#historical tailoring

[cy-lindric]

Costume update !! I finally got to wear my 17th century outfit at Provins last weekend. I made the doublet with handmade threaded buttons, the linen shirt, the falling band & tassels, and a very rushed cassock that I'll probably fix or re-make when I have more than a couple of days ahead of me, lol. The lace is from tudor tailor and the boots & pants were thrifted.

I one day I'll find a way to make nice pictures of my costume, too, that'd be nice.

[alwaysbewoke]

Thomas Jennings was a free man born in 1791 in New York City. He was 30 years old when he was granted a patent for a dry cleaning process. In his early 20s Thomas Jennings became a tailor, and later opened a dry cleaning business in the city. As a tailor. Jennings' skills were so admired that people near and far came to him to alter or custom tailor items of clothing for them. Eventually, Jennings reputation grew such that he was able to open his own store on Church street which grew into one of the largest clothing stores in New York City. While running his business Jennings developed dry-scouring. He had many customers complain of their clothes being ruined by stains and so he began experimenting with cleaners and mixtures that would remove the stains without harming the material. He earned a large amount of money as a tailor and even more with his dry scouring invention and most of the money he earned went to his abolitionist activities. In 1831, Thomas Jennings became assistant secretary for the First Annual Convention of the People of Color in Philadelphia, PA. Thomas L. Jennings Dry Scouring technique created modern day dry cleaning. Jennings was fortunate that he was a free man at the time of his invention. Besides all the other indignities and cruelties slaves had to face, they were also ineligible to hold a patent. Under the US patent laws of 1793 a person must sign an oath or declaration stating that they were a citizen of the USA. While there were, apparently, provisions through which a slave could enjoy patent protection, the ability of a slave to seek out, receive and defend a patent was unlikely. Later, in 1858, the patent office changed the laws, stating that since slaves were not citizens, they could not hold a patent. Furthermore, the court said that the slave owner, not being the true inventor could not apply for a patent either. Thomas Jennings died in New York City in 1856.

[poetryincostume]

On October 3rd, Elric asked me what day it was.

I said, ‘How dare you to talk to me, you coward.’

Major General Olivier Mira Armstrong

Traditionally tailored uniform, 2019

Japanese twill, canvas, grosgrain, leather, gilt braid

[daguerreotyping]

Carte de visite of a roguishly handsome pair of brigands menacing a fortu—I mean, unfortunate—gentleman, c. 1870s. We must be grateful to whichever previous owner has outlined the crouching brigand's dagger in pen, for without this clarification the casual viewer might be in danger of misreading just what that brigand’s hand is doing there. 😏

[ludi-ling]

The Tailor & The Seamstress - A Reading Aid

So here's some stuff I'm just putting up here as a kind of glossary/reading aid/moodboard collection for The Tailor & The Seamstress.

It's not an easy read in some ways, because it's set in 1910 and deals with some fashion terminology that can be opaque, so yeah. Just dropping this here.

Accents

Firstly, Remy and Anna do not speak in their accents, and that was deliberate. Working where and in what they do (i.e. haute couture in 1910's New York), having a Southern accent would have been very uncouth. For professional reasons they would have got rid of their accents, or polished them off, fairly quickly. But both of them actually filed off their Southern accents earlier in life, for entirely different reasons (which will become clear later on in the story).

The closest you'd probably get to what they sound like is probably the Transatlantic accent, which developed in the late 19th century in the acting industry and among the American upper class. (Thanks to @narwhallove for pointing this out!).

You can hear what this accent sounded like in 1930's and 40's Hollywood movies:

Dress Forms

There are a lot of dress forms floating around in this story. A dress form is very much like a mannequin, where a garment can be mounted on it to make working on it easier. The difference between a dress form and a mannequin is that a form can be adjusted to different sizes. Here's an example:

Nowadays, dress forms usually conform to modern standards of sizing, but back in the day, all dressmakers/fashion houses would have dress forms made according to the sizing of their target clientele, and adjustments would be made to individual customers when a dress was purchased.

The dress forms at the House of Burford, of course, are made to Anna's measurements. 😉

Maison Maillot

The idea of Remy working at a waning fashion house was inspired by the historical House of Worth, which was probably the world's first modern atelier. Established in 1858 by Charles Frederick Worth, it came to dress empresses, queens, actresses and singers. The business was later taken over by his sons, but the house's fortunes waned in the early 20th century. IMHO, you begin to see the decline in design quality by the 1920's. Worth was bought out by the House of Paquin in 1950, and closed in 1956. In 1999, it was revived.

Early Worth designs were so powerfully beautiful, and always innovative and at the cutting edge. In the story, the House of Maillot's heyday would have been the same - a tale of an exciting and forward-thinking atelier that dressed the best and brightest.

By the early 20th century, at the time of the story, they are still putting out beautifully breath-taking clothes - but decades of newer competition means that their work no longer stands out. By the 1910's, the House of Worth had been eclipsed by designers like Callot Soeurs, Paul Poiret, and Lucile (of Titanic fame), who were becoming the innovators in women's dress, and Worth tended to follow where others led. This is where Maison Maillot is at in the story; and their rival, the House of Burford, is one of those new and exciting innovators in fashion.

By the 1920's, fortunes have fallen, and the House of Worth was putting out stuff like this:

The Peacock and the Phoenix Dresses

The rival dresses don't have any analogue in real life, but here are the dresses that roughly inspired them.

A 1909 evening dress by Callot Soeurs:

And a 1913-14 evening dress by an unknown artist:

I like to think of Remy always being slightly (maybe a lot) more ahead of his time with his clothes than Anna is with hers. Remy is designing tubular dresses a few years before they started to become a fashionable silhouette. Ironically Maillot rejects them, but I find it kind of funny that by the end of the decade, he'll have been wishing his house had set the trend Remy had conceived of years before.

At SOME POINT I will draw how I envision the dresses to be. I HOPE.

If you want to see my moodboard for this story, you can catch it on Pinterest here.

[bluest-planet]

Sora swears this is the best panaderia on the isles, Vanitas is doubtful, and the rest are just excited to try all the pan dulce!

Inspired by @kh-yumio's Mexican/Latine scenarios, and some of my own HCs regarding the Heart Hotel, and Destiny Islands' culture and fashion :)!

(although most of it is just my own wardrobe-)

Alternate underneath :)!

[badassindistress]

Waistcoat assembly!

I'm using a new to me method of sewing it all together by finishing each panel entirely and then handsewing them together. It makes a really nice seam!

[icewindandboringhorror]

Obligatory fancier outfit that must be present anytime I post outfits 

[dkettchen]

I made myself a floral-patterned victorian-inspired waistcoat as the first step to the lovecore suit I eventually want to make for (my dragsona) Valentine

[cy-lindric]

Entering my sans-culotte era babes

[samwisethestitch]

I made Tudor shapewear out of fabric scraps!

This is part of my ongoing project to make a Tudor French gown for the ren faire. While I'm not super concerned with historical accuracy for things like fabric fiber content and dyes, I *am* trying to be as accurate as possible with the silhouette, and that classic Tudor noblewoman silhouette requires some very specific undergarments.

This garment was commonly called a "bum roll" and was worn around the hips to add width. Sort of like 16th century butt pads.

I used this pattern from The Tudor Tailor by Ninya Mikhaila and Jane Malcolm-Davies, which I resized to fit my hip measurements. This was my first time resizing a pattern!

(Ignore the Magic: The Gathering playmat, my sewing table is also our card game table.)

Since this is essentially underwear, I decided to make it as cheaply as possible by using scrap fabric. The roll itself is made of leftover muslin from an embroidery project, the ties are made with fabric leftover from a quilt, and the roll is stuffed with scraps from various projects!

The next step of this project is to make a farthingale (similar to a hoop skirt), which will be worn on top of the roll to complete the silhouette.

[clove-pinks]

Fashionable menswear continued to emphasize a cinched waist throughout the 1830s. One French dandy of the Romantic era insisted that "The secret ... of dress lies in the thiness and narrowness of the waist. Catchetize your tailor about this ... Insist, order, menace ... Shoulders large, the skirts of the coat ample and flowing, the waistline strangled — that's my rule."

— Valerie Steele, The Corset: A Cultural History

Fashion plate in La Mode, April 1835 (detail), Rijksmuseum collection.

[brainscramble95]

Details of the suit I am fitting tomorrow. Corduroy was certainly a choice I made 🫠 It looks fine for now… I’m trying to rock with it.

[daguerreotyping]

Lithograph of a fashionable gentleman getting ready for the German Revolution of 1848 captioned "Taille—No. 13—auf Ehre, Herr Baron, selbst bei uns in Berlin sehr selten!" ("Waist—No. 13—on honor, Herr Baron, very rare even here in Berlin!")

[ludi-ling]

Chapter 6 of The Tailor & The Seamstress is now up!

In which a little honesty goes a long way.

Read it on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55036891/chapters/140469433

Or on FF.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14344551/6/The-Tailor-The-Seamstress

Read, review and enjoy! x

[freakingwizards]

Found some well dressed ladies while looking for sewing patterns

they're just so cool