Current (and Upcoming!) Exhibit: "Dressing Downton: Changing Fashion for Changing Times"

Did you (like us, boohoo!) miss out on getting to see the "Costumes of Downton Abbey" exhibit while it was at Winterthur?  Well, never fear!  We've done a bit of sleuthing and have some exciting news!  The exhibit has been slightly revamped and is now slated to visit several other historic sites and museums around the country over the next couple of years, so there's still plenty of time to catch a glimpse of these iconic pieces of costume drama history!

Photo linked from Biltmore's "Dressing Downton" exhibit page.

"Dressing Downton: Changing Fashion for Changing Times" will feature approximately 35 different costumes and accessory items from the series' first four seasons.  The pieces on display will span fashions from 1912 through the First World War and all the way up into the mid-1920s.

Photo linked from Biltmore's "Dressing Downton" exhibit page.

5 February - 25 May 2015
Biltmore, Asheville, NC
The first stop for "Dressing Downton: Changing Fashion for Changing Times" will be Biltmore House and Gardens, the sprawling estate built by George Vanderbilt between 1889 and 1895.  Drawing on its Highclere-esque opulent turn-of-the-century setting, Biltmore plans to fully integrate the costumes into its incredible period rooms and the high-society domestic stories they tell.  Admission to the exhibit is included in your general admission ticket.


Additional tour dates include:

20 June 2015 - 20 September 2015
The Paine, Oshkosh, WI
(click for details)

October 2015 - January 2016
Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, VA

As we hear about additional dates, we'll update this post!  So...who's going?!!!

***UPDATE ON MARCH 22nd: The official "Dressing Downton" website has just gone up!  There, you can find the full list of tour dates, along with lots of additional pictures and information!***

An Antique Parasol Acquisition: Part One

Ashley and I have been shopping around for antique parasols for years, but until now we haven't found anything appropriate to either our limited budgets or the historically specific styles we needed.  Then, out of the blue, about a month ago, I won two antique parasols on ebay in the space of a couple of days.  It never rains, but it pours!  I plan to re-cover both of them at some point in the (probably pretty distant) future, but before I start picking them apart, I wanted to document the details so that I can recreate their new covers as closely as possible.

The first parasol has a straight and smooth wooden handle and a metal mechanism.  Its canopy is linen, I think (the dealer listed it as cotton, but it looks and feels more like linen to me), with a tiny single-row eyelet detail 4" up from the edge.  As you can see from the photos, the canopy is in pretty bad condition; one panel has completely split and the others are very brittle, with lots of tiny holes and significant discoloration.  A tassel once hung from the handle, but all that remains of it now is the cording.

My guess, based on the shape, the length and style of the handle and the canopy, is that this parasol dates to about 1900-1920ish.  If anyone with more parasol knowledge than I can date this more specifically based on these pictures, I'd love to hear your input! :-)

The long tip of the parasol is embellished with a "rosette" sort of ruffle detail.

Inside, a scalloped disc protects the tips of the fabric panels from the mechanism. 

Small round discs folded in half are sewn over the joints in an effort to prevent the fabric catching.

I've never re-covered a parasol before, so I plan to document the adventure thoroughly!  Stay tuned for that!

Reproducing L.M. Montgomery's Trousseau

Back on January 7th, we did a post about the wedding clothes and trousseau of L.M. Montgomery, a discussion prompted by the discovery of a pattern of Anne's wedding dress from the third Anne movie, Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story.  In that earlier post, we marveled that photos, a verbal description, and even swatches of some of the fabric had survived to record Montgomery's trousseau in such intimate detail.  Just imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered this post on Laurie's blog yesterday about a tailor who has just finished recreating almost the entire trousseau in honor of LMM's 100th wedding anniversary.  Talk about a historical costumer's dream project!

Smith with the reproduction trousseau.

Photo linked from the Guardian article.

In a July 4th article for PEI's Guardian, tailor Arnold Smith describes how he got the idea to bring Montgomery's trousseau back to life.  For the 100th anniversary of the publication of Anne of Green Gables back in 2008, Smith costumed Cavendish's commemorative parade and picnic, and it was during his research for that event that he stumbled across the images of the trousseau.  This past February, he began work on it and the six garments premiered a week ago to mark the milestone anniversary of LMM's wedding day.

Smith meticulously researched each of the gowns in order to reproduce them as closely as possible.  As with any true reproduction project, however, some issues had to be thoughtfully addressed.  For instance, because the photographs of the original clothing show only the front sides, he delved into turn-of-the-century issues of the Ladies Home Journal to find similar styles that could provide an idea of how the rest of each garment most likely looked.  Fabrics, too, were carefully researched and selected both for their appropriateness to the period and according to LMM's own stated preferences for color tones, as Smith describes on his blog.  And to make these pieces as close as possible to true reproductions, Smith even constructed them in Montgomery's exact size, using her own detailed description of her physical appearance and measurements (Smith's blog entry offers the full quotation from the Journals).

Smith's reproduction of LMM's favorite gown from the trousseau.

Photo by Arnold Smith, linked from his blog on the project.

What I find most interesting about this project is the fact that it enlightened Smith (and all of us seeing the physical manifestation of these gowns now) not only about the garments themselves, but also about the woman who selected and wore them, offering an innovative way into thinking about the famous author's personality, her preferences, and the social pressures under which she functioned.  "'She liked nice clothes. As an author, she was always being asked to speak, so she knew that she needed things that were classy,' he says.  But, as a minster’s wife, she could never be over the top.  'To be taken seriously she had to be both well dressed and appropriately dressed. Her trousseau reflects that,' says Smith" (Guardian article). 

From now until the end of the summer, half of the reproduction trousseau will be on view at the Green Gables Heritage Place in Cavendish, PEI, and the other half can be seen at the Leaksdale Manse in Uxbridge, Ontario, where LMM lived after her marriage and where 11 of the 22 works published during her lifetime were written.  If you can't make it to see the reproduction trousseau in person, be certain to visit Arnold Smith's blog for many more details on the project, the process, and the products, including lots of superb research and loads of pictures!  For further information, see also the Guardian article mentioned above, and this article in The Buzz.

If you're interested in reading more about LMM's original trousseau, be sure to visit our earlier post (which includes photos and a list of resources), as well as the Confederation Centre's "L.M. Montgomery's Wedding Clothes" page.  Additional photos of the trousseau can be found in The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Vol. II and in The Lucy Maud Montgomery Album, by Kevin McCabe.

Thanks again to Laurie for discovering this story and sharing it!

Sewing for the Literary-Minded

Just before Christmas, while doing a little online holiday shopping, I discovered that the Sullivan Films shop offers for sale a pattern from Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story movie. It is Anne's wedding dress, a simple yet elegant gown inspired by a 1916 Canadian catalog wedding dress (because, if you recall, Anne's hurried wedding in the film necessitated the purchase of something pre-made).

My version of this dress will not be for a wedding; instead, I'm thinking perhaps either black (the sheer sleeves would look so pretty!) or a pastel color to make it a pretty springy outfit. With a hat, of course. Must have a hat.

I emailed the company to inquire if there were currently any plans to release any other patterns of costumes from the two earlier films, but they replied in the negative. Perhaps if we bombard them with inquiries so that they know there's plenty of interest, we can stir something up! I know I, for one, would love to get my hands on a pattern for Anne's "Gibson Girl" dress from Anne of Avonlea (er, Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel, if you prefer!), or that gorgeous gown she wears to the opera on her visit to Boston, or...well, I'd be happy with whatever they could offer!

Because of the timeline shift in the first Anne film, Kevin Sullivan had to bring the third up to the period of World War I. In the movie world, then, Anne and Gilbert don't marry until 1915, while in the book (Anne's House of Dreams), their wedding takes place around 1890, and it is not until the eighth volume in the series (Rilla of Ingleside) that L.M. Montgomery reaches the war years, by which time the main character has become Anne and Gilbert's youngest daughter.

Lucy Maud Montgomery (Anne's creator) and Ewan Macdonald were married on 5 July 1911, closer in date to the movie Anne and Gilbert than their original literary counterparts. We visited Prince Edward Island several times back in the mid-90s, and saw LMM's wedding gown on display at her birthplace in New London, and also visited the parlor room where she was married at her cousins the Campbells' home at Park Corner. Descendants of LMM still own the Park Corner property and permit wedding ceremonies to be conducted before the very same fireplace where LMM stood on her wedding day (and yes, all of the original furniture is still there, too). All three years we visited the house, there were couples having wedding pictures taken on the grounds.

LMM's wedding gown on display at the LMM Birthplace. 

Photo linked from Reverand Sam's flickr photostream.

LMM recorded in her journal that "my wedding dress was of white-silk crepe de soie with tunic of chiffon and pearl bead trimming - and of course the tulle veil and orange blossom wreath."  She also wore "Ewan's present - a necklace of of amethysts and pearls.  My bouquet was of white roses and lilies of the valley" (The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Vol II, pgs. 64-7).  Interestingly, these same materials - white silk de soie with a chiffon overdress decorated with bead trimming - were also used to create Anne's movie wedding dress, though in a much more "modern" style.

Photograph of LMM's wedding gown.  The gown is

the property of the LMM Birthplace.  The photo is

copyrighted by the LMM Institute.

The gown was made by Margaret Bulman of New Glasgow, PEI.  We visited well before the age of digital cameras, and the photos we have are so badly lit you can't make out what's in them, so I've had to link to online images instead.

Montgomery also wrote about the enjoyment she and her Park Corner cousins derived from the arrival of her trousseau, which the hard-earned funds from her newly-published novels had enabled her to order all the way from Toronto and Montreal. She modelled them proudly as her cousin snapped photographs, and later inserted the photos into one of her scrapbooks. Swatches of some of the fabrics were also carefully saved there, along with some flowers from her bouquet. Click here for a brief but very neat little video from the L.M. Montgomery Institute showing the scrapbook page.  I remember seeing some of LMM's scrapbooks on display at her New London Birthplace and at the PEI Confederation Centre of the Arts, but I don't recall seeing this particular one. Guess I'll just have to go back again!

Some of the photos are below, and she described the outfits thus in her journal: "My trousseau, which I had made mainly in Toronto and Montreal, began to arrive and we were all interested in that.  My things were pretty...These are snaps the girls took of some of my dresses.  My suit was of steel gray cloth, with gray chiffon blouse and gray hat trimmed with a wreath of tiny rosebuds.  My long wrap was of gray broadcloth.  Besides the dresses 'illustrated' I had a linen dress, a pink muslin, one of white embroidery, and several odd waists" (The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Vol II, pgs. 64-6).  If only they had survived as well as the wedding gown!

More images of the trousseau can be see in The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Vol. II, pg. 65.

For further information on all of these items, visit the Confederation Centre's "L.M. Montgomery's Wedding Clothes" page.  The page is part of a larger project based on a recent exhibit of LMM's scrapbooks, called "Picturing a Canadian Life: L.M. Montgomery's Personal Scrapbooks and Book Covers."  If you're interested in taking a closer look at some of the scrapbooks (which intriguingly contain many swatches and fashion clippings), check out Imagining Anne: The Island Scrapbooks of L.M. Montgomery, the book that accompanies the exhibit.  Further information on the life and writings of L.M. Montgomery can be found through the L.M. Montgomery Institute.