The Muse: The New Look

 I had been scheduled to attend Chifferobe's Flapper 101: The Dress of the 1920's workshop a couple of weeks ago, but it was postponed. Finally it was held last Sunday at the historic Governor Henry Lippett House Museum. A tour of the house was included with the workshop ticket price, and even though I had been there before it was a beautiful afternoon to explore the rooms and gardens of this Victorian gem. The lecture itself was a bit of a disappointment, which I found surprising because normally Chifferobe puts on a really nice show, I've posted on their events many times before and I have always admired Kristen Minsky, their fearless leader. She lead the workshop, but was a poor presenter. I might be overly critical, but if I pay to attend a workshop I expect to be listening to someone who knows more about a subject than me, not less. It all seemed very sloppy and thrown together, if I wanted to Google pictures of flappers and watch YouTube videos of people doing the Charleston I could do it at home for free. Okay now I sound bitchy, I just was really looking forward to it and being disappointed never feels good. I'm attending the Flapper 104 workshop on hairstyles and I'm hoping it will be better, either way I still love the girls at Chifferobe and will definitely not give up on them.

Dress: vintage, no label, via Dame
Hat: vintage, no label, via Broadway Costumes
Brooch: vintage, via yard sale
Earrings: vintage, gift from my grandmother
Belt: Below the Belt, via swap
Shoes: Lela Rose for Payless
Purse: vintage, Rialto, from great aunt Connie (originally from Peerless Dept. Store)

Also linking up again this week with Bonnie from Delusions of Grandeur and Tara at The Penniless Socialite for Favorite Fashion Friday!

 Twenties fashion aside I did not dressdecade appropriate, but rather went for a distinctly 1940's look for the workshop. The dress is actaully vintage 1940's (late 40's because it has a metal zipper and was too much detail to have been made during wartime rationing) and is one of my favorites. Its clearly in the style of Dior's New Look which premiered in 1947, a nipped in waist with a full skirt and lots of fabric to brighten up the streets of post-war Paris. The bar suit was the quintessential piece of the collection (see below) and while the original is lost in the sands of time, over theyears copies have been made from the original measurements. Looking at the Cherie dress from that same year however I see a lot of style parallels in the cut and details, even though this dress was probably made for a Boston housewife rather than the couture crowd. My little poodle brooch helps give it a bit of Paris chic. This hat is also too good to give up, one of my students told me about a costume shop in Franklin that was going out of business and I went up and ran into an even larger bunch of studnets, I didn't buy much but I had a lot of fun watching them dress up and try on costumes.  This hat was one of my spoils, and really when else am I going to have the opportunity to wear it than to a workshop on vintage clothing? As fascinating as I find the 1920's and a beautiful as the fashions are my figure will never be willowy and boyish, so those looks really don't work for me. The New Look is a shape I can embrace, and it explains why I'm a sucker for June Cleever-esque full skirted house dresses of the late 40's and 50's. This box bag is also pretty special, my great aunt Connie carried it with her going-away outfit at her wedding in 1957, and it had sat in hercloset undisturbed for 50 years before she pulled it out, her pay stub from 1959 still inside. She was the secretary to the presedent of Peerless department store in Pawtucket and PRovidence and bought all sorts of designer goods at cost from where she worked. My only peice of actual Dior was also hers, a velvet hat from the early 1960's (long after Dior himself was dead) that she wore to a wedding.