Boredom pays off.

Perhaps I should be sleeping, but I'm not. In a fit of boredom I randomly decided to look up evening wear from the 1860's. I spent the day today watching episodes of the Office while attempting facial studies of 18th and 19th century portraits, browsed through some of the books I got for my birthday--all on 18th and 19th century fashion, caught myself drooling over them.

Well--while there were a few more costume-related fragments involving reading a book on draping and wanting to attempt to re-create these gorgeous gowns, learn to make lace, and basically go on a book buying spree with money I don't have, my day ended (or is ending) with the random urge for internet research. In this spree I found (and don't get me wrong, I knew this site existed when in school and used it for quite a bit of research) The Costume Institute.

I felt like sharing a few of the gorgeous pieces the MET has in their collection.

Gorgeous isn't it? Looks like something a duchess would wear.

Modest colors and soft details in lace. It just makes me want to wear it (because that's a less strange equivalent to wanting to hug a piece of clothing, right?)

and

That search led me somehow to a few other sites. Antique Frock was the big one. I drooled quite a bit over some of their stock.

Sites that actually sell antique clothing. Of course these items are WAY out of my price range (over 1k for a dress like this). Vintage Textile is a similar site. Then as far as research goes I found a tumblr account called defunctfashion that has a wide variety of images from all sorts of time periods.

My father's girlfriend actually gave me antique clothing she found when cleaning out her father's house. I can't date it exactly. My guess is 19th century but quite honestly I don't want to get my hopes up with how old it is. it's in pretty good condition. There's lace in the cuffs which is deteriorating but otherwise the jacket is in magnificent shape. Of course I wouldn't dare estimate it worth what the lovely gown above is worth but it's fun to think about. I think if I ever strike it rich (how that would ever happen is beyond me) I would love to start a costume history museum. The only places I know that have a library of antique clothing are places that have plenty of other artwork to put up as well. They did a 200 years of fashion thing at the Peabody Historical Society that I missed and am still depressed by it. Then I heard about an exhibit of 40's fashion in a museum in the middle of nowhere but that's not easily accessible.

In my research this evening I also found the Chicago History Museum did a similar fashion history thing--something with Chic in the title but it's long over now.

On a completely different topic, I'm looking into starting my own Etsy account. I'm going to start out most likely with corsetry and then perhaps move into the extravagant provided I can find a market for it. I need to find a good place for american costume history research. It seems like around here (Massachusetts) the Revolutionary War is the big seller for reenactments and clothing for that era is VERY different from European styles which is sadly the majority of my collection of books. Then of course civil war is an option and I know that Cape May, New Jersey does Victorian week which I'm dying to go to. Beyond that I'm stumped.