gallery: europe trip 2005

europe trip 2005

Amsterdam

At the Museum van Loon, an historic house museum dating from the 17th c., I was totally surprised to come across this c. 1886-88 (my guess) velvet evening dress complete with portrait of the wearer! Check out the detail on the applique. The back is, I believe, a reconstruction, given the difference in color and the lack of wear.

Antwerp

At the Folklore Museum.

Stripey!	The "effects" of corsetry...
Check out the fairy on the front right comb	A sampler of fastenings

Brussels

At the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, I got really excited about all the 14th-15th c. Flemish paintings.

All these early Flemish images made me think of Michaela's beautiful Germanic costuming.
Can you see the really obvious pins holding her partlet closed, and attaching the green sleeve to the pink upper sleeve?			Am I seeing (reed?) boning in her stomacher-type thing?
		Check out the boning(?) stitching on the bodice!
I love the contrast of the red spiral lacing on the white bodice.
The CF bodice edges look a lot like the effect Jen got on her Italian working class dress.		Again, possible boning stitching?
		Poufy hat, poufy fichu! I love the 1780s.	The picture of the larger painting didn't turn out, but I loved her hair accessories.

At my hotel, I was amused to find an indienne print on the ironing board cover. Hmmm, that could make a nice 1780s pierrot jacket...

Paris

The Musée Carnavalet (on the history of Paris) sadly wouldn't let me take pictures in their exhibit on Paris during the post-Revolution and Napoleonic period, but did they have some interesting things in their permanent collection.

Stripey!	I WANT this hair.
	They had all these really beautiful Revolutionary-period goaches. Unfortunately this is the only picture that turned out.
Makes me wish I was a brunette. Almost.

Most everything at the Musée d'Orsay is so iconic, it wasn't worth taking a picture. These are the few that were less familiar to me.

	FABULOUS 1870s hair!

Italy

I didn't think there would be any costumes on my walking tour in Umbria, but little did I know!

On our first night in Gubbio, we were surprised to find their annual Medieval festival taking place, the centerpiece of which is an archery competition. I of course had to take some pictures of the women's costume so we could nitpick them.
I knew the whole European trip was going to be full of wasted photo opportunities (i.e. fabulous locations, me with no fabulous clothes). On day 4 of our walking tour, we were surprised by a medieval lunch were we got to dress up in "medieval" costumes. Pardon how hideous my mother and I look, we've just finished hiking 10 miles. They put me in PINK. The house itself where we ate was really cool; the whole town gets really into their annual medieval festival, and they have a whole contest for authentic recreations of medieval homes/businesses that people go all out for. Our lunch took place in the "Casa Medievale" (or something like that). I of course tried to tell the various people on our tour, and at the house, how funny this all was, given that I make historic costumes. I got a few blank looks, and had to just live with whispering comments in my mother's ear like, "Oh yeah, I'm glad they included the huge stitching detail on the neckline. Because of course medieval people were using ROCKS for needles." Le sigh!
More of the medieval house. Wasted costume photo op!

London

Call it what you will, the Victoria & Albert Museum to me will always be the holy grail of costuming. They recently redid their permanent collection, and had out a lot of costumes I'd never seen before. They also had an exhibit on Queen Maud of Norway's (Queen Victoria's granddaughter) wardrobe.

This dress is EMBROIDERED. By HAND, mind you. Can you see the small piecing on the bodice CF, top right? Official photo (fabric closeup).
		Proof that I really was there!
This dress reminded me of Katherine's 2005 Costume Con masquerade entry (well, all the embroidery).
Official photos: three-quarters, front, back, fabric closeup.			Can you see the piecing on this bodice? There are two diagonal seams on each bodice front, Ving down towards the CF edge.
SILK. DUCHESSE. SATIN.
Normally I think the 1860s are boring, but this dress is so beautifully trimmed/embroidered.
	This dress reminds me of Theresa; not sure why. Official photo.
MINE. Official photo.
			A perfect dress for Frannie!
A woman's banyan!	The TRIM!
The rest of these pics are from the Maud of Norway exhibition; this was her coronation gown (official photo).

I only got a few pictures at the Museum of London before getting yelled at by a guard. Sadly, the REALLY exciting pictures (of the 18th c. gowns I got to examine) I can't put online.

Official photo. It always amazes me when images I've only seen in b&w turn into COLOR!

Brighton

I had no idea there were any costumes in Brighton until I saw an ad for the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery that mentioned their costume gallery...

Official photo here.
	This dress was worn by one of the attendants at George IV's coronation. Official photo here.
		Probably from the 1790s; note the higher waistline.
A child's stays; note it's all padding.	Busks from the early 19th c.