For jenlemus

[green_martha]

(Meant to do this earlier, sorry)
From A separate Sphere, dressmakers in Cincinnati's golden age, 1877-1922 Cynthia Amnéus


"The gown Mary Swift Thoms purchased from Worth follows the fashion of the day in the combination of several colors and textures in one garment. Blue satin forms the panniers that Worth revived in the late 1870s, as well as a divided overskirt, much in the style of the eighteenth century. the overskirt is pulled back over the hips to form both a low bustling of fabric at the back and the train. The exposed selvedges of the floral silk, which forms th edraped underskirt in the front, are a signature conceit of the House of Worth, indicatiing the luxury of utilizing the full width of the fabric in a single element of the garment. The day bodice, worn for recieving guests, has a low-cut neckline but appropriately modest three-quarter-length sleeves. The cuirass-style bodice, fitting tight and low over the hips, had become popular in the middle of the decade and continued to be worn into the early 1880s.
The most distinctive fact about this dress, however, is that Mrs. Thoms brought extra yardage of the floral silk whant she returned to Cincinnati. She took this to Selina Cadwallder, a Cincinnati dressmaker, and had the evening bodice on page 87 made to be worn with the same skirt."

Hope this helps !

Comments

[madamemodiste.livejournal.com]

That is a beautiful gown. Thank you for sharing it AND the story behind the gown.

[green-martha.livejournal.com]

You're welcome ! I can only recommend the book, it's full of such beauties.

[jenlemus.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That is amazingly helpful. There is much more to this dress than is initially apparent. But hey, it is Worth after all!

There are a total of *4* skirts - the bottom has fine pleats about the hem, the second, a panel actually, has a few deep pleats in line with the slit on the over skirt. Which explains why the 2 small images before confused me.

I just wish I could find a fabric like the stripe on the over skirt - beautiful! On the blue, I can make out how the pleats on the front work, it is different that I'd visualized. The ruffle at the hem of the train is actually two ruffles, rather than one dual sided one.

I'm making a new corset to kick this dress off. I'm starting today.

Squee!

[green-martha.livejournal.com]

The very fine pleating at the very bottom/inside of the underskirt could probably just be a small strip of fabric attached to the unpleated skirt base. It's a lot of fabric anyway.
I can't wait to see your reproduction of the gown !

[malwae.livejournal.com]

It's so interesting that Cinncinati went through a time where it was a fashion capital. Now, Cinncinati is desolate cultural wasteland with nothing to distinguish it except a few good restaurants and one of the most bigoted right wing racist populations in the country. (My husband grew up there... we both dread having to go there for holidays.)

[green-martha.livejournal.com]

From what I remember from the book, it doesn't that it was a BIG fashion capital, but there certainly were a good number of seamstresses living there, and quite a few of their creations have been saved until now. I don't know how the city would have compared to other commercially prosperous cities on the fashion front at the time.

[quincy134.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing! The pictures are beautiful.

[green-martha.livejournal.com]

You're welcome ! I made them higher res than usual to help jenlemus with her research.