How remiss am I in sharing photos, proper photos, from the Jane Austen Festival. So remiss! In fact, when I opened up this draft post to see how far I'd gotten, this is all I had...
"Photos and shit"
Oh my.
So let's remedy that.
This was *the year* of 1790s (and we hope the trend continues!). Here are my favorite shots of Abby, Nicole, Maggie, and Lauren M.
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| Left to Right: Abby, Nicole, Robert The Barbary Corsair, Lauren M. and Maggie |
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| Nicole's shako was incredible. |
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| Lauren a la Marvelleuise in beautiful 1790s |
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| Pass the Punch - we enjoyed an excellent dinner with The Acasta, which got friendlier and friendlier as the punch bowl made its rounds. |
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| Abby and Maggie, the whimple sisters, rocking the late 1790s trend for exotically wrapped turbans |
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| Nicole wore a stunning embroidered batiste gown with her version of the Agreeable Tyrant spencer in burnt orange silk trimmed with olive green buttons and passimenterie. |
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| Abby's gown was a gold-printed Indian cotton trimmed in gold bullion fringe with a gathered front and green silk sash pinned with Wedgewood jewelry. |
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| The narrow diamond back of Maggie's 1790s gown was expertly fitted. This is a tricky style to accomplish! |
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| Maggie's gown was made of a subtly red and blue dotted cotton with a full back and train. The front was high-necked and gathered, worn over a chemisette. The whole ensemble was tied together with a dark blue silk ribbon sash. |
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| The train on Nicole's gown was long and luscious, a hallmark of 1790s fashion for both day and evening. |
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| Details - accessories make the 1790s interesting. The same Agreeable Tyrant spencer made and worn two different ways for completely different looks - Nicole and Lauren M. |
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| Same pattern, two exquisite and quite different results. This pattern came from the book An Agreeable Tyrant. |
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| Gorgeous Lauren M in her round gown with enormous '90s cap and her Agreeable Tyrant spencer in black silk trimmed in silver. |
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| Token gentleman - The Doctor, HMS Acasta |
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| It was hot and sticky but we still had fun! |
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| ...but we don't take ourselves TOO seriously, now. ;-) |
We had such a great time, even if we were a little heat drunk.
Practical info for the pretties seen in this post:
* Abby's gown, sash, and turban were put together with the methods in "
The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking."
* "
An Agreeable Tyrant" is available on the DAR website here.
* The shoes seen in these shots are
"Pemberley" Regency Slippers and
"Dunmore" 18th Century Shoes available from
AmericanDuchess.com. The new
"Dashwood" slippers are also available there.
* Learn more about the Jane Austen Festival in Kentucky
here.
* Learn more about HMS Acasta
here.
