Embellishments in Victorian Fashion: Exhibition, Saco Museum

On view at the Saco Museum, Saco, Maine 

May 13 - August 27, 2017

Sumptuous fabrics, vibrant colors and textures, masses of elaborate trims - all are defining elements of fashionable Victorian women's clothing. Nineteenth-century designers had very definite ideas of what constituted beauty, and these concepts had a widespread impact on art and design. Embellishments in Victorian Fashion focuses on how nineteenth-century aesthetics influenced women's clothing design and construction.  A variety of Victorian design concepts are examined in detail, including self-trim, color and texture contrasts, ruching, pleating, ribbon work, and asymmetry.

Curator Astrida Schaeffer notes: “This is a greatly expanded exhibition from the original Embellishments show, exploring the nine design building blocks with garments from five institutions. For most of the clothes, this is a rare opportunity to be seen by the public, and having them together in this way not only showcases their beauty, but gives the elements of their design a context. In a way, the exhibition is a giant scavenger hunt — is that piping there? Look at that texture contrast! The wonderful techniques and the textures, fabrics, and colors offer an inspiration for anyone interested in fashion and design.”

The exhibition features fifty garments from five institutions in Maine and New Hampshire: the Saco Museum, the Irma Bowen Textile Collection of the University of New Hampshire, the Portsmouth Historical Society, Strawbery Banke Museum, and the Woodman Institute of Dover, New Hampshire. 

 Astrida Schaeffer has been making reproduction historical clothing since 1986 and museum mannequins since 1998. Her recent book, Embellishments: Constructing Victorian Detail, focused on the UNH Irma Bowen collection and has received high praise. Astrida holds a Master of Arts in History from the University of New Hampshire with a focus on material culture and museum studies, and was assistant director at the UNH Museum of Art for ten years, where she was responsible for collections care, exhibition installation, and object preparation. She trained in mannequin production at the Textile Conservation Center in Lowell, MA and with the Northern States Conservation Center.

Lecture:

How Victorians Got So Fancy
Friday, August 18, 6:00 p.m. 

How Victorians Got So Fancy will be the final program in our Embellishments in Victorian Fashion summer exhibit. In this program, guest curator Astrida Schaeffer will focus on the silvery grey 1870s day dress made and owned by Celestia Freeman of Somersworth, New Hampshire. Freeman was the wife of a mill overseer who likely saw this dress as a way of marking her status in the new community she moved to with her husband. Schaeffer will use Freeman's well preserved dress to explore the development of the sewing machine, the importance of pre-made patterns, and the effects of the fashion magazine industry. 

For more about Astrida Schaeffer and Schaeffer Arts, see: http://www.schaefferarts.com/exhibition-embellishments-constructing-victorian-detail/

For details about the exhibition and the Saco Museum, see: http://www.sacomuseum.org/mus_current_exhibits_temp.shtml?id=EuApFyAluyCerpUNRW

Lilly Belle's Going Away Dress, late 1870s

"…Avoid, as intensely vulgar, any display of your position as a bride, 

whilst traveling.”

--The Ladies’ Book of Etiquette…by Florence Hartley

The dress in collections prior to proper display with bustle & appropriate underpinnings

Lily Belle – her name seems the personification of this frothy, embellished “going away” dress, with detachable train and silk fringed wrap. At present, we know little about Lily Belle Folsom Ayres.  Indeed, were it not for the garment’s survival in the textile collection at Strawbery Banke Museum (www.StrawberyBanke.org), her life might not have surfaced, being submerged “beneath the footnote.” It is likely that she was a descendant of the Folsom family of Exeter, New Hampshire. Dripping with fringe, tassels, cording and passementerie, the lavish layers of pleats and ruching, and exquisite tailoring, combine to create a sumptuous dress that was surely a sight to behold as the newly wed Mrs. Ayres, began her wedding trip. Where did the couple travel and in what manner of conveyance, we do not know. Whether by rail car, steamship or carriage, one suspects she was prepared for perambulations, bridal visits, receptions and teas, if the dress is any indication.

Detachable train

It was stylish for the mid- 1870s, appropriately luxurious for a “going away” dress.  Lily Belle's garment was also versatile – the train was detachable via buttons so the dress could easily be transformed for walking or a promenade. It is likely that the dress came with an additional bodice or jacket to complete the ensemble and, once again, add to flexibility.

The patterned gold silk of the bodice, as well as accents of gold on the cuffs and skirt were eye catching. The bodice emphasized her form, with a shimmering sensuality, interplaying with the rustle…swish… glide of the skirt and train. Indeed, it is interesting to note that despite the dark taupe - a color deemed appropriate for travel- accented with baby blue fringe, the sparkle of gold might have been perceived by some as too ostentatious.  One wonders if it would have met with the approval of Florence Hartley, for example, that purveyor of Victorian etiquette when she notes “If you are going to travel, have a neat dress and cloak of some plain color, and a close bonnet and veil. Avoid, as intensely vulgar, any display of your position as a bride, whilst traveling.”

(The Ladies’ Book of Etiquette…by Florence Hartley, courtesy Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/35123/pg35123.txt)

Enjoy the details of this fabulous going away dress, housed at Strawbery Banke; photos courtesy Bridget Swift.

Victorian Embellishments Exhibition Travels to New England Quilt Museum, January 2014

Installation view, University of New Hampshire Museum
Photograph, courtesy, Lisa Nugent

Thirteen Victorian dresses from the Irma Bowen Textile Collection at the University of New Hampshire, will be on view at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA from January 22-March 22, 2014. There will be a gallery talk and full day technique workshop on February 8th as well. Click the "programs" link the at the bottom of the museum's exhibition announcement for more information:

http://www.nequiltmuseum.org/upcoming-exhibitions.html

For information on Astrida Schaeffer and SchaefferArts or to purchase "Embellishments: Constructing Victorian Detail, see:
http://www.SchaefferArts.com

If you were not able to view the exhibition at the University of New Hampshire, now is your opportunity!

Gown of Midnight Blue Velvet, 1890s
University of New Hampshire Museum
Photograph, courtesy, Brian Smestad

Embellishments: Constructing Victorian Detail

A Gown of Midnight Blue Velvet, UNH Museum,
Durham, USA. Note passementerie, cording,
voided velvet, c. 1890s

Available  February 2013

EMBELLISHMENTS: CONSTRUCTING VICTORIAN DETAIL

As Charles Frederick Worth (1825-1895), revered leader of the era's most respected and sought after haute couture designs, confided to Harper's Bazar 15 December 1877: 

"A dress should never overpower its wearer. It should merely be an appropriate frame for a charming picture....It isn't every woman who knows how to wear a dress."

The concept for Embellishments: Constructing Victorian Detail originated with a 2012–2013 exhibition of Victorian garments at the University of New Hampshire. Embellishmentsis a fashion time travelers’ armchair tour. In the absence of any narration from those who wore or owned the clothing, consider the historic pieces themselves, dating roughly from the 1870s–1910s, as your guide. 

The book is based on ten Victorian garments—a haute couture tea-gown, English-inspired day and wedding dresses, and an American walking suit, among others.  Follow respected tailor of historic clothing and mannequin maker, Astrida Schaeffer, as she demonstrates the sewing techniques that recreate period embellishments. The publication will be a bookshelf favorite for contemporary designers, costume historians and sewing enthusiasts alike. 

Savor Brian Smestad’s stunning portrait-style photographs of the garments, accompanied by elegant details shots, which illuminate the technique section of the book. Delight in the opportunity Embellishments provides to examine and reinvigorate the Victorian aesthetic through the use of sewn adornment.

http://www.thebluetree.com/shop/fashion/9780979201448/ 

www.schaefferarts.com