Docent Days: Historical Fashion

10:00:00 AM Ariel Bloomfield 3 Comments

one of the wonderful things about being a docent at a home that ranges from the Victorian era to the 1970s is that fact I could wear amazing costumes that can possibly range form when the house was built to possibly the roaring twenties. I love doing research on the beautiful dresses from the past.  If I had the money and the sewing machine, I would definitely want to make all of theses.
     The clothing of the early 1900s can tell a lot about the decade and how much can change in a short amount of time.

    

My First Historical Dress goal:

     The one thing that amaze me about this dress on the right is that I have actually found a pattern that is exactly the same.
       The dress was from 1897, and it still has wonderful color as though it could still possibly wear it.
   I have had the pattern for this dress for years and didn’t think it actually matched any of the dresses in such a historical way. I was excited that I can make something historically correct, if I wanted changes the colored pieces of the dress.  So I want this to be my first dress, outside the skirt and blouse.

                                                                

Things you can do to learn about and wear historical clothing:

•    Do your research on the your desired decade, on Pintrest, Google, Photobucket.  It’s amazing how many dresses you can find from the decade or era that is posted online. Most of the dresses on this post come from Pintrest for inspiration.
• Check out the blogs that are based on historical sewing, not only they take about the clothes, but the also have tutorials on hair, make-up and accessory DIYs.

                 Here are a few blogs that I have found:

• One important thing that goes with any historical outfit is shoe, while surfing through the internet not only does American Duchess have blog about historical clothing, she also has a historical shoe site with some amazing shoes! I personally have hobbit like feet and some of the designs have my size. I was so excited when I find this site!

    

 

Simple Things That You Can Wear For Victorian/Edwardian Clothing From Your Closet:

    A blouse that has a collar and long sleeves. Sometimes three-quarter sleeves works just as well.  White or black is the uniform colors but if you find something of a different color, make sure the skirt has similar color or goes with it.




    For the skirt, any color can go with a white blouse but it has to be long, because the women of that time were not able to show their ankles and they used to wear bustle under the skirt.. But some modern twists you do with the skirt is make it little above the knee, but not a mini skirt.
     If you do decide to wear a shorter skirt, wearing a pair of black tights is the best thing you can do.
    As for the shoes and accessories; flats, and boots with a short heel, are shoes work best because it was the style of the time.  As for the accessories, keep it simplistic, or you can make a new look by steampunking it.