Click for details
I’m still working on looking closely at antique photographs in order to better place a date on them. In this case I keep wavering between 1890 and 1898. The sleeves are slightly puffed, and are too small to be from the mid 1890s when sleeves could have been filled with helium to make the wearer airborne. That’s a joke, of course, but they were huge, puffy things. The sleeves did begin to get smaller, with some more conservative styles like this one by 1898.
It does look like the blouse has a very high and tight collar. This style came in around 1897
The length of the skirt, however, I’d think would be shorter by 1898. Women played with the idea of wearing knickers while riding, but it was just too radical for most places, and so women bikers settled on a riding skirt a few inches off the ground.
So, help me decide, please. Meanwhile, here is the news:
- There was a great interview with Ruth Porter, the archivist at LL Bean. Their collection began when LL’s secretary saved his things after his death in 1967.
- Gina Locklear is the Sock Queen of Alabama, according to The New York Times. I talked with Gina years ago when she had just started Zkano, and so it’s good to see the business thriving. (And the socks really are outstanding.)
- A disgruntled writer of an article about Rei Kawakubo for Elle magazine bared his soul and burned a bridge or two.
- Meet “Louise the Wheelwoman” as she rides her bicycle around the National Museum of American History.
- Jonathan of The Fashion History Museum explains more about the white wedding dress in history.
- The long-awaited book about Bonnie Cashin will be released this week. It’s written by Stephanie Lake who knew Cashin and inherited her personal archives.
- A Yves Saint Laurent Mondrian dress sold for $27,000 last week.
- In other YSL news, his longtime partner, Pierre Berge, criticized designers for designing “modest” clothing for Muslim women, and thus “taking part in the enslavement of women.” This, of course, opened a can of worms. There are plenty of articles written by angry Muslim women blasting Berge.
- What exactly is curating? The Shovel tells us and it is funny.
- Working for luxury Italian fashion business Brunello Cucinelli has a lot of nice perks, including a cultural allowance.
- ” What does it take to successfully resuscitate a dormant brand?” And why on earth would anyone think we need another luxury label?
The Vintage Traveler 
That article on Rei Kwakubo is a scream, especially when you get to the end and go read his article in the Guardian! I have heard of these people, but quit following a lot of fashion news years ago. Much of what he said about it is the reason why. It’s all the same anymore, it’s bland, it’s made for unappealingly skinny women. In a word, it’s all crap! Like most women our age, I’ve got my own style, it’s comfortable for my body and I like it. I’m certainly not rich enough to afford, or want, the pieces of weirdness that come down runways (How would you wear anything like that in normal life?), nor do I want to be. I might take an element and adapt it for my “style”, but I’ll never buy into fast fashion. I think that’s only something you see in big cities with a younger group well off enough to go that way, and frankly who have no direction in their lives or anything better to do.
LikeLike
I agree; the article was the most entertaining thing I’ve read on the net in a very long time.
LikeLike
Augh. There has been a hoo-hah here in the UK over Marks and Spencer selling burkinis – and most of the time the people kicking off about these things are men. If women want to dress modestly, they should be able to. If they don’t want to dress modestly, they should also be able to. Either way, they shouldn’t be told how to dress by a bunch of men. Choice is empowerment.
LikeLike
I really don’t understand how it can be anyone’s business what another person is wearing.
LikeLike
I’d guess the later date for the photo because of the blouse front, it seems more like the Edwardian pigeon front which was starting to come in in the late 1890s. I’m no expert though, still learning 🙂
And I’d rather wear a burkini than a bikini! Maybe not the head covering part, but I do not want to expose my wobbling flesh when I go swimming 🙂 I like those Victorian bathing costumes…
LikeLike
Forced to make a choice, I would choose the burkini as well!
LikeLike
I love the Zkano sock story–and that you wrote about her years ago. I’m going to keep Zkano in mind, though I usually buy wool socks. They’re really cute!
LikeLike
And they last forever. Great product.
LikeLike
On the photo, one clue is her hairstyle and hat combination. Her hair isn’t in the tighter smaller style of the mid and early 90s, but the wider sifter style of the later decade or even the early 1900s, and she has the boater to match. I vote later!
LikeLike
I keep forgetting to look at the hair! Thanks, Hollis
LikeLike
The photo looks to be taken in the early 1900’s.
LikeLike