Private museum + vintage fashion show

On sunday I went to a vintage fashion show in a place near my parents (countryside). It was held by a woman who has a private museum of 'vintage' things. Not just clothes also kitchenwear, cans, furniture, linnen etc. As I don't know whether the models would like to be on the internet I'll only post some pics of the museum.



The show started with the traditional wear of women in that part of the country around the turn of the century. Lots of black and a kind of white hats called 'knipmutsen'. Not really my thing but still very interesting.



Then came lots of vintage underwear and dresses fom the 20's through the 50's. I particularly loved a blue weddingdress that had been made shorter, but could be seen full-length on an old wedding picture. There was also a pretty blue knit underdress, that was made in 1937 by one of the women in the audience who was 17 then(that would make her 90 now!)



The story that was told to accompany the clothes was fun an interesting to listen to. There was a clear difference made out between the countryside and the city, only this time it was from the perspective of the people fom the countryside. I thought it rather refreshing, someone from Amsterdam (someone quite(but not exactly) like me to be perfectly honest) might have made it into a snobbish "look how much better and more advanced we were (and are)".

I was chalenged by an evening gown

I have many many dresses but untill recently I didn't have a floor-length evening gown. Not that is was in need of anything that formal.......still I felt like something was missing :P.

Then I found this light blue one that I had seen hanging around my favorite shop for a while. I took a liking to it but seriously doubted that it would look nice on me. It's a bit of a bridesmaides dress(don't know if it really was but it just has a very bridesmaidy feel to it), and those are usually not the most charming however pretty. Then, just for fun, I decided to try it on. It fitted me perfectly and,against all expectations,I did not look like I had punt on 30 pounds.




The dress was a bit of a problem child. It was a little torn on the side seam had several big water stains and the smell of the last owners sweat was still present. All in all in a far from perfect condition, but also a condition that made it rahter cheap. And because I fell in love with it I decided to take on the chalenge.




Frist I soaked the armpitts and rubbed them in with mild detergent. After washing this out I made the entire dress wet to remove the water stains (they disapaer when the entire garment is wet without the use of soap). I was stupid enough not to remove the shoulderpads and the back lining beforehand. This made that the top of the dress dried much slower than the rest of it. This caused the dye to form a kind of banded pattern I knew as chromotographie from science class. To make it even worse: the smell from the armpits had not gone.




I dit not give up and removed the schoulderpads and lining. On the internet I found that the sweaty smell might be removed with white vinegar(really usefull tip, it is perfect and does not remove dye and even brings out colour I found out later). I wasn't sure of how the acid of the vinegar was going to work on the dye of the old manmade-silk tafeta of the dress. I tried it on an inner pocket and the color stayed intact. After soaking the armpits in vinegar for a while I washed the dress in water again an let it dry.
Finally the dress was without any major stains and the smell of sweat. Now all I had to do was put the shoulderpads and the lining back in.



When I took the pads out I noticed there were the letters L(links,aka left) and R (rechts, aka right) embroidered on.

Here are a few pics of me in the dress. Not exactly as glamorous as they should be with an evening dress but for now they´ll do.



The dress is quite hard to date. It could be anywhere from the late 30´s to somewhere in the 50´s(would have been a bit oldfashioned then but whenever you see pics of 50´s weddings bridesmaids sometines wear this kind of dress).



Now I have a proper evening gown I want to wear it. So all I need now is an event to wear it to to complete my chalenge. This is really helping me in actually going to ballet or opera more often the coming (college) year.
Or does anyone have an invitation to a ball for me.........

After-summer dress

This late 30´s/early 40´s dress is one of the most luxurious dresses I own. The fabric is a thin orange/salmon silk that looks most radiant the late afternoon sun.



The dress has two remarkable pockets that are probably only there for decoration. The pockets and the sleeves are hand-embroidered with a beige/gold pattern. The buttonholes are lined (what a lot of work).






Someone took great care to finish this dress on the inside too. The hem is finished with a silk ribbon on the inside.



The back is lined with thin cotton that could be removed and washed seperately. The shoulderpads are covered in the same silk as the dress.



A perfect after-summer, early autumn dress.

Farewell to summer

Last year the int the last weekend of august was the last weekend of summer. this year the last weekend of august seemed to be the first weekend of autumn.






I wanted to take a melancholic farewell-to-summer-walk like the year before(see first picture), but the rain kept pouring down so I stayed in and made some photo's of this pretty summerdress.





The dress is not actually that old. It belonged to my grandmother who made it from a cheap coupon. I don't know axactly when it was made but I do know my grandmother wore it on her 25th wedding anniversary in 1978.





This dress is one of my favorite dresses. The fabric is perfect, soft and thin, like fabrics for summerdresses ought to be. I like how the back is cut in a low V shape. Actually I like everything about it but I love the fact that my grandmother has worn and loved this dress before me.





I won't be wearing this dress for more than eight months now and I already miss it. Up next are dark fabrics, thick cottons, velvets and in a few months even wool. I like velvet just as much as I like the fabric of the summerdress but I but I still feel a little sad.



So, my dear light blue summer dress, farewell, see you next summer.

Book market in Bredevoort

On saturday I went to a book market in a little town called Bredevoort. There are many many book shops (almost the only kind of shops there are since Bredevoort is very small). Sometimes they also have book markets in the open air.




In one shop (I always go there and they always have just the kind of books I'm looking for) I found several interesting books. Two of them are by the same author and have wonderfull pictures.





Then there was this book ond clothing rationing during and after the war, and some amazing solutions people found to make clothes without wasting valuable coupons.



I also found a copy of a 1948 'Margriet',a Dutch women's magazine.





I really like the atmosphere in Bredevoort. It is a mixture of 'cute small town in a rural area' and 'intellectual antiquarian book center'. I had a perfect end of summer saturday (it was probably the last hot day of the year).

Back to business in a bolero suit

I still have two weeks of vacation ahead of me but the rest of the world is going back to work and school so I am already in a 'back to college' mood, and I'm actually looking forward to starting my studies again.



With that mood come more business like clothes. In a few weeks I won't be wearing that many floral dresses but more things like this suit. The fabric is still a light and airy silk but it is a sophisticated 'Deux pieces'(that's what they call any outfit that exists out of two matching garments in old magazines and I love the expression).





I guess it dates fron the late 30's or 40's and bolero's and matching sets were a big thing back then. A big pro of a bolero suit is that the amount of fabric you need is a little less and an old dress can easily be made into a suit.



These are some pictures of bolero suits from old magazines.









A picture of an old pattern I found on the internet.



The skirt looks like a 'plise' skirt but it is has ever so many tiny pleats at the top.