to the exclusion of all else, like roundgowns, etc. which are also accurate and under-represented. If I stay with place-centered reenacting, I will never make a sacque, or a quilted silk petticoat, or anything similar to these that would further advance my skill and variety as a historical seamstress, because they were not things people in my area would have had.

So after some thought, I have decided to stop limiting my 18th C sewing projects to the styles and materials that would have been available in my area and my time period. I am branching out into a different sort of reenacting, which I think of as time-centered reenacting. No longer will I only portray a woman on the frontier, but my opportunities are opened up to being a gentry woman, etc. The key of what I am saying here is that I am no longer bound by place. I can make a silk sacque, or anything else a wealthy woman from Williamsburg might have had if I wish.

This does not mean that I am going to stop going to my site or reenacting there altogether, or that I will wear a silk sacque to a place where my persona is poor. It does mean, however, that I am now open to do some projects I would previously not have done. I am excited about my new opportunities, and this change of attitude is rather refreshing.

Rebecca

(Note: This is not to discourage anyone who is solely a site-centered reenactor, I am just expressing my views as someone who enjoys sewing fashions from different social levels and now has the freedom to do just that with 18th century!)