Can Can!

Nini Pattes-en-l'air, la Sauterelle, Grille d'Egout and
in front of them, la Goulue, in the Moulin-Rouge. Paris

I've been doing a lot of research on turn of the century undies lately, so for pictures, I thought, what better than photos of the can can?! Who else is going to show their belle epoch panties to us?...

So just for fun, some pictures of the Moulin Rouge in it's hey day, with it's most famous dancers: Louise Weber aka La Goulue ("the glutton" or greedy) and her partner, Valentine Dessose ("Valentine the boneless"). Nini-pattes-en-l'air ("legs in the air"), Jane Avril, Mome Fromage ("the cheese girl"), Cha-U-Kao (or "chahut-kaos" meaning "dance of chaos"), and Grille d'Egout ("sewer grating" after her gapped teeth). 

Lots of pictures of knickers! Enjoy! Tehehe!

Le Moulin Rouge c. 1900.

La Goulue

La Goulue

La Goulue and her partner, Valentine.

La Goulue

La Goulue

Nini-pattes-en-l'air (legs in the air)

Nini

Nini

Jane Avril

Jane Avril

Jane Avril

Jane Avril

Mome Fromage

Grille d'Egout

La Goulue et Mome Fromage.
Toulouse-Lautrec.

Moulin Rouge – La Goulue (1891).
Toulouse-Lautrec.

Sketch by Toulouse Lautrec.
La Goulue and Valentine.

La Goulue arriving at the Moulin Rouge,
(1892). Toulouse-Lautrec

Avril (Jane Avril) (1893).
Toulouse-Lautrec.

Jane Avril (1899). Toulouse-Lautrec.

Toulouse Lautrec (1896)

The Seated Clowness (Mademoiselle Cha-u-Kao),
1896. Toulouse-Lautrec.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Dancers at the Moulin Rouge in the 1930's.

Dancers c. 1890's

Dancer c. 1895

Images courtesy Bonjour Paris, The Burns Archive, History: The Ultimate Fandom, Parisian Images, Des yeux pour voir, Jane Avril.net, The Telegraph UK, La Lettre, Art.com, Deviant Art, Wikipedia, Metropolitan Museum, Au Feminin, Google Books.

A Visit to Herr Mozart

Mozart and his birthday have always been a big part of what got me into making costumes. We always celebrated with a costume party in my house growing up, and as the years went on the costumes got a little more serious. And look where its gotten me - and obsession, no a passion. Obsession sounds bad :)

So in honor of Mozart's birthday, coming up on the 27th of this month, I thought I'd share some pictures of my last visit to Salzburg. Salzburg is a beautiful and very old city on the banks of the Salzach. It is also Mozart's home town. In the older parts there are no cars, and the streets are narrow and cobble stoned. Walking through Salzberg, you can still get a feeling of what  city life must have felt like two hundred years ago. And if it rains, you can always hop in a carriage...

Mozart's house in Salzburg, Austria. Easy to spot,
painted in a bright ocher yellow.

Mozart's own view. Looking out into the square from
a window in his house.

On display in the home.

A paper display gown. Pretty!

Coffee and pastries at the Hotel Sacher. Very Austrian! They love their
sweets! Be sure to try the traditional chocolate Sacher Torte.

In St. Peter's Cemetery.

View from St Peter's Cemetery catacombs.

Hohensalzburg Castle. A fort. Looks awfully foreboding under
those grey clouds.

Hohensalzburg up close.

Looking down on the city. You can see the Salzach river.

It started raining so we took a carriage. If you have never been in a
carriage, I highly recommend it. It feels completely different than any other type of transportation. Especially over cobblestones!

Cafes (kaffeehaus) are everywhere. Order a melange, which is basically an
Austrian cappucino, or a Franziskaner, which is like an espresso con panna.

What charming little streets! You wont find cars in the
old parts of the city.

The carriage ponies! Anyone have a sugar cube?

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Her Turquerie

Portrait by Gervase Spencer

Charles Jervas (c1675-1739).

Attributed to Jonathan Richardson, 1725.

As wife to the British ambassador, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (15 May 1689 – 21 August 1762) is best remembered for her letters from Turkey. She is said to have written the "very first example of a secular work by a woman about the Muslim Orient (Billie Melman)."

But I would rather remember her for her fabulous turkish costume. I love the headdress!

And some more turquerie to leave you with...

Mrs. Thomas Gage, 1771
 by John Singleton Copley.

Mrs. Robert Morris by
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). 

Madame de Pompadour, 1747, Charles André van Loo.

Marquise de Fresnes d'Aguesseau, 1789.
Elizabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun.

A Woman in Turkish Dress
by Jean-Étienne Liotard

Lace!

Well, it's almost lace. It's really a lace footside, which is the straight edge of english lace, but it's a start. The wavy, decorative edge is called a headside. 

For my very first attempt at demystifying lace, I started with the footside because it seems the simplest. A good way to start. I followed a pattern from Jo Edkins' Lace School. It's a great lacemaking website. Way more informative than any of the books I have purchased.

This pattern uses six pairs of bobbins.

This footsides pattern uses six pairs of bobbins. More complicated lace can use up to 50 pairs. That's 100 bobbins! That's one crowded pillow. Speaking of the pillow, I found my roller pillow at Lacis. The bobbins are english bobbins from Mielkes Fiber Arts. For the thread I am using 60/2 white linen thread from William Booth Draper.

The beginning few inches. The frays are from
starting with proper looped bobbins, but
I screwed up, so I cut that part away.

Further along, I had to move the pattern down
the pillow. In hindsight, I should have made
the pattern go all the way around the roller.

So far I've gotten the hang of this easy pattern pretty well. Basically all you do is cross the bobbins right over left, or left over right, secure strategically with pins, and keep going. It goes very fast. I'm itching to try something harder when I run out of thread on these bobbins. Very exciting!

A Few Dresses From Spain

Spain, 1780's (?)

I came across this frothy sea foam number this morning and thought it was just like candy! I usually focus so much on English and French fashion, I rarely come across things from other countries. The above gown is from Spain. Eighteenth century spanish ladies do love their lace!

Doña María Josefa Alonso-Pimentel y Téllez-Girón
Goya, 1785

The Duchess of Alba, Goya, 1797.

Bespangled Bobbins

My budding collection of spangled bobbins.

Lace making has always seemed a bit of a mystery to me, and therefor challenging, so how better to understand it than jump right in? 

I recently bought a few books on lace making, and after browsing a bit, never being one to think something is too hard to give it a go, I dove in and ordered supplies. I plan on focusing my attention to English bobbin lace. There are many different types of bobbins for many different types of lace making, but English bobbins have spangles, which makes them infinitely more fun!

Some examples of English bobbin lace: 

Surprisingly, even the most intricate of patterns are made only with variations of either crossing the thread, or twisting it. Click here for a better description of how lace is made.

Honton bobbin lace on hand made net. Mid 19th century. Christie's.
Honton lace was used as Queen Victoria's wedding lace.

Midland lace aka English Maltese lace.
From Jo Edkins' Lace School. 

Torchon lace aka Beggars lace.
From Jo Edkins' Lace School 

Spangles are the beads attached to the bottom of bobbins. English bobbins are drilled with holes to facilitate attaching the beads by wire. The loop of beads has a purpose, aside from looking pretty. It stops the bobbins from rolling on the pillow and the weight keeps the threads evenly taught.

Traditionally, lace makers seem to be rather superstitious. Lots of beads have meanings, much like charms. A snake or serpentine design is said to ward off evil spirits, as is a button. Here are examples of each. Images courtesy Lacefairy.

A "fancy dress" bead used as a charm.

A bead with a serpentine design.

Below is a "Kitty Fisher" bead, named after the famous 18th century actress (who found Lucy Locket's pocket). This bead is usually grey with blue on white and red on white dots, roughly resembling a face.

Im assuming the blue dots are Kitty's eyes?

While I wait on my pillow and thread to come, I tried to find some beads that were traditional, but I just fell in love with the cupcakes and mice! I also chose a very pretty four leaf clover bead, some carved jade and lots of cloisonné. Some of my favorites:

I hope to be able to make at least some modest lace, because how fun are these bobbins! I'd love to collect antique ones, but I refuse to collect things I can't use. So I better get practicing! 

I should note, unfortunately, all the really beautiful  18th century lace, like alencon and argentan are actually needle lace, not bobbin. I'll elaborate more on this another day, as well as more info on bobbin lace and how it's actually made. But for now I'm just smiling about the bobbins :)

A bit of whitework between the red and green.

The past couple months have been a barrage of busy. All my bigger projects were put on hold, devoting my time more to Christmas and shopping and wrapping and parties and all things red and green and sparkly. But in between all the holiday festivities I was able to fit in some some less time consuming projects. I find that white work embroidery is very easy to work on in short spurts, leaving off for a while, and never having trouble remembering your place. No worrying about colors!

I started working on the embroidery panels of an 1804 dress from the Met that I absolutely love. It's quite simple embroidery, only using french knots and satin stitch. I sketched out a pattern on paper and then, as I had time, I traced the design onto the fabric, worked a bit, left off and came back as I pleased. So far I have the waist band completed and a few repeats of the front motif. I used a little heavier thread than I would have liked, but the embroidery on the original dress looks a bit heavy, too. The fabric is a thin, plain weave cotton I had on hand. Maybe a voile.

Detail of an unfinished repeat.

A completed repeat. Please excuse the hoop,
which gives a funny perspective,
making the work appear distorted in size.

The waistband, pinned onto the dressform.
She is wearing a regency era corset from Period Corsets.

The original dress. White cotton evening gown.
1804-5, French.  At the Met (1983.6.1).

This image shows good detail of the original embroidery.

I also have a bit of the bodice done. I can't wait to take the tree down and get back to having free time. Hurray for January. And happy new year to all!