Maggie's Costume Wardrobe: June 2014

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Downton Abbey Exhibit

So, I took a lot of photos, too many to link individually. But I've uploaded them to my Costumer's Guide Image Gallery, which I finally found a plugin that makes the thumbnails look way nicer! Woohoo! You can find all the photos here: http://www.costumersguide.com/imagearchive/index.php?/category/515

The exhibit is at Winterthur, a gorgeous mansion in Delaware with beautiful grounds. The exhibit was FABULOUS. It runs through January and you can take all the pics you like. The layout of the exhibit is really great and the views of the costumes are perfect. GO SEE IT!

http://www.winterthur.org/Downtonabbey

My fav was Sibyl's harem pants. I was never in love with this outfit on the show, but it's so gorgeous and floaty and different and I love the color scheme.

I also really liked Sibyl and Mary's outfits here. The subtle pattern and wrap front on Sibyl's was really pretty. And I've always liked Mary's striped gown. We may do a stripe-along, like the curtain along. I got lots of detail shots of both.

Mary's walking suit - also gorgeously tailored:

And Edith's wedding gown - to die for!

Rose's flapper gown - so pretty. And real vintage:

Downton Abbey Exhibit - our costumes plus Winterthur grounds

So ages ago - was it May? (I am so behind) we had a group outing to see the Downton Abbey exhibit at Winterthur in Delaware. Everyone dressed in teens or 20s and we saw the exhibit, had a picnic, and then spent a bunch of time tromping around the gorgeous grounds in smaller groups. It was so much fun, the weather could not have been more perfect, and the company was also great.

For my dress, I had bought a couple of the 1-hour dress books to study since I know little about the 20s styles other than that 1) I like them and 2) I'm not convinced I have the right figure for them.

The fabrics mentioned in the 1 hour dress books included "flannel" - not being a 20s expert, I don't know (and even doubt?) that means the same thing as today's flannel... but hey, flannel can be soft and lightweight and I found some pretty pale pink striped stuff for cheap, so I decided to give it a try. I ended up using the wrong side of the fabric because it was not as strongly colored.

After following the 1 hour dress measurement system, I realized that the body of the dress was about 3 inches wide. So I threw out those directions and just used Jen Thompson's 1 hour dress blog as a guide and it worked perfectly. So consult the 1 hour book so you have an idea what they are doing and then use her more realistically scaled measurements. OR have SUPER wide fabric - then you'll be fine with the 1 hour measurements. http://www.festiveattyre.com/2014/01/downton-esque-1-hour-dress.html

You can see the results below, worn with a vintage cloche I got on ebay ages ago and that added a new lining to (to protect the original shattered one which is safely inside), my vintage Victorian jet necklace (probably glass?), and since they were good for early 20s as well as Edwardian, American Duchess shoes. I wore white stockings after googling 20s stocking colors and finding white represented there. I also used my Titanic "flying" replica bag I got ages ago from a seller that is no longer in business. And I also used a Chinese parasol I bought online a while ago.