I don’t know; I think we need to think about how we talk about practicality re: historical women’s clothing
because one of the most common criticisms leveled at almost any mainstream western style for women pre-1920s is “it was impractical!!!!”
and like. okay. impractical for what though?
sure you can’t like. I don’t know. wrangle an escaped farm animal back into its pen in full Natural Form. but most women weren’t doing that, any more than most of us are now, and the ones who were….wore Work Clothing during livestock-wrangling hours
had someone tell me the other day that you couldn’t work a 9-5 job in Second Bustle dresses
you could go to the office in this. you could send memos to Janice in accounting in this. you could work many types of non-food retail in this. you could do several different types of museum jobs in this. you could be a dressmaker, miliner, seamstress, or lady journalist in this, at the time. you could be a doctor in this, although nowadays we know you shouldn’t.
what do you MEAN you can’t work a 9-5 in this? there are so so so many jobs, modern and otherwise, that could be done in exactly this outfit
I make most of my own clothing from patterns that usually date to like 1869 or 1879-82. long skirts and corsets and the whole shebang (well, okay, I do corset sometimes and bra sometimes, but I digress). my average day is walking to the train, taking the train to work, either sitting at a desk or walking around a museum for several hours, running errands, taking the train back, and walking home
dressing like a Victorian vampire countess is no impediment to my daily life whatsoever. and I average 2 miles of walking per day, so I’m MORE active than most of my fellow USAmericans on a daily basis
on the flipside. can you do aforementioned livestock-wrangling in modern fashion jeans? in trendy oversized tops? is the Clean Girl Aesthetic 100% practical and possible to maintain in all situations that could possibly arise?
what’s that? it doesn’t matter because you don’t have to do those things in your clothing and you’d wear different clothing if you did?
OH WOW. WHO WOULD HAVE EVER CONSIDERED. SUCH AN IDEA.
surely not our Dumb-Dumb Stupid Brainless Ancestors, But Only the Women, Who Were Complete Idiots With No Concept Of Situational Clothing Adaptations
Today I was listening to Jane Goodall being interviewed and she said something I knew about but had forgotten. The whole reason she went off to Africa to study chimps in the wild was because she was madly in love with Tarzan. Huge fangirl!
“He married the wrong Jane!” she laughed.
But she was so caught up in the romance of it all that she literally went off to live with chimps at a time when field studies of wild animals simply did not exist, and women were not taken very seriously as scientists. And basically invented a whole approach to studying wild animals that is standard today, changed everything we know about chimps, and became one of nature’s biggest champions.
Because she loved real animals and one fictional man.
October 2nd 1854 saw the birth of modern urban sociology pioneer, Patrick Geddes in Ballater.
Geddes was a man of diverse interests and talents. Today he is probably best known as a town planner, but he has also been described as a biologist, sociologist, conservationist, educationist, and ecologist.
He did much to improve the living conditions in his local environment, but he was also a figure of international importance who travelled widely and who corresponded with key thinkers and writers of the time such as Charles Darwin and Mahatma Gandhi.Geddes became a demonstrator in practical physiology at University College London, and in 1879 he travelled to Mexico to collect biological specimens.
Whilst in Mexico he suffered temporary blindness and this left him with permanently weakened eyesight. It was during this period that he discovered his ‘thinking machines’ – a visual method of presenting and connecting facts and ideas to aid thought.Alongside this inspired utilitarianism he furthered his beliefs in incorporating culture and learning.
He commissioned a huge narrative painting on the ceiling of the dining hall in Riddle’s Court; worked with artist John Duncan to produce Evergreen, a publication endorsing the values of the Celtic Renaissance, and commissioned the design and building of Ramsay Garden in the tradition of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
In the same period as all this he lectured in Botany at both Edinburgh and Dundee Universities; held summer schools in Edinburgh and London and set up The Outlook Tower. This innovative project encouraged people to observe the relationships between place, work and people within Edinburgh. Geddes himself was often the enthusiastic guide, bounding two steps at a time, to the top where a panoramic view of the city was revealed.
Furthering his expertise in town planning, Geddes worked to improve the slums of Edinburgh - and, later, the planning of other cities, such as Tel Aviv and Bombay - by focussing on the relationship between inhabitants and their surrounding environment.
Patrick Geddes was knighted in 1932, but died later that year in Montpellier, France.
Lark Rise to Candleford has some of the best Victorian costumes in any TV costume drama. Doing a rewatch currently and once again blown away by the reality of the class differences in the costumes alone. The torn clothing worn for work by a lot of the Lark Rise workers, contrasted with that worn by workers in the town.
Also Julia Sawalha wears early 1890’s clothing so beautifully!
I have started a new side blog, @costumedramasforever! I hope to be posting some discussions over the coming months of costume dramas both bad and good.
Please don’t use strobe or flashing lights for your Halloween yard decorations. These can trigger seizures and migraines, even in people who have never experienced either of these. If you feel not having these as part of your decorations takes away the spirit of the holiday, please understand that spending time is the ER isn’t how anyone wants to celebrate it. You may very well kill someone, seeing as seizures can and do kill people (look up SUDEP). Have you ever had a migraine? Was it fun?
Please, don’t use strobe lights or flashing lights as part of your yard decor, regardless of the holiday or season.
