(no subject)

[mandie_rw]

Had a most excellent time invading Allaire today - I'll do a proper event post once I swipe all the pictures from Robin, as I don't think I got any pictures of me on my camera, haha.

We had immense fun costume-plotting afterward, as they were silly enough to inform us that they're having a new event this summer, a "barn dance" in August, which we cheerfully took to mean, "you ladies should probably show up in 1830s ball gowns" Or, dancing-appropriate dresses, at least, but we are fond of overdressing... And Robin was schmoozing the kid who's in charge of the event, and got him to promise there would be candlelight. He'd best not be fibbing!

Allaire's a village for the industrial workers of the mill in the 1830s, so a very fancy dress would be silly - so naturally my mind jumped to a spangled probably-late-1820s dress in the Met that I've loved for ages:

Except then I zoomed in as far as I could on the closeup, and "wait, I don't see holes in these spangles, how tiny are they? waaaaiiiit... these aren't spangles!!" I'm guessing at some sort of bullion, since I can just see the flat fibers kind of wrapped on top of each other...but I don't know enough about embroidery with metallics to say which type it is, or even if it's really that at all (I would think silver would have tarnished by now!). Little shiny bits of paper? Tinfoil? Tiny Liberace mirrors? Puffy paint?

...what I'm saying here is, suggestions are welcome! I dunno that I really am going to make such an absurdly involved yet plain dress, but I'm still very curious to hear what anyone else thinks about it.

Comments

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Seriously! Like...if you want a dotted shiny dress, use spangles, hello? Was there an epic spangle shortage of 1828?? I wouldn't be surprised if the fabric was professionally made in some capacity, though, since with the sheer fabric you can see the reverse of the hem/waistband is dotted too, and if you were embellishing it yourself, wouldn't you not bother with that? Interesting thought!