1880s natural form walking suit

I have one word for this project. Meh. I lost interest in working on it halfway through and forced myself to finish it. I honestly don't know what it is with this suit. Maybe the colour is not my favourite, but as I had a lot of the lighter colour fabric in stash I thought I had to use it. The bodice has some fit issues and I think I need to put bones in the seams and darts to reduce the annoying wrinkling. Then again it might just be the character of the fabric. So, meh. I'm half-heartedly planning to make a hat to go with this, I have black straw braid for it.

I'm wearing my late Victorian corset and chemise, plus a little sleeveless undershirt with a ruffle collar. I revised my natural form petticoat because in its earlier form it showed under the shorter skirt. I cut the hem straight, removing the slight trainage on it and put a drawstring to gather the back of the skirt around mid-thigh level. I'm also wearing a small bumpad under the skirts.

Some I-don't-even-care photos here. Whatever. :P

The symmetry of the buttons is off. I have to reposition them. If I ever get around doing it.

Return of The Pink Dress

I was in Helsinki last weekend for a dance work shop and I also had a chance to pop in Ateneum (the national gallery of Finland). They had a very interesting exhibition on called "Japanomania" and it basically dealt with the japonisme boom that was all the rage in Europe during the latter half of 19th century. The fad reached Finland (and other Nordic countries) a bit later than the rest of Europe, but it was very popular and many artists of the Finnish golden age lived in Paris and other large European cities at the turn of the century, soaking up influences and applying them to their own work. It was very interesting to learn that japonism had a strong influence in the development of the Finnish Jugend (Art Nouveau/national romantic/Arts and Crafts) style.

But I digress. As I was viewing the paintings and artefacts I came accross The Pink Dress again. A little explanation: last year I made my first natural form gown based on this painting by Gustave Courtois:

Anne-Marie Dagnan Bouveret, painted by Gustave Courtois 1880

My dress is blue but pink seems to have been a popular colour with the French ladies, or then the artists liked the colour particularly. The Japanomania exhibition had these two paintings by Albert Edelfelt and Gunnar Berndtson:

Albert Edelfelt: A Parisienne Reading, 1880

Gunnar Berndtson: Yes - No, Pause in the Studio, 1879

This leads me back to the pink dress in the Courtois portrait, and this painting by Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret (Courtois's friend and Anne-Marie's (see first painting) husband):

When I first found this painting, I thought that it showed Anne-Marie's dress (portrayed in the Courtois painting) from the back and in full length. But now I'd be inclined to think that this ^ dress, and the ones in the Edelfelt painting and the Berndtson painting following it are actually the same piece of clothing.

Of course there is no way of knowing if all these three dresses are actually the one and same dress, but there are some details that do point to that direction.

First, the collar. In Edelfelt and Berndtson paintings it's obvious, the dress is the same. I can't be so sure with the Dagnan-Bouveret painting, but it would seem so:

The middle dress looks like it could have the same lapels as the other two. The collar ruffle is there, though.

Then there's the waistband and the basque style of the bodice:

The dress on the left is the Dagnan painting and it definitely has a prominent waistband piece. Since the other two dresses are the same and have the waistband, I'd be inclined to argue that all three are the same.

The dress (and possibly also the model) is the same in all these paintings. According to the info I found here, this is not surprising, since Albert Edelfelt and Gunnar Berndtson both used the same model for their paintings, namely Antonia Bonjean, who features also in this painting by Edelfelt (wearing another (or the same?) pink dress):

Albert Edelfelt: An Idyll (Antonia Bonjean & Gunnar Berndtson), 1878

Are you still with me? All these artists (Courtois, Edelfelt, Dagnan-Bouveret and Berndtson) actually had studios in the same building in Paris at one point in the late 1870s. They also had the same model sitting for them all, pictured in several paintings painted within no more than 5 years. I think that's very interesting and also the artists kept liking the pink dress.

After taking such a good look at all these paintings and especially the dress I'm sort of half-heartedly planning another natural form gown, based on the pink dress. I don't know when I will have time to make it (March madness, so busy at the moment) and I'm not really sure about the colour but I like the shape and the froufrou of the dress and its connection to the Finnish artists.

The Courtois dress revisited

I recently made some additional underwear for the Courtois dress and today I finally took the time to photograph them. The new things are a little underbodice, natural form hoop skirt and a balayeuse hem frill for the skirt.

There are pictures, of course :)

The first layer. I'm very scandalous and don't wear the bloomers, mostly because I don't have a pair. Note to self: put on stockings and shoes before the corset...

The underbodice and the hoops. It looks ridiculous but is actually very useful. It keeps your legs clear of the mass of skirts and frills and general froufrou. I had misplaced the buttons intended for the centre front opening while I was sewing this so here the centre front is basted close. I mean to add the buttons later.

Playing the harp wearing this was VERY difficult.

The underbodice. I'm happy with the fit. Extant pieces seemed to have a longer hem or a basque, but I was short on fabric and time and chose to make a waist lenght version.

Petticoat. I'm not entirely happy with this, I might modify it in the future and ad some frills up the back of the hem.

The 1st skirt.

Cancan! Or showing off the balayeuse. I simply gathered two looooong strips of fabric and sewed  them in two tiers on the train part of the skirt.

The 2nd skirt.

And done!

Some period reading. I'm actually halfway through Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd (also a period novel) but it's a bog standard paperback and not as photogenic as my Anna Karenina.

The underbodice back.

And the fronts. I made this entirely from stash, that's why the lace doesn't go all the way to the front....