1910 Poiret Gown

The Dallas/Ft. Worth Costumers Guild took a trip to the Japanese Gardens and visited a museum exhibit on ukiyo-e painting. Members were encouraged to wear kimonos or Japanese-influenced historical dress, so I decided to make a quickie Edwardian gown since Orientalism was such a huge influence on fashions of that time period. My main inspiration was a 1910 photo of a Paul Poiret Directoire style gown worn with a kimono-cut robe. My dress is made of very simple tubes of fabric with a the only embellishment coming from some antique lace and a fancy tassel. The turban is just a long strip of fabric wrapped around my head with a pearl brooch and large feathers (I know it's crazy, but women loved that look at the time! Check out some other 'teens turbans at the Demode site) Anyway, it's just a frivolous little project - I made the entire thing in 3 hours on the morning of the event - but I was surprisingly happy with the way it all turned out. The only thing that I would change is to make some sleeves to cover my shoulders a little more, but that would be an easy fix if I ever have an excuse to wear it again. The kimono was actually made by another guild member, Dawni Callahan, who can be seen in one of the pictures below. She was SO nice to let me borrow it for the day, and I think I need one of my own now! I also want to give a shoutout to Matt Ragan for taking the pictures in the park.

And by the way... that IS a baby-bump you see in the pictures! I didn't want everybody to think that I've just gotten fat lately! ;)