Because it really is personal…

Y’know, I love those A&E movies, particularly the romance novelist stuff like Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. It’s not so much the plot lines, which I know by heart since I’ve only read Jane Eyre a thousand times, or the acting, which is quite good but how hard is it to play a long-suffering sufferer? No, it’s the costuming, and the scenery, and the settings in old houses with leaded windows and coal fires. I really love that stuff, and wish I would get away with sweeping through the day in a post-Regency era gown with it’s full pleated skirt and dropped shoulders. I think the day would be brighter if men could wear fitted fawn trousers and a stovepipe hat without someone thinking they’re “quare”.

Ok, so a full sweeping skirt would wreak havoc when the pines drop their blooms…yeah, that would make a mess But, it’s easier to make a grand exit from a room if you have 13 layers of rustling petticoats than it is in a hot pink velour sweatsuit. That full skirt has a habit of making a waist look smaller, too. And the requisite corset underneath works wonders on ones posture.

So, the perfect dress for me…hm…no hoops, but ruffled petticoats, maybe 2 possibly 3 layers worth. Buttons up the front so I don’t have to actually hire anyone to help me dress. Same with the corset, front hooking, please. I like to mix my fashion metaphors, so I’m thinking leg-o-mutton sleeves, not too terribly meaty…maybe just leg-o-lamb. (fyi…leg-o-mutton sleeves were the Gibson Girl thing, with a wasp-waist dress, flat front skirt and pleated in the back, not at all the thing with a full skirt…but eh…it’s my fantasy)

I just really, really like the whole deeply feminine look of the long full skirts and the mystery they impart. (Just what *is* under all those layers?) I wonder what would happen if I started making said dresses for myself, and wearing them. Some things, like the riding clothes of the late 1800’s, could pass as only *slightly* unusual today, maybe getting a few second glances but nothing more.

I would probably gain a reputation as some sort of religious nut, the foundress of an ultra orthodox Christian sect, or something. How wrong they would be! But no one would come up and ask, finding it more entertaining to make stuff up.

Maybe I should make something like that. Why shouldn’t I wear something that makes me feel special? Why does it have to be an overpriced something from nordstrom?

So, if you could get away with wearing anything from any period in history, what would it be?