I like this one even better. I love the short jacket suit, but I looked better in them when I was thinner. They look adorable with a tiny waist (I actually had to have my belts custom made at one time…sigh…).
I especially love the neckline and “sleeve” of the dress. And it’s a timeless cut.
I think you mean The Evil Crinoline. It’s SO uncomfortable.
At less than $100 each for dresses of this quality, I don’t see how you can afford not to do it. I was at the mall yesterday and an ugly polyster rag at Casual Corners cost more than that!
Get the linen in beige and the nubby silk in teal – I made a suit years ago in teal raw silk and it was beautiful. I got compliments on the color and fabric every time I wore it.
I love that Marilyn dress, BTW. My mom had three similar dresses made in the Phillipines back in the early '60s. One was sleeveless and made of white cotton with a pattern of tiny green stick people – it sounds odd but it was really pretty. The second had 3/4 sleeves and was made of a heavier polished cotton in watered stripes of kelly and emerald green. The third was sleeveless in raw silk in an abstract pattern of rusts, browns and black. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. She also had what my dad calls a “Suzy Wong dress” in that reversible silk – pink and gold. Absolutely mouth-watering. And they would all fit me and look beautiful on me. Unfortunately she threw them away when they went “out of style!”
I love it.
That’s all I gots to say.
I love the vintage feminine look. HOw in the hell did those women have such tiny waists?
Corsets ‘n’ shit like that, I imagine.
corsets n shit. Egads. No wonder the muu muu became so popular.
I well remember my mother’s horrible nasty girdles – suckers went amost to the bottom of her bra and came down on her legs like bike shorts. Yuck. I was born in 1960, so by the time I had to worry about this crap, they had invented panty-hose – a wonderful, wonderful invention!
My main problem will be finding a fabric in a color I like—my Little Dressmaker will just be copying my mother’s 1960 Anne Fogarty (and changing it from a size 4 to a size 12!).
Eve I don’t mean any offence but I have to know, do you really exist or are you some fondly remembered colourful character from a book or movie from my youth?
I wonder what a vintage size 16 (with a 34 inch bust) would be today? I’m thinking about a 6!
I have rented Rear Window just to look at Grace Kelly’s clothes; I admit it. And hey, can you even still buy girdles today? I’m thinking, post-partum, I might not mind so much, at least until my figure comes back – if it ever does!
Lovely! Thanks so much for your help.
Yes, for the heavy duty ones, Penneys or Sears, for light panty girdles, Target has them. Fredericks of Holly wood has a few practical corsets, along with many impractical ones. Retailers tend to call girdles “shapewear.”
I go to Devon Street in Chicago to get saris to make into dresses and such. I am working on a ball gown now, but it is slow going with a toddler in the house. My advice if you are going to have clothes made or make them yourselfout of saris is to get acrylic saris for a test run. Make sure the design has the same directional elements as the silk one, for example if there is a pattern with a 9 inch border and an asymetic pattern running in the middle, find an acrylic one with those elements going in the same direction. It may not look anything like the final one, but it should be the approximate weight and hand. The nice thing about acrylic saris is that they are washable. They feel and look lovely and can be washed at home.
I had no idea you could find these old patterns on E-bay. I like this one:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4161&item=6110700947&rd=1
Especially the one with the fur trim.
By the way, the fashion director at my magazine tell me fur stoles are going to be “very in!” this fall. So I think I will haul out Mom’s white fox stole, as well . . .
If you believe the latest issue of Elle, the Victorian look is going to be very “in” this fall as well.
sigh finally…other women who understand my need to look like I stepped out of the 30s-50s.
lee, your sari evening gown sounds lovely. The acrylic idea is a good one…there are different types of local silk in India that might mirror the drape of acrylic (man, there are some soft, soft silks there that are very local artisan blends…not sure if they carry them on Devon, and if they do, they’re probably exorbitantly priced) so I could probably do a test run without making my mom’s blood boil in terms of ruining an expensive sari.
I am going to investigate how to make the skirt poof without petticoats…my sister has a 50ish prom dress and they made the skirt poof I think by sewing something into several layers of lining. I’ll have to see how it goes.
Anyway, this is all conjecture…my parents just piss and moan when I talk about going to India being all “let’s just go during your trousseau trip!” (I know…trousseau, geez…) but unless I find a groom within the next year I am just going to go for fun…little old spinster me.
Soooo . . . the 1830s–50s are going to be in this fall? Better get out my whalebone corsets . . .
Actually, it seems to be primarily a reinterpretation of those blouses women used to wear in the 1970s with those bloody sashes tying under the neck…anyway, the material is usually silky or satiny, it’s highnecked with that frilly doily thing going on around the neck and chest area (to top of cleavage). I think I’ve noticed a slight puff to the sleeves. From what I’ve seen them paired with-it’s usually slim tweed pencil skirts and round toed mary jane like heels in snappy colours like teal. This is of course, runway couture…
The other victoriany thing they seem to be doing is adding demure lace edging to a lot of dresses to make them look more vintage. These are actually really pretty.
I don’t know how long these ideas are going to take to filter down to the hoi polloi-I’m not so sure the doily shirts are going to look that great on a lot of people anyway but in any case, I fear we will be held to the tyranny of those awful low-slung tiered skirts that make women’s legs look unnecessarily thick for longer than I had originally anticipated. The longish pencil skirts are just darling, though and I am crossing my fingers for the return of round-toes.
Well, I have been changing my whole look over the last year or so—I used to be a sweater-and-skirt girl, but the older and dumpier I get . . . I need a long, tailored line. Which means Jackie/Audrey-type dresses. Simple, streamlined, pared-down.
Oh please oh please, let rounder toes be coming back. Those cockroach-in-the-corner pointy-toed things drive me crazy, and I don’t even own a pair. There’s no way these hobbit feet (the shape, not the fur) are going to fit into those.
There was a woman who picked up her kid at school in a different pair of those elf-with-a-whip heels every day. Just too strange.
I have two wonderful, comfortable pairs of pumps from Aerosoles, but I don’t think they make them anymore: look just like this. But with modern, cushiony soles.
