Textile Workshop March 20th in Brockville

This looks fun:

EVENT – Learn more about 19th-century textiles at Fulford Place

Saturday, March 20, 2010 – 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with one hour for lunch

In this workshop, Sotheby's-trained instructor Janet Carlile looks at 19^th-century textiles. Learn about samplers and the iconography used on them. Explore early Canadian pictorial wool work. Find out how Irish linen is made – and how to remove stains and care for it. Hooking and hooked rugs, quilts and coverlets will also be examined. You will also discover ways of determining the age of textiles. Each participant may bring one textile item to be appraised.

Janet Carlile has lectured throughout the United Kingdom and Canada. She taught a course at Lancaster University called Artefacts and Implements Relating to Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian Social History. Carlile has undertaken appraisals of government department collections and is an appraiser for the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the American Embassy, the House of Commons and has worked for Rideau Hall – the official residence of the Governor General. She has also appeared as an expert on the Canadian Antiques Roadshow.

The cost of the session is $65 per person. Pre-registration is required. Seating is limited. Bring a bagged lunch.

To purchase tickets or receive more information, call 613-498-3003.

Fulford Place – a National Historic Site – is owned and operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust, an agency of the Government of Ontario, dedicated to identifying, preserving, protecting and promoting Ontario's heritage.

For more information about Fulford Place and other Trust activities, call 416-325-5000.

(Posted on: http://www.heritagefdn.on.ca/userfiles/HTML/nts_1_10170_1.html)

The Great Purse Mystery

A friend of mine emailed me about a vintage purse given to her by her aunt (shown in the photos below).

She wasn't exactly sure why it had a strap running straight along the back. I hadn't seen anything like it myself. The big questions were how was it supposed to be held and what was the strap for?

After some looking around in my reference books I came across an example in a 1908 Sears Roebuck catalogue and an illustration on how to wear it (see bottom photo). It's apparently called a vanity purse and you slip your hand straight down with the palm of your hand facing the side of your body. Since I did not come across any photos like this on the Internet or references to "vanity purses" as Sears had referred to this style I thought I would share the reference (excuse the quality).

The vanity purse seems a bit awkward to carry which might be why we don't see this style anymore. Today we see the more common clutch purse for evening wear which you simply wrap your hand around and hold.







(1908 Sears, Roebuck Catalogue: A Treasured Replica from the Archives of History, Ed. Joseph J. Schroeder, Jr., published by Digest Books Inc. Northfield Illinois, 1969. Vanity purses listed on page 1000.)

Talk on Victorian Costume - Dec 10/09 London Ontario

This looks like fun and free:

Victorian Costume: Demonstration and Talk
Thursday, December 10, 7:30 pm
Lorraine Ivey Shuttleworth Community Gallery

After graduating from the Fashion Arts Program at Niagara College, Karen Harley dedicated 25 years to theatre, working in various venues such as the Stratford Festival and the Grand Theatre. She now teaches sewing, history of costume and textile science in the Fashion Design Program at Fanshawe College. Karen will speak about why people dressed the way they did in Victorian times, and will elaborate upon the styles, influences and attitudes of the era. She will display a collection of Victorian costumes from the Stratford Festival, and will show us what it took to get undressed as a woman in this period.

Admission: FREE

(Source: http://www.museumlondon.ca/d.aspx?s=/Programs_Events/Listen_Learn.htm)

White Lab Coat Ceremony for UWO's Med Students

What do you know, Western has a tradition for medical students to be ceremonially presented with a white lab coat similar to the capping ceremony for nurses prior to the 60s. I wonder how long that tradition has been going on?!

Mode en France

I haven't had much time lately to properly blog but I still come across fun stuff to share.

Check out this awesome video on fashion history! Don't you wish you were in it?

Shoe Fetish

I thought this was a fun video found on the Globe and Mail web site today. The video contains a segment with the Bata Shoe Museum about the historical significance of shoes and identity. For more info check out an article I wrote a couple years ago for Filly.ca where I talk about the history of boots in Canada. For high-heels it seems to be the power of adding height and their ability to elongate the legs which keep women wearing them despite being a dangerous elegance. Kelly Ripa has also been in the news quite a bit lately preparing for her High-Heel-A-Thon. It seemed like a pretty risky run to me, but according to Kelly, making sure they didn't fall off was the key!

Not So Uniform Opinions On Nurses' Dress

The history of nursing uniforms is relevant today as we see some hospitals like the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children bringing back the nurses' uniform. Maybe not the typical starched white one with cap which might be the image that first pops into mind, but a more casual Roots brand one, intended so that nurses will be better identified in the hospital.

Of course, everyone doesn't agree that Roots, or uniforms in general are the best way to go as seen in the Toronto Star's Voice column last week. Some responses (from the LONG list of comments) to the uniform at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children included:

I am not really sure how these uniforms will work to distinguish the nurses from other members of the staff. There is nothing about them that says ‘nurse.’ They look like everyday clothes, and could be seen on anyone who enters the hospital.

What dress does say 'nurse' in this day and age? Since they were first worn in the nineteenth century, nursing uniforms often took on the silhouette of fashionable dress, though remained white and starched with the standard components (these were generally: the cap, bib, apron, dress, collar, cuffs). Does this Roots version suit the fashion trends of our period? I would argue yes, so much that the public is in fact worried that the nurses cannot be clearly identified. Maybe Roots should design a cap? That might do the trick!?

Some didn't like the idea of uniforms at all. Also, a doctors' clothing is mentioned which made me a little confused. Aren't we talking about nurses here?

Did Roots make a donation to the hospital and the kickback is to be the official supplier to the hospital? I care more about being cared for by staff that is qualified, not dressed trendily. A doctor could wear ripped jeans for all I care, if he can get or keep me healthy.

Other comments reflected what different styles of dress can mean to people from gaining the trust of patients to professionalism and dignity for those nurses who wore them:

These Roots creations look great if the people wearing them are off on a hiking field trip. They do not instill any amount of confidence in me if I were a patient.

The nursing profession has a long and glorious uniform tradition, which is daily being eroded by more and more hospitals dressing their nurses in polo shirts and scrubs, often making nurses indistinguishable from cleaners and domestic staff. I find this a tragedy, as a traditional uniform is smart, enables the nurse to be easily identified by patients and public and gives the nurse a certain dignity that you just cannot get from a polo shirt.

You know I love the language of dress!

Stay tuned for more. I suspect this won't be the end of the current debate on nurses' uniforms.

The Costume Institute's "Blogmode": A Unique Way to Engage with a Museum Collection

Every so often I check out the online exhibit Blogmode: Addressing Fashion presented by The Costume Institute. It closes soon by the way, so do check it out. It's such an excellent way for the public to engage with a museum collection. Every couple days they post a new garment and a short blurb about the item. It's then open for comments and some like this Jean Paul Gaultier gown get up to 60 comments or so - that's a whole lot of interaction. Comments range from the "GROSS…. I would hate to wear this" sort to those sharing their knowledge on the garments, posing thoughtful questions or even critiquing the "art". Great stuff. I might have to borrow this idea in the future. It's a fabulous idea for a small museum with limited resources wanting to have a presence on the web. Just sign up with Blogger and you have an online collections database!

When I posted this blog it didn't occur to me that there is an actual exhibit at The Costume Institute that accompanied the online version. Here is a tour of that show!

MAY I PLEASE HAVE MY HISTORY BACK? PT 2

To follow up with a previous posting on museums wanting artifacts back, I thought I would post these two really interesting video clips from National Geographic regarding Egyptian antiquities and the Parthenon Marbles. Interesting debates, who do you side with?:


Egypt Wants Treasures Back


Parthenon Marbles Battle

I was not aware of this but there are some pretty amazing history videos on the National Geographic Website under the video of the day section/history.

Hot or Not : Dressing Up The Other Boleyn Girl

Just when you thought historic films were hard enough to review, The Other Boleyn Girl, based on the historical fiction book by Philippa Gregory comes to theaters. The book itself has had many criticisms in how it presents history, but by bringing this story to the big screen, a number of other problems are magnified from under the bright lights. These mainly involve costume and the value of aesthetic.

Historically speaking, costume in The Other Boleyn Girl, is the films strength. Hot or not, the designers captured some of the key fashion trends of the Tudor reign. If you look at contemporary paintings, one can see that primary sources were the basis for these designs. Although challenging to design and construct, generally speaking, the sources for costume designing are reliable.

Visual components like costume and set are typically used as a tool by filmmakers to create a more immediate sense of time and place. In this film, I worry that the power of costume and aesthetic has resulted in the slacking off in other areas that are equally important to the success of this film both as a presentation of history and a narrative.

My first problem was with time. There were way too many events and characters crammed into this short film. This illustrates one of the challenges of this medium. More time was necessary to get to know the characters and their motives to better construct the storyline. In my opinion, actors/writers, just like historians have the right to interpret history, but just like a historian, their authority (should) involve reading and researching a character to essentially make an argument about what this person was like.

Phillipa Gregory, author of The Other Boleyn Girl who was hired as the historical consultant for the film, was thrilled that Scarlett Johanson was so dedicated to the history of the character and read all of the Tudor novels Gregory had written. Having something to contextualize these novels such as an academic work would have been of great value. Lacking a good understanding of the historical interpretation resulted in characters which were dull and uninteresting. On a side note, I can't believe Cardinal Wolsey was hardly mentioned, meanwhile he was the one who had control over the state!

Continuity was another issue with the film. Mary was married before getting involved with King Henry. Whatever happened to her husband? In the end we don't know, he seems to have magically disappeared. After one night with Henry she was smitten and her husband quickly forgotten. Understanding the history would help filmmakers identify errors in continuity more effectively. Historical research could also be used as a tool to help them come up with creative ways to solve problems with the storyline that doesn't involved just a simple "cut."

So, I guess the lesson I would pass along to the filmmakers and actors would be, if they had dusted off their history textbooks and took some time to brush up on this period, several issues could have been avoided. I think there is too much worry that trying to be historically accurate can be a limitation for filmmakers. In the case of The Other Boleyn Girl, history could have improved the film's representation of the large number of complex characters and events that were important for telling this story.
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If your interested in experiencing Tudor and Victorian costume designing through a fun game check this out.

For a comparison I suggest watching the first season of The Tudors which is available online. It takes a different approach to the same history. Costumes in this show fall under the "hot" category and are less historical than The Other Boleyn Girl, but the characters are stronger. The season 2 premier is coming up on Mar. 30, 2008.

The pics in this blog are found on Tudor Dress: a portfolio of images.

Remembering Bexhill...

While reading Museum News, I came across an article that made my heart skip a beat. Bexhill Museum of Costume and Social History in East Sussex, UK - which I have not thought about for years, had a large gift of £40,000 left to them by one of their dedicated volunteers, the late Edna North. I not only had the opportunity to visit this quaint little treasure that lies along the southern coastline of England, but volunteer there for four amazing months. Although I haven't been there since 2003, being a fellow volunteer with a special connection to the museum, I was particularly touched by her gesture.

Today I felt the urge to reminisce. Afterall, Bexhill Museum was one of the reasons I became interested in museum work in the first place. In my eyes, what was so striking about the museum was that it was completely run by volunteers who were mainly retired ladies that lived in the town. They were an inspiration in how they poured their blood, sweat and tears into maintaining the museum and for sharing what I like to call their passion for historic fashion.

The museum was quite small in size and was literally just four open rooms that ran a straight line down the building (as you can see from the map on their website).The storage room was closed off by a curtain and there were textile boxes by the dozens just bursting at the seams. I recall the collection of eighteenth-century garments which I admired while helping with an inventory. This included rare examples of baby corsets, mens jackets and breeches as well as the clothing of royalty.

It's amazing to see just how much a museum can mean to a volunteer. It goes both ways in that volunteers really are the foundation of the museum because of the invaluable work they do. By remembering my positive experience at Bexhill Museum, I will never lose sight of this.


Photo: The entrance to the Bexhill Museum of Costume and Social History, 2003, taken by me.

Swanndri History - Now Available on Wiki Thanks to Me!

The Swanndri or "swanny," is a New Zealand garment with an interesting history as I found out today while creating a history section on Wikipedia. I have mentioned in several posts how much I enjoy seeing modern fashion based on historic designs. The Swanndri is a perfect example of traditional kiwiana that fashion designer Karen Walker has given a modern spin.

Pondering Party Dresses...

It's been another lovely holiday season shared with family, friends and my favorite delectable goodies. But, it’s not over quite yet. It’s New Years Eve and there is still one important party left to go. Many, like myself, put a great deal of thought into what will be worn for this particular occasion – it does, after all, set the stage for a new and fresh year ahead!

As I flipped through the Jan 2008 issue of In Style magazine for inspiration, I was not surprised to see the glitz and glam that is popularly advertised around this celebratory time of year. However, one page in particular did grab my attention. It was an interview with the stars of ABC’s Cashmere Mafia. They were asked: “If you could slip into a different guise for a day, what would it be?” Lucy Liu responded with dress-up from the 1940s sharing her passion in a Christian Lacroix’s silk organza, floral-printed party dress with short-puffed sleeves worn with an elegant belt and satin hat tilted ever-so slightly. Bonnie Somerville who also plays a character in Cashmere looked back in time as well for her dreamy look claiming: “In the fifties you’d never leave the house without your hair done, your face on, and a nice dress. Me, I have my staple uniform of jeans, tank tops and flats.” Her yellow, cotton, fitted day dress designed by Lela Rose brings one back to the days of Audrey Hepburn when fashion was more about looking as what was further described in the article as perennially polished. Dress with historic detailing for these ladies (an opinion that seems to be shared by many) is thought to bring us back to another time when life was somehow different…

Fashion magazines like In Style are sprinkled with references to dresses in particular and their place in history. It is the one area of popular history that I would describe as almost inescapable. Generally we know a great deal about fashion history as it is all around us – maybe even more intimately than other forms of history because it is literally on us helping to shape our personal image everyday of the week. Due to the cyclical nature of fashion (a constant reference point, reminding us of what we once wore, why we wore it and what we were doing while we were wearing it) we relate to fashion and engage with it's history quite easily. This can be observed in the Costume Institute’s recent special online exhibition Blog Mode where a different piece of fashion history is explored every day. With plenty of blogging being done by the public for this exhibit it seems everyone has an opinion on fashion.

Party dresses in particular provide the opportunity to really express our passion for fashion history, possibly in some part due to tradition - we tend to spend more money on these garments, they are more lavish than our day-to-day wear and are part of a planning process where more thought is put into deciding what will be worn. A photo in the McCord Museum's collection shows friends dressed for a party in Montreal in 1881. Themed parties were popular at this time - these could be on sports as seen in the photo of the tennis costume or on the lady to the right, the costume "Winter" which the museum's curator Cynthia Cooper suggests would be popular at skating carnivals. Historic costumes were considered the most popular by both men and women though. A photo of a man dressed in Tudor costume is shown on the right. The museum holds many other photos as well in their collection of fancy dress that are inspired by history.

Fancy dress has changed since this period and is maybe a little less extreme than it was (well, at least in my social circles). But it does demonstrate that the fashion-savvy from other periods also enjoyed the ability dress has to bring us to another place in time. As for my own personal party dress, with a snow storm edging my way, I think it's time to put away my In Style because dressing up as "Winter" is looking to be the best option, this form of fancy dress will feature a cozy toque and mitts!

McCord Museum Photo Reference: http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/II-60125.1/ Photograph Miss Allan and friend as "Tennis" and "Winter", Montreal, QC, 1881 II-60125.1

McCord Museums Photo Reference: http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/II-60041.1/ Photograph Mr. Waldo in "Tudor" costume, Montreal, QC, 1881 II-60041.1

Intersting reading: Cynthia Cooper, "Dressing Up: A Consuming Passion," in Fashion: A Canadian Perspective, ed. Alexandra Palmer (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, forthcoming) .

Pink Zac Posen party dress found at: http://www.glamour.com/fashionbeauty/blogs/suze/2007/11/new-shape-dress.html

What's With Those Ugg-ly Boots?

A Material Culture Study

While at my university today I thought I was seeing doubles, no triples maybe even quadruples! It seemed every corner I turned were ladies treking through the campus tundra in soft oversized boots which they fondly call ugg boots. Although, I am not surprised to see these boots back with the recent chilly temperatures, what’s so interesting about this style is that it also pops up when you are least expecting it. They are spotted at dance clubs, on the cover of Hollywood magazines or yes - even at the beach! These warm woolly wonders are taking over the streets again and no strappy stiletto heal or nastily narrow flat will stand in the way!

In a Public History workshop this week we explored material culture or in other words the study of objects, their history and what historical insight they can provide us. Following this class I couldn’t help but marvel about these interesting specimens of everyday fashion. What are they made of? Where did they originate? Have they always made the same fashion statement?

Well, it’s just as I thought. My sources have informed me that there is more to ugg boots than meets the eye. Ugg boots (ug or ugh boots which they have also been called) which is short for “ugly” originated in Australia and have been registered as a trademark since the 1970s. The term however, seems to have been associated with them for even longer. Uggs are defined by their unique shape which is a curvy and flat-style boot which is easy to slip in and out of. Made of merino sheepskin from Australia and New Zealand, some designers like Stella McCartney have recently began to use animal-friendly alternatives.

One wouldn’t know from looking at these cosy creatures that they have quite a controversial history. In 1995 after uggs were bought by the American company Deckers, Aussie ugg makers were at a complete loss! Now what were they to call this national icon? After the case was brought to the attention of the government trademark regulator, last year Australian business owners were ecstatic to find out they had been given rights to continue to use the name ugg for their boots well, at least in Australia. To Aussie’s this move is considered a major step towards reclaiming this prominent product title for use in the international market.

Meanwhile, the style is still growing in popularity. On the World Wide Web there is no shortage of interest in this stylish boot, in fact, in 2004 they were the most searched fashion trend on the internet. From Cameron Diaz to Pamela Anderson, even attention has been given to the everyday bogan sporting this style. One captivating website is dedicated to collecting news stories from around the world on the ugg as well, wikipedia offers a detailed overview of ugg history.

So, the final question I have for my material culture mini-study is what does the future hold for this fashionable sole? Well, it has been said that these boots were originally designed for Aussie’s wanting a warm boot they could slip into after surfing. Possibly because of their historical connection to surf culture, I can see this bodacious boot continuing to live up to its original use as cool, carefree and comfortable!