Saturday, June 12, 2010

Ideas for a Presentation on 1860s Clothing

I'm honored to have been asked to give a presentation about 1860s dress to the local chapter of  Daughters of the Confederacy this fall. This is super exciting! I'll be preparing my talk this summer.



During the event, I want to have my 3 dress forms dressed in various examples of period dress. One dressform I plan to have dress in undergarmrents - chemise, drawers, petticoats, corset, and cage. I will also be wearing period dress. I plan to mostly stick to the basics of fashion, fabrics, dress styles and purposes, undergarments and accesories. I don't want to get into overwhelming details for the people who have never studied period dress before. Also I want to dicuss common myths and misconstructions about 1860s clothing.


So - my question for any of you who would consider themselves 'newbies' to period correct dress - what questions would you like answered? I would love input - because having learnt the 'basics' years ago, it's hard to remeber what questions I had myself when I was first beginning. :^)

And for the period dress experts - have you done this sort of thing before? Advice?

I'm truly excited about this oppurtunity!

On another note - thank you to everyone who has entered the giveaway! Keep them coming!

4 comments:

Fiddlin Girl said...

OOH!! That sounds like SO much fun!! I can't wait to see! You need to have a shawl in there, too.. lol!!!! =D

Ok, my questions would be this (and I am definitely a newbie!)

1. how do you tell what kind of fabrics to pick? Often times I thought people said plaid was good. But, some plaids didn't work because they weren't period correct (discussions on SA)

2. Are there any modern shoes that would work for historical reenacting until you could get a 'real' pair.

3. How can you differentiate between sleeves that work with cotten, and sleeves that are used for silk? A lot of the sleeves look so similar, I can't tell them apart!

That is all I can think of right now.. lol!
Have fun! I hope it goes really well. Is this an event, or just an article?

Love ya! Sarah

Marian said...

How cool--I wish I could be there! :) Hope it goes well, and I second Fiddlin Girl's questions. There will probably be a lot of questions about how people can make their own Civil War costumes.

Amy said...

How exciting! You may want to ask Annette Bethke about speaking -- she's done it a lot at the Ladies & Gentlemen of the 1860s Conference I think.

http://txcwcivilian.blogspot.com/

Hope you and the fam are doing well! I didn't get in on the giveaway fast enough. :( Boo hoo! That was an adorable little dress designer packet you made.

Heather said...

Oh how fun! I've given lots of mini presentations on this at reenactments - if you're in costume they assume you know everything! LOL

A lot of times I find myself dispelling Hollywood myths - no, most ladies didn't cinch their corsets super tight... no, ladies' hair did not look like Scarlett's... etc. :D

I know you'll have fun! Keep us updated on how it goes!

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