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This is truly Mixing & Matching gone mad...
For a bit of context...
Ages ago I got it into my head that it would be fun to re-style a black fitted gown in as many different ways as possible and for as many different decades as possible.
The planning for this project actually goes back to at least 2017 (when the dress was originally made), but the breadth and scope of it ballooned so wildly that it was put perpetually on the back burner.
Fast forward to spring 2024 when I signed on to give a talk at the "Westcoast Elizabethan Clothing Symposium". An early idea was to structure a presentation all about accessories
(And it would later be titled, Wearing vs Styling: Accessorizing to Create a Period Look)
I figured this would be a perfect opportunity to revive what I'd been calling "The Little Black Dress Experiment" and see how many different looks I could create just by re-accessorizing my black gown.
A summary of that talk can be found HERE and the sub-section specifically focusing on the black dress can be found HERE.
So this post is mostly filler.
It's a repository for all the extra photographs that didn't make it into the presentation as well as some additional background and construction information on the dress itself.
So with that, let's travel back to the heady days of 2017!
The dress was originally inspired by this image of Catherine Gonzalvus.
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It was rushed to completion for that year's Twelfth Night celebrations (during which a friend of mine was receiving her Laurel in the SCA!), and was ultimately restyled with a black tall hat.
But apart from the above image, the only two photographs I have are this hotel room mirror selfie and a shot standing against a black curtain...in which we can see absolutely nothing (thought I still think it's a fun visual).
And for a long time, that was that...
Because the gown was so rushed I really don't have any photos or documentation of the construction process and so it never made it onto the blog.
(Or if I did once have photos they have been long since lost to a pile of old and obsolete memory cards).
To summarize: The pattern was based on the fitted gown from the Tudor Tailor and so the construction of the bodice largely follow that of my earlier Brown Fitted Gown.
However, I did make a couple of changes to the pattern for the black gown.
First, the front bodice point was lengthened slightly (by approximately 1.5").
The narrow sleeves were swapped for the larger sleeves from the Late Period Gown (also from The Tudor Tailor).
And the shaped skirt panels are now just a large rectangle (120" wide) which is cartridge pleated to the bodice, with the front left open.
So, many MANY years later...here is the gown.
Granted, it's not the most interesting look, but that's sort of the point...
It's a blank slate onto which we can project many different styles:
The idea was to accessorize the gown in a way that represented roughly 100 years of fashion, from the 1540s to the 1650s.
Needless to say some of the styling is a bit theatrical (insofar that there are a lot of cheats), but it was still a fun experiment. And I wold argue a largely successful one.
I won't go into depth on the whole process here.
For more information on the inspiration images, as well as the accessories used for each of the individual looks, please see Part 3 my talk.
Okay! Let's jump in...
First, here is a quick look at some of the foundation garments I'll be using for this experiment.
Kicking us off...
The first look is a look broadly meant to represent the 1540s...
Next up, the 1550s...
This style of gown doesn't seem to be very popular in the 1560s, so now we're jumping ahead to the 1570s...
Moving on to the 1580s (the portrait below is technically dated 1590, but it's a little old fashioned and so more representative of the 1580s)...
Now we're into 1590s (and a very specific style from the 1590s at that)...
Staying in the 1590s, but going up the social scale...
Next up, the 1600s (and what is probably my favourite look of this whole experiment)...
I had looks planned for the 1610s and 1620s, but they didn't get finished in time.
So next we're jumping WAY ahead to the 1650s...but with a look that is very purposely old fashioned (said to be an image of the last woman in England to wear a ruff).
And finally a bit of a hodgepodge look that is vaguely 1620s-30s....but not really.
Still, it's fun and I like the stupid red ribbon, so we're going to leave it here.
And that's it!
The Little Black Dress Experiment is complete!
One dress. Nine looks. One hundred (ish) years of history!
Overall I'm super happy with how this turned out...more so than usual!
Even though the looks aren't perfect, I think it's clear how much accessories and underpinnings (bum rolls are doing a lot of work here!) can drastically change the silhouette and over all appearance of an outfit.
I'm genuinely surprised how well some of these turned out and that my favourite looks aren't necessarily the ones I would have guessed at the beginning.
Also, it's nice to finally get this one off the back burner...six years later!
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(EDIT: And just for fun, here's a little cheat-sheet by decade)
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