Pinup, vintage fashion, vintage home, Jane Austen's Emma, and Miracles from Molecules!
Content dealing with vintage clothing, jewelry, other accessories, related products and ephemera.
This past weekend, I went back down to OC for my friend Cindy’s birthday. It was a wonderful few days! For her party, a group of us went to the Tea House on Los Rios in San Juan Capistrano, the same place Cindy and I went back on November 1. Here are a couple of photos from the event…
Cindy wore a mid-Edwardian dress she made herself. I wore my 1912 tea/luncheon gown (made by Tracie) and the 1911ish “Lunardi revival” hat I’d put together for the GBACG “My Fair Lady” event last August.
A new gown! Or is it? Actually, it’s a new variation on an old theme of mine: Winona Ryder’s Newport archery ensemble from Martin Scorsese’s 1993 Age of Innocence adaptation.
The ensemble is fiercely cute, with little faux pannier-looking things radiating out over the hips from a shirred panel on the skirtfront and layers of eyelet ruffles cascading down the skirt. It’s a little reminiscent of the gown on the left in this French fashion plate from the early 1880s:
My friend Tracie Arnold of Past & Present Creations made the fresh iteration of my original, beloved version of this gorgeous natural-form era ivy dress. The first dress – constructed by Victoria Riddenour, hand-embroidered by me, and photographed beautifully by Lani Teshima – had become too small to even THINK about wearing.
I wore the new ensemble to San Juan Capistrano on Halloween weekend, where my pal Cindy and I had tea and generally caroused around the old town area. Cindy wore a beautiful, embroidered black velvet ball gown that she’d made for Bat’s Day.
Outfit notes: The straw skimmer is a Victoria Riddenour original. My corset is Denise Nadine‘s late Victorian “Nettie” style. I made the combination undergarment (which you can’t see) from Truly Victorian’s 1876 combination pattern (TV105). My garnet earrings are from Lacis.
As part of her “Go Gothic!” tribute to Northanger Abbey, my friend Laurel Ann invited me to do a light look at the costuming in the 1986 and 2007 television adaptations of the novel.
Anyway, I hope people enjoy it.