Teeze and curl – all you need to know for faking 18th century style hair

Stacey Black, the writer of the blog Aestethic Contradiction, also the woman behind Eustratia (mentioned here) – just put up a very simple tutorial for making “Marie Antoinette inspired hair“. If you know how to teeze/backcomb and how to curl your hair – there’s nothing to it! Ofc long hair is recommended. And it would be super cool to have that hair color of hers – but for us who dare not bleach it for one or the other reason (bleaching my hair from black would kill it) – there’s always powder, right!? ;D Or why not buy a wig to style in this matter?

 

IMATEX goodies

Sanna K of Rococo Atelier kindly informed us that IMATEX is now working again! Thank you!

Here’s a new favorite:

Fetish shoes 18th century style @ Shoe Icons

You thought shoe fetishism was only for the 21th century man? Dream on! The 18th century was the century of all centuries in fetishism! Look at these “Extremely high Louis heel buckle shoes with blue silk upper. Probably fetishist. / c. 1780s”. I know that during one period, the heels were very high (like 15 cm/6″) and I don’t know how high these are, but they’re still high for the age. And by personal experience I know there’s fashions also in the fetish world. ;P
Check out the whole Shoe Icons site – they’ve got loads of 18th century shoes and acessoirs!

Stylish awesomeness

OMG! Have you seen this?

It’s too beautiful to describe! I love how the designer has taken the male style of fashion that we see in this time and given it a female shape, or taken the female shape of fashion and given it a  male style, or whatever, it’s so… awesome! The photographer says (in french, translated by me and google) that it is said to be from 1790 but may have been revisited in 1890. I don’t care! I want it!!!
   Now I need to finish my outfit! ^^;

NEW walking stick and top knob!

Sorry for being away for a while, I’ve been working a lot. I know I have a few unanwsered comments, I’ll get to them. ^^;

It seems buying stuff is easier than making the pet-en-l’air, suprise suprise. ;P
   Last week I bought a new walking stick! I have no pic yet – since it’s still in Robbie’s car. But it’s bamboo and it’s black and I baught it for 10 SEK – that’s about 1 EUR, 1,55 USD and not even 1 GBP! It’s actually made for garden decoration, so the quality might not be the best – but I don’t think I’m gonna go on extreme hikes with it anyway! It’ll look great in photos I should think! ;D
   For Swedes I can recommend taking a look at your local Granngården store! That’s where I baught mine and they had these bamboo sticks in all sorts of colors, I was very tempted to buy a pink one! ;D Many were cracked where I bought mine though, so look at the stick before you buy it!
   And just today I bought a top knob for it! My first thought was “curtain rod knob”, and my second thought was “second hand”! I went to my favorite Myrorna last week and came home empty handed – but today I went after work just because I was passing by. I found this little cute knob. And it’s not plastic (like most I found the last time) – it’s brass (I think)! <D And what did it cost me? 5 SEK! About 0,50 EUR, 0,78 USD and 0,50 GBP!

Will and wigs

I’ve been drawn to the pet-en-l’air more and more lately, nothing’s happened yet – but at least I have the will to keep sewing! XD
I had an awful dream last night – I came to some sort of costume meeting in my half finished outfit, I just had one hoop and had to hold everything up and together – extremely embarrassing!!!
I feel that if I only could get past this trimming part it’ll all flow better. I’ve been thinking about restorting to the machine for the petticoat, but as I write this I’m reconsidering it. ;D

On another note, I just found an amazing wig maker on Etsy! Guess the name! – AntoinettesAtelier ofc! If I only had the money!

More after the cut!

Medieval materials for the 18th century reenactor?

I was just cleaning up my favourites and I found this Swedish shop selling stuff for the medieval reenactor – Medeltidsmode. I had a look through the shop to see if I should save the link. I am interested in medieval reenacting, but right not I have only the 18th century on my mind – so my radar is set on that period. When looking through the goods I found myself thinking: “Ooh, that fabric would do nicely for shifts” a.s.o.
   They also have these old-fashioned pins, said to be perfect for fine fabrics:

So go have a look through the shop! Or go have a look in other medieval or maybe renaissance reenacting shops. Everything wasn’t new and novel in the 18th century – still today we use techniques and materials with roots waaaaay back in the history of fashion. ;D

Historic LOL’s

How did I miss this LOL-site?

It’s not all genious, but it has potential! ;D

Random

I really need to get my act together and finish this pet-en-l’air soon! *Sigh* This is a try to get inspiration going…
   If you haven’t discovered Une Collection Française yet – go there now! I found these inspiring miniature portraits over there today:

I love the scalloped details on this dress! Totally something to consider in future projects!

And this front opening combination is soooo cute!!!

The Swedish Royal Wedding – and the 1771 wedding

On June the 19th the Swedish Crown Princess Victoria Bernadotte is getting married to Daniel Westling (a man of the people, born here in Örebro actually).
   Swedish public television is therefore making a series exploring Swedish historical royal weddings. Yesterday it was time for the wedding of King Gustaf III and Princess Sofia Magdalena of Denmark in 1771. We all know the wedding dress:

You can see the episode here, it starts 25 min 37 sec in…
   It’s in Swedish though, so this is a short resumé of what the episode is about:
   Besides telling the story of how the wedding came to be, they try to recreate a special dance that was performed at this wedding. It was a torch dance, or torchlight dance, or fackeltanz or what ever it is called around Europe. ;D This is a tradition that was revived by the mother of Gustaf, there are no records of exactly how this polonaise based dance was performed though. We only know that it was performed after all the festivities when the pair would go to bed, the dancers lead them to their bed, dancing with torches in their hands.

Torch dance, around 1600

They also talked quite a bit about clothes, naturally! ;D Like, did you know that the wais measurement of Sofia Magdalena in this dress was just about 50 centimeters? And did you know that it took 40 parisians working in shifts day and night 4 weeks to finish Gustaf’s outfit?
  I must apologize on behalf of Swedish Public Television though, for the tricorne Gustaf’s mother, Lovisa Ulrika, is wearing somewhere in the clip… XD
  Oh, and you can read all about the coming wedding here (in English).