1950's fashionFashion historyfashion illustrationfashionscissors in LondonHaute coutureLondonVictoria Albert Museum
V&A Experiecne in London: Gonig back ceturies of fashion
V&A Experiecne in London: Gonig back centuries of fashion
Photographer: Talia Zoref
Writer: Talia Zoref
Editor: Tracey Belchetz
A Charleston dancing dress from the 1920's
The Victoria Albert Museum in London has a
spectacular collection of fashion and accessories from the 1500s to the
present. The collection includes
dresses, coats, shoes, hats as well as historical fashion illustrations. Two weeks ago during my visit to London, I was
pleased to have the opportunity to view the incredible collection from times
past demonstrating the amazing, painstaking,
intricate hand sewing and embroidery that went into making clothes. At that time, a sewing machine was not even
imaginable.
Dresses from the 1700's
When I entered the museum, the first and most
memorable dress I saw was a puffed up evening gown that had one of those old
fashioned corsets. The corset was tied
extremely tight around the bust area and the dress became very voluminous
around the hips. In fact, the area
around the hips was so wide that the woman wearing was prevented from walking
through the door head on and she was therefore forced to go through the doorway
sideways. The dress contained various layers
and was extremely heavy with all the layers. In short, it was very impressive that these
garments were handmade. The women who
wore these dresses were from high society and they had these dresses specially
made for them in the 1700s. These dresses
were just breath taking to see in person since they had such intricate and this
was highly visible from close up.
Original Christian Dior from the 1950's
Many questions came up in my head while I was
looking at these beautiful garments. First
of all, how did such a beautiful handmade highly detail oriented dress like
this stay so perfect for a period of 300 years? Secondly, how did these dressmakers have so
much strength and patience to sew these items by hand without using sewing machines?
The workmanship of the seamstresses was unfathomable,
particularly in from what you see today. These garments look like they were
extremely hard to construct, fit, and embroider.
Breath taking display at the V&A
Moving forward in time to the 1800s and 1900s, the
first thing I noticed was the change in footwear which changed from the 1700s
from very narrow, small shoes which were the same for both the right and left
feet and which could barely fit a child’s foot to shoes which were wider
reflecting a normal foot size and shape.
Also as time progressed, the dresses did not have as much skirt volume
and the construction of the garments was finally constructed using a sewing
machine. Another thing I truly appreciated
was seeing the beginning of the process of artistic inspired fashion design and
the change in the way that women dressed which leaned more towards more
comfortable everyday wear. I would say
that the earlier fashion designs of the 1700-1800s caused great suffering and
discomfort for the women who wore them because they went against the natural
shape of the female body trying to alter nature by literally squeezing the
women into tight corsets in order to give them tiny waists and huge hips with
the wide skirts. Also, all the layers
of clothes most certainly were very uncomfortable to wear in the summer heat,
thus the changes were welcome and now prevail in our modern world of design.
Original Fashion Illustrations from the 1800's
I wonder how women sat down in these dresses..
A beautiful ostrich feather dress from the early 1900's
Corsets in the good old days don't look so comfortable
A crown from 1500, Thailand
Men's wear from the 1800's
Hope you enjoyed going back in time for a few moments, I know I did,
Talia
Fashionscissorsnet@gmail.com
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