Victorian Embellishments Teaser!

Embellishments:

Victorian Dress Details and How to Make Them

Coming September 2012

University of New Hampshire Museum

A dress should never overpower the wearer. It should merely be an appropriate frame for a charming picture, bringing out the beauties of the picture, but never distracting attention from it. So few women understand this.  

                                    -- Charles Frederick Worth, Harper's Bazaar, December 15, 1877

            The words of haute couturist Charles Fredrick Worth inspire an exciting new exhibit that will transport fashion enthusiasts into the world of the great 19^th century French design houses of Worth, Rouff, and Drecoll, mediated via British and American taste.   Twenty five historic garments and accessories, selected entirely from the Irma Bowen Collection, housed at the University of New Hampshire Museum, will catapult the visitor into an epoch of bountiful visual luxury and rich embellishment, the hallmarks of the Victorian Age, carried across the ocean to Seacoast New Hampshire and worn by local families, including the Ffrost Sawyers and Petersons.

            As a special gift, the exhibit and accompanying book will treat our guests to the work of Astrida Schaffer--costume historian, designer, mannequin maker and curator.  Astrida will show us how to recreate these looks.  In an innovative twist, just as Worth referenced that the dress should “merely be an appropriate frame for a charming picture,” the historic garments and their lavish, over-the-top embellishments will be juxtaposed with period architectural settings and details to evoke to the breadth and depth of Victorian material world.  The exihibit will be a must-see for the contemporary needle worker, designer, and those who just love fashion.

Follow these pages for details.