The Ornamented Being
Ornamented: -verb: Adorn; beautify. Be·ing: -noun: Fulfillment of possibilities; essential completeness.
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I don’t normally bother you all with stories about my life but I think what happened today taught me something important and I hope you don’t mind if I share it with you.
I had a really big meeting at Covent Garden, I made it to Waterloo from Surrey and I was cutting it a bit close. The thing you have to understand about London is that everyone is in a hurry. Always. You are always trying to get that extra second in, catch that first tube, get on the train right as the doors close, rushing, always rushing. Londoners never slow down, we can’t because we’ll be late. But for what? If we always rush through life then we forget the important things.
I’m not saying I’m not totally guilty of rushing, and today was no different. I was racing down the stairs at Waterloo to catch the Northern Line when I saw this woman at the bottom with a baby pram. Tiny, blonde lady struggling with a huge pram, smiling at her baby and trying to get up just one step. Men and women alike walked right past her which upset me. My feet started walking before my brain caught up and my mouth opened automatically and I said with my atrocious southern accent which echoed and surprised some of my fellow passengers ‘Hang on there I’m comin’ down to help!’
I figured trains come and go, this is London you can always blame being late on TFL. I grabbed the other end of the pram and smiled. What struck me was how apologetic and shocked she was at me helping her. She kept saying ‘Don’t worry, go for your train. Don’t you need to catch the train? Please don’t be late for me’ and when she realized I wasn’t leaving she started telling me how kind I was and thanking me and just going on about kindness. I smiled at the little baby and said ‘Hello!’ and she giggled. When I turned to go down the stairs I heard her say to her daughter ‘See when you grow up I want you to be like her’. Pretty much set the tone for the rest of my day. I waltzed around with a smile on my face.
Acts of kindness, no matter how small make a day better and brighter. There is no reason to struggle alone, we are put on this Earth to support each other and to constantly work to make this world something more. I didn’t want gratitude, I didn’t help her because I wanted to be some sort of hero, or thanked for being kind. I did it because it was the right thing to do.I hope one person saw what I did and paid it forward.
I am telling you now because I hope one of you reads this and pays it forward.
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Just walked in from our rehearsal at The Queen’s Gallery. It’s hard to believe that after nearly eight months this event is a little under 48 hours away.
This final year has flown by so quickly and I can promise that once my two models walk out of the dressing room you will find me in a corner crying tears of joy, stress, relief, and a little sadness. It’s been a good three years at this University and I graduate in a few weeks. It’s a terrifying thought. But onwards and upwards my friends, onwards and upwards.
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I am in my final year studying Costume Interpretation at Wimbledon College of Art in London. In our third year we are assigned three major projects.
The first project will be displayed at the opening of ‘In Fine Style’ at The Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace. More information about that project can be found in this post here. Unfortunately my first and third costumes are still not mine to share but I can happily share with you details about the second costume.
The project was called Ordinary Lives. Part of the assignment was to have this costume completed in six weeks. Unfortunately on the last day of term I started over from WWI and choose to create an 1860s mourning gown which was my very first choice in the beginning.
Why mourning you might ask? I was born in a small town in Tennessee that has direct ties to the Civil War and as a child I often came across items associated with Victorian Mourning in the antique stores. As I grew up my mother encouraged this curiosity. During my breaks when I visit my parents I work with The Woodruff-Fontaine House in Memphis, Tennessee on preserving their amazing costume collection and helping with their exhibitions. Our assignment was to find an image of an everyday person and to recreate their clothing. When I came across Miss Maggie Webber in her second stage of mourning she spoke to me.
I will be discussing the unique features on her undergarments a little later but for now you can see those images here.
All of the long stitches on Maggie’s costume were made by machine but everything else was completed by hand. I am very fond of piping which is reflected in the hand piped armbands, the swiss waist, and neckline of Maggie’s collar. The trim on Maggie’s collar is from an extant costume. According to the dealer the trim came from a shattered 1863 mourning bodice. I find it very fitting that 150 years later it will once again grace a mourning garment. The veil was done by hand and took one and a half episodes of Criminal Minds to complete. The swiss waist was a bit of a challenge simply because I ended up creating my own pattern.
In total, this costume has taken seventeen days to complete. To date I feel that it is one of my strongest pieces and I am very pleased with the outcome. Even though the life of Maggie Webber will forever be shrouded in mystery it is my hope that by recreating her gown I have made sure her memory continues on.
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I have no idea who these people are but lady on the right I need your cape coat in my life!
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I will be sailing into central London tomorrow along with the Titanic II Launch! Ask me if I am excited yet?
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I wasn’t raised to eat pancakes on Fat Tuesday, I was raised to eat King Cake!!! Tomorrow is going to be depressing
for the third year in a row.
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Snowballs! 1400 - 1407 Atlante dell’arte italiana
This is what the Irish lads working on the building across my flat have been doing all day! One of them is about six stories up and thinks he is Hawkeye with snowballs instead of arrows and is being particularly naughty!
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“I like The Eiffel Tower because it looks like steel and lace.” ― Natalie Lloyd
I’m home!!!!
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Bon voyage!
- I will have internet access so if I feel like my phone battery can take it between all the facebooking and instagraming and texting my mo...
- om and telling here LOL I'm not dead then I will post a nice photo here. I might try to pull a Godzilla stepping on the Eiffel Tower if I...
- can actually get down to that area. My destination is going to
- be Napoleon's grave because hello! History crush of the century.
- Paris
- I'm going to be a super awesome tourist because I am taking hardly anything.
- eiffel tower
- this ain't my first rodeo in paris yo
- when in france do as the french do and eat macaroons and generally be awesome
- I have decided to wear my Lady!Sherlock coat
- does anyone even read these tags?
- paris
- france
- travel
- costume
- fashion
- uni
- london
- wicked cool
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There’s a race of men that don’t fit in,
A race that can’t stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
And they climb the mountain’s crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And they don’t know how to rest…See you all on the other side.
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I have a little under six hours to go before I catch up to London but I want to take a moment and say Happy New Year to all my dearest friends and followers, To those old friends and to those new friends thank you for traveling with me on this journey. I wish nothing but joy and happiness to you all in the coming year.
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Happy Thanksgiving from London!
