Heavenly Holiday Fashions in Williamsburg

Though we spent over a week in Colonial Williamsburg at Christmastime, I was able to make only the shortest of visits to my favorite site in town, the Margaret Hunter shop.  I typically like to take a peek into the shop a couple of times during a visit if I'm able, just because the items on display are constantly changing, and because both the milliners/mantua makers and the tailors are always absorbed in working on some stunning new and fascinating project.

During my visit, a couple of days after Christmas, the shop was serving a dual interpretive purpose, doubling to cater to both the gentleman and the ladies.  On one side, the tailor's apprentice caught the warmth and light of the late-afternoon winter sun as he finished up a pair of breeches.

On the opposite side of the shop, a table lay spread with an in-progress quilted petticoat, a finished one on a nearby counter demonstrating the completed product in which the ladies' meticulous workmanship would soon culminate. Though the ladies had stepped away from their work for a moment, a backdrop of frosted wintery pastels hung against the wall in the form of a selection of silk and cotton gowns, jackets, and petticoats.

This absolutely stunning and swoon-worthy cloak or pelisse (to use the French Galerie des Modes term for it) was part of the "Spruce Sportsman" project for the 2011 accessories exhibit and symposium, and I never tire of seeing it.  It was included in the "show and tell" pile of pretties that we got to examine and admire during the symposium's muff workshop, and that fur was deliciously soft.  I've been searching for something similar ever since and haven't managed to find anything even remotely similar yet.  The hunt continues!

Also on display were a delightful variety of hats...

...and caps and, of course, muffs - that oh-so-essential winter accessory!

 

And perched in one of the corner display cupboards was the doll's millinery shop, a CW holiday tradition!  One can't help but be just a little bit jealous of how well-dressed these little ladies are!  :-)