Friday 16 March 2012

Thursday I was in A Victorian Fashion Show!

How did they do this?
I was volunteering in my local long-term care, PCCC. We had Nancy, from Kitchener arrived with many gowns she has made. She participates in 1812 re-enactments, and has created some amazing costumes.

I demonstrated the corset!
It is awful to wear. I truly couldn't move well. Nancy put it on me while all chuckled.

Nancy explained how early they put these on young girls.
Once puberty hit, they were of marriageable age and corsets were worn well before this.

They only bathed once a year, as Nancy explains in the video. Daddy first, then the boys, then the girls.
Hence, "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater!'
They didn't wash clothes very frequently, either.


At the long-term care where I volunteer, we had a re-enactment expert in to show us the dresses she has created. Nancy, from Kitchener, shared her expertise and her gowns with us.

Isn't this fun!

My friend, Kay Devlin, modelling!

Some residents, spouses of residents, and me, had such a grand time.
PCCC has two cats.
This one sat on my bag!

6 comments:

Linda said...

What fun! I can't even imagine the agony of wearing a corset!

Megan said...

Great costumes.

Kay L. Davies said...

What wonderful fun, all except the corset part. Ugh. I remember panty-girdles, and they were bad enough. My grandmother wore a long thing she called a corselet. It looked like torture.
Imagine putting corsets on prepubescent girls. Just ridiculous. But I remember girls wearing girdles already when I was in Junior High. I was younger and skinnier than everyone else, thank goodness.
K

Kay said...

This is just so much fun! I can just imagine how every loved this. I remember seeing a photo a long time ago of how the corsets actually altered the bone structure of women during that time. They must have used a lot of perfume.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

I missed this earlier; so glad I checked my Reader and came back -- love it. What a great thing to do and I can imagine everybody loved it. I remember girdles, which were bad enough. And even back then we didn't wear the things every day...even my mom didn't. Just when we dressed up for church or parties. And soon after I graduated HS, girdles were out and panty-hose were in. We thought those were a great gift to women. (Can you imagine?)

Far Side of Fifty said...

No wonder some of the ladies would pass out with those corsets! Thanks for stopping by! I enjoyed my visit here! :)