Vintage Finds

There are a number of antique shops within a very short drive of where I live.  For better, or worse, my pocket book and I are gradually getting to know them.  One specializes in clocks, another in Asian pieces, some are every-which-way.  My growing favorite is about fifteen minutes North.  A collection of fun items- books, furniture, signs, pictures, decor, memorabilia, and a nice back room of clothing and accessories.  Most of the clothing is post-WWII, but they said they do get many earlier items in (they just sell right away!).  After drooling on a few 1920s/30s gowns that were too big for me I found a great little image tucked in corner.  Labelled as "Glamour Shots", it has numerous images of women with pretty, but everyday, hairstyles.  I'd date it mid-1910s, but it'd work quite well for 1912.  If you open the picture in it's own page it should be high-resolution.  Have fun!

1912 Ensembles

After two months of constantly watching ebay for vintage saris, I managed to score two perfect ones in the last week.  Now, I can move onto designing an evening gown and an aesthetic outfit (with harem pants of course!).  I'm trying to use the Ballet Russes as a basis for my color schemes, particularly Scheherazade.

Peach is one of those colors that looks really good on me, but doesn't often get used.  I love their combination of it with the green tones.  So, I kept on a look out for anything in that range.  I found these two saris:

They're both silk net (nearly impossible to find in yardage!).  I'm going to use the less embroidered portion of the green for the harem outfit, the heavier part will eventually be a 1920s gown I think.  The peach is going to be an evening gown.  I'm thinking about carefully removing some of the gold work and placing it elsewhere to vary it up.

The hardest part is the design itself.  I still haven't settled, but I think knowing what fabric I'll have will help tremendously.  In terms of using the heavily encrusted goldwork, these styles pop out at me the most (from La Bibliotheque des Arts Décoratifs):

For the harem outfit I'm fond of these:

LACMA 1913 Lounging Pajamas

Paul Poiret design

LACMA Callot Soeurs 1912

Above all else, know this: there will be tassles.