Thursday, July 24, 2008

More Aesthetic Dresses

Can you tell I really am enamoured with this dress movement? A recap, the dress movement was entirely intertwined with the Pre-Raphaelite art movement, and several people feel it was begun by Rossetti himself.

First, a wonderful article on the aesthetic / dress reform movement. The images include this beauty:
And also fascinating, an example of underwear that might have been worn with aesthetic dress:

And blast it all...I just noticed this exhibit was at the Ohio State University...only about an hour from where I live. Too bad I didn't know about aesthetic dress in 2000. :(

I also love this image of three women in aesthetic dress. Their dresses appear to be worn with corsets, but they do have the romantic silhouette:But this is perhaps the most beautiful aesthetic dress I've seen yet:


The article accompanying the gown describes it as "made from moss green velvet, and has a blue central panel with smocking; a popular feature of aesthetic dress. The dress is made from very natural looking colours, and the moss green with the central splash of blue almost resembles a forest with waterfall."

Here's a beautiful aesthetic dress made by Holley Gene Leffler

And another period piece featured on Flickr:


I really must make an aesthetic dress sometime!!
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10 comments:

  1. RobinJuly 24, 2008 at 12:43 PM

    I would so love to have one, too. I almost went with the pattern I found online for my wedding dress (I think that green dress you posted a while back used that pattern..the smocked one). But thought it would be really labor intensive. Someday, though!
    I think I probably already mentioned, with my faux early-alzheimers, who knows!... but you have you seen the dresses in Herzog's "Nosferatu" ? Some of them are VERY Pre-Raph./artistic dress. Lovely!

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  2. GraceJuly 24, 2008 at 1:11 PM

    Now I want to know where you found a pattern online for an aesthetic dress!! Please let me know???

    And if you mentioned it, I don't recall. Is that a movie?

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  3. Aurora VanderboschJuly 25, 2008 at 8:53 AM

    I think the pattern Siddal is referring to is this one: http://www.ravenrook.com/clothier/bagatelle/art.jsp I recognized the dress instantly! :) Maura http://www.suspiciouscloset.com actually made up the middle dress--the underdress, anyway, then gave it to me, and I used it on Shawndy: http://www.pbase.com/briarrose/image/83419497 . Didn't quite fit--hence the sexier, open neck--but you can see the really cool smocking, anyway... (And it fit the theme of the shoot--naughty young miss, secretly reading Arabian Nights... ;))

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  4. MargaretJuly 25, 2008 at 12:40 PM

    The green one would look so pretty with your colouring, Grace. It looks like it's made of moss (in a good way!).

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  5. GraceJuly 25, 2008 at 4:18 PM

    Athansor, you're a godsend! What an amazingly wonderful pattern!!! I adore it!

    Margaret, isn't that shade of green just divine? And I love the combination with the pale blue.

    (wistful) they sure did know how to use high quality materials in those days! :)

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  6. RobinJuly 25, 2008 at 4:35 PM

    oh, yes! that's it! LOL, I kept looking for raven or rook, as I knew that was part of the name.

    Here is the movie:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosferatu_the_Vampyre

    Here is one of the dresses, although you can barely see it.
    http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/images/nosferatu3.jpg
    Pink silk overdress with pale green underneath. If I recall, there is one dress in there that is straight up Janey Morris as Guinevere. *sigh*

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  7. GraceJuly 25, 2008 at 4:39 PM

    Oh wow...I can tell just from that small image that it does look rather aesthetic! Ok, must watch that movie ;)

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  8. hiJuly 26, 2008 at 1:11 PM

    What an inspiring ppost! Now I want to sew one! :)

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  9. GraceJuly 26, 2008 at 10:43 PM

    Me too, definitely!

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  10. UnknownAugust 22, 2008 at 8:03 AM

    Wow! Too much beauty! I can't wait to see what you come up with next. I have another award for you to thank you for your inspiration at my blog so stop by pick it up!

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