A Most Beguiling Accomplishment

Originally, I was going to write about lingerie dresses in general, as they make up a large portion of heirlooms everywhere, and especially of my small collection of antique clothing. But then I remembered - I can do better! A long time ago, I posted some photos of ancestors of mine, including one of the following portraits: This is my great-grandmother, Ardis Burdick Allen Luce, in 1919 - although at the time, she was just Ardis Burdick. Like pretty much all young women in the late 19th and early 20th century, when she graduated high school, she wore a white cotton commencement dress. It's not exactly cutting edge, but it is  fashionable for the time - raised waistlines could be found even in the Gazette du Bon Ton through 1921 - and it was probably made for the occasion, perhaps by someone in her family. (Her maternal grandmother worked in the clothing industry for most of her life, as a dressmaker and then as a saleslady/merchant.) Ardis kept this dress and passed it...

Wedding photo of Grace Louise Fenton Ross, 1983.15.7 (Dress itself is 1983.15.4a-b , pattern at link.) It's possible that a lot of lingerie dresses in collections were worn as wedding dresses - around the turn of the century, they were very popular for that use. Being white, they fit into the already-established but mainly upper-class wedding dress tradition, but being cotton, they were more affordable. Additionally, these white cotton dresses were fashionable and could be worn after the wedding, just as most women had done in earlier decades with colored gowns. The belt from this one is gone, but the rest of the dress is in wonderful shape, apart from some yellowing. It is full of time-consuming details - lace insertion, pintucks - but because the fitting is achieved through the waistband and large pleats on either side of the back (the bodice is very loose and tucks into the skirt), it was a style ideal for the dawning of the age of ready-to-wear. Judging by the photogr...

Like everyone, I have a plethora of historical clothing I'd like to make in an ideal world where fabric is free and a seamstress does the tricky bits for me.  Yesterday, though, I set some concrete goals for myself for ... well, I'm calling the goal "Dress U 2013," but obviously I'd like to be done a bit before that. Goal One: An early 1910s lingerie dress with silk slip. I've been in love with the lingerie dress for a while, and with the 1910s as a whole.  Lingerie dresses by definition don't need expensive materials, which also suits my wallet.  The idea of a colored silk slip underneath came to me from my 1902 McCall's Magazine (which is early, but I plan to do more research to find out if the idea continued into the next decade): The white swisses, with black embroidered dot and inlays of black lace, are particularly effective over linings of rose pink or delicate green, but the prevailing mania for black and white makes a white silk slip th...