The Ornamented Being
Ornamented: -verb: Adorn; beautify. Be·ing: -noun: Fulfillment of possibilities; essential completeness.
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Evening dress, ca. 1884–86
American or European
SilkGift of Mrs. J. Randall Creel, 1963 (C.I.63.23.3a,b)
The Met says: After a period of literal descent down the back of the body, the bustle achieved its greatest extension by 1885. It was almost perpendicular to the back and heavily draped and trimmed. The 1880s versions were as padded and heavily embellished as a drawing-room hassock of the period. It was a popular conceit that these bustles could support an entire tea service. To sustain the greater weight of the 1880s gowns, light and flexible infrastructures were created with flexible materials—wire, cane, whalebone—held together by canvas tapes or inserted into quilted channels. The torso above the projection of the bustle was further articulated into an hourglass shape, so much so that it appeared to be encased in a piece of armor.
NOT ON VIEW Last Updated Novemb -
I pictured to myself the Queen of Hearts as a sort of embodiment of ungovernable passion - a blind and aimless Fury.The Red Queen I pictured as a Fury, but of another type; her passion must be cold and calm - she must be formal and strict, yet not unkindly; pedantic to the 10th degree, the concentrated essence of all governesses![1]
—Lewis Carroll, in “Alice on the Stage”
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c. 1884-86
The Met says: The bustle was at its greatest extension by 1885. It was almost perpendicular to the back and heavily upholstered. The 1880s versions were as padded and heavily embellished as a drawing-room hassock of the period. It was a popular conceit that the cantilevers of these bustles could support an entire tea service. To sustain the greater weight of the 1880s gowns, light and flexible infrastructures were created with flexible materials—wire, cane, whalebone—held together by canvas tapes or inserted into quilted channels.
All I can say is: Baby got back!
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Photo reblogged from Ye Olde Fashion
The Countess di Castiglione caused a scandal by appearing at a 1857 costume ball at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs as The Queen of Hearts, a thinly veiled allusion to the fact the she was currently the mistress of the emperor, Napoleon III.
She was photographed in the costume by Pierre-Louis Pierson several years later, between 1861 and 1863, apparently wishing to preserve the scandal for posterity.
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- I pictured to myself the Queen of Hearts as a sort of embodiment of ungovernable passion - a blind and aimless Fury.
- The Red Queen I pictured as a Fury, but of another type; her passion must be cold and calm - she must be formal and strict, yet not unkindly; pedantic to the 10th degree, the concentrated essence of all governesses![1]
—Lewis Carroll, in “Alice on the Stage”
