Power of Fashion Database

Nordiska Museeet just launched a website dedicated to their new exhibition with good, zoomable pictures of the costumes.


Only in Swedish, but take my hand, and I'll guide you to the 18th century pieces.

1. Click here to go to the database.

2. To view the costumes, click the box to the far left, which says "Tidslinje" (=time line)

3. Click "1700"

4. Move the slider to see all the objects. Disregard the 1980's Levi's jeans that snuck their way in for some reason. Click on an object of your choice.

5. Below the image, there's a box that says "Nästa bild". This means "next image". Click "Zooma mer" for the closest view; click "Zooma" for a medium-view; and click "Zooma ut" to zoom out!

Have fun, and feel free to include my instructions if you want to share the link to your fellows!

Power of Fashion - 300 years of clothing

Today I got the privilege to see the new exhibition at Nordiska Museet here in Stockholm. The exhibition is the museum's new, permanent installation of historical fashion.

I have longed to see it for quite some time now, and was very excited now when the big day had arrived!

I had understood that the exhibition was arranged so that rather than being a time-line of fashion, it would more or less pin-point three decades of fashion - the 1780's, the 1860's and the 1960's.

This disappointed me a little (no high-waisted era?!?) but bits and pieces of other eras were included after all, so I decided to only enjoy myself, and to love what I saw!

I really liked that they included clothing of the common people as well as the fashionable since it's not very documented, it added some depth.

But enough talking - we want pictures, don't we? I'm afraid you have to accept them as they are; it's not easy to snap pictures through glass, especially not when there's a pesky blue light that's reflected in the glass on all the display cases along one certain wall!

But here we go!

Stays! One pair of child's stays and another pair for a woman.

By pressing my face to the glass, I managed to study the stitches for the channels more closely, and suddenly I don't feel so bad about my own stitching any more! You may be able to see the stitches on the child's stays pretty well if you enlarge the photo, but the other pair didn't have the smallest, tightest stitches either!

The stitches on these pocket hoops are terrible! Yay for lazy seamstresses from all ages!

A lonely stomacher! Where did it's gown go?

A well-off farmer with his pipe.

A servant girl in rural clothing.

A dozed-off Scanian peasant woman in her finest bling (see Anna's comment for some interesting bits)!

This mannequin depicted a country clergyman's wife, who set the fashion example in rural areas.

Buttons, buttons... With miniature paintings!

A quilted garment, probably imported from France. Some assembly required.

This gown was lovely in salmon pink. When you watched closely, the silk really resembled what we refer to as silk dupioni! A smooth one, but nevertheless.

The man's suit in patterned velvet was fun to see, because I've only seen it in a B-W photo until now.

People of the common classes in the late 18th century, dancing away...

It was hard to get a good picture of this lovely gown...

...and even harder still to get good pictures of this gentleman. He's wearing the National Habit, or Swedish Habit.

I love how this jacket has an asymmetrical, wrap-style closing! And the fabric!

***

This was by no means a huge exhibition, but I only showed the 18th century stuff now. I has moar pictures.

By the way, I have not forgotten about the give-away; there just hasn't been much time for working on it! When I can show some proof, the winner will be announced (but I don't know who it is yet myself!)

Picque-nicque d'Hiver

I have finally made an outer garment suitable for the Swedish winter!

Cape, mantelet - the terminology isn't clear to me, but I was going for something like this:


Far below are some pictures of my version. I wished it had been a bit longer but alas! Not enough fabric.

The outer fabric is some kind of wool... It was a remnant so there wasn't much to go on, but it had that wool stamp on it:



Probably some synthetics too. One side is shiny and shimmering (and very pretty!) and the other is dull. Gabardine? No idea. I wanted silk taffeta but my budget doesn't allow such extravagance right now! The lining in the hood is of a coral red china silk that I've had for ages without knowing what to do with it. I still have a few meters of it.

But it's the lining of this thing that makes it prepared for winter!

All wonderful, silky-smooth fake fur! Maybe not the prettiest fake fur I've seen, but it's SO soft... It came in the form of a blanket that has been for sale at our local supermarket for some time now. I always stopped to stroke it when passing by, but never got around to actually buy it. Then one week ago, they had an offer where you got the blanket and a matching pillow at a special price. I instantly saw that the pillow was destined to be a muff, so I finally gave in and bought them!

So now I have a winter garment. It's been put to test too, and passed with flying colours!

Last Saturday, I went to a wintry, snowy pick-nick in the Haga park just outside of Stockholm.

It was only -2 degrees (Celsius) but it appeared as if only six persons, me included, thought that a pick-nick in the snow was a good idea!

But it was really nice. Arrangements had been made so that a little fire sparked and we sat on logs (covered with blankets) and I wasn't cold at all, thanks to my fake fur (and a very accurate Thermos filled with hot chocolate, carefully laced with rum.. Yum!).

Well, OK, my feet turned awfully cold, and that was what finally drove me away. Ironically, since I easily could have avoided this simply by wearing another pair of socks (on top of the two pairs I already wore!) because I wore my modern boots that I use for everyday winter-wear.

But the park was lovely all covered in snow and I don't regret the excursion.

Sadly, my camera died and My phone camera barely managed to take pictures of the blazing fire:

But here's a collage of how I looked before going to the pick-nick:

[Click to embiggen]

The jacket is made from black silk taffeta and I know details are hard to make out, but it's very plain, front-closed and with a little self-ruffle at the skirt. I was going to wear it on the 12th Night Ball, in lieu of The Dress That Got To Tight, but I never attended the ball since my stupid self decided to get unwell just in the wrong time.

So the jacket got it's first airing on the pick-nick instead, not that anyone saw it or anything.

I know, I know, a white silk petticoat wasn't the brightest idea in the dirty city snow. An even lesser bright idea was to spill hot chocolate on it. Yeah.

Happy Birthday to me! And a give-away!

This little blog on the big, big internet turned 1 year today - how the time flies!

I wasn't pretty sure where this spot would be going to when I posted that first entry one twelve-month ago: I was new to blogging, new to costuming and not very used to writing in a second language but here we are: 1 year, and 81 entries (this one included).

That makes 0,22 posts per day; 1,55 per week and 6,75 per month...

But even though I'm not the most frequent or active blogger, I thoroughly enjoy posting, and ponder about the next entry, and reading comments...

But what I enjoy most is all the new acquaintances I've made during this year - the blogging community has so many talented, witty, funny and awesome members, whether they are costumers, doll-makers, embroiderers, knitters or just plain history nerds (or all of them).

I'm so happy to have the privilege to get to know you and to learn from you and share your fortunes and misfortunes. Thank you!

Now, I wasn't really prepared for this anniversary since I for some reason believed that I posted that first entry in March 2009, but I had planned to arrange a little give-away and I still do, it's only that the thing I'm going to give away doesn't exist yet!

Well, the more excitement for the lucky receiver!

All I can say is that it is going to be something I made myself, and it will be shipped to anywhere in the world. And it won't be something that only an 18th century reenactor can enjoy, but there will be a connection to the 1700's for sure.

To enter the give-away, simply post something in the comments. Börjesson the cat will eventually pick the winner and you can enter until February 14 (Valentine's day!).

Well, here's to a good weekend for all of you, and to a prosperous new blog year!

It made me laugh...

This did:


It's a painting exhibited on the traditional spring salon at the Liljevalchs art gallery, a fora for non-established artists as well as more known ones.

The artist behind this work is Nicholas Nordquist and I hope someone with a great sense of humour buys his painting.