The Pet at the "Winter Whites" Exhibition, Nevada Historical Society

This past Friday a contingent of costumed ladies and one whole gentleman attended the Nevada Historical Society's "Winter Whites" exhibition, a small display of gowns ranging from the 1890s through the 1960s, all in white, creme, and ecru.

This c. 1900 gown is made of pineapple fiber fabric, just like the stuff you can buy at Dharma Trading Co. Okay, maybe not JUST like, but very similar, including the lovely stripe.

A detail of the pineapple fiber gown. Gorgeous!

1921 Graduation (high school) dress. Lovely voile with lots of rufflies.

A detail of the 1921 gown. It had quite a few snap closures and the construction was very much like older examples from the 19teens, with various under layers closing in various ways.

Impressive lacy 1900-1910s gown.

This was the stunner of the event - a 1962 "Supreme Queen of the Nile" gown. I can see Audrey Hepburn mincing around in this. The beadwork was out of this world.

I wore the pet en l'air, along with the taffeta petticoat, one big-ass cap, and in attendance was also the famous Pineapple Reticule (made by The Dreamstress). The costume wore very well, no real problems except the ribbons in back might have been tied a little tighter. ... oh, and my shoes were entirely inappropriate because my proper 18th c. shoes aren't here yet :-(.

I stuffed some tulle into the cap - too much? Hahaha, that's quite a ridiculous profile!

BIG-ASS CAP! I know this cap isn't quite appropriate for the "class" of cosutme I'm wearing, but it's the first cap I made and I ran out of time to make another. I plan a cap in dotted swiss voile, and one in just regular ole plain voile, for the upper class clothing, but I still like this linen one very much.

Special thanks to the Nevada Historical Society and the Marjorie Russel Textile Museum, for putting on the exhibition and letting us espy (and photograph) more of their wonderful clothing collection.