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The Boston MFA is Awesome
Jun. 22nd, 2016 12:34 amThe staff at the Boston MFA is amazing. Not only did Lauren, the senior curator of the fashion dept email me back so promptly in the first place, but her colleague Allison actually took pictures of the dress yesterday, which Lauren sent to me this morning. I could not have imagined such a fast and perfect response!
So anyway, I now know so much more about this dress. Like the fact that the image of the dress on the MFA website is actually just the dress and overskirt, without the belt/bow that is described on the page.
Just as a reminder, here is the image from their website:
And here are the four images that they sent me:
So besides the fact that it wasn't orginally shown with the belt, the other interesting thing I learned is that the five overskirt tabs on the original dress did not go all the way around the skirt. Instead, a gap was left open in the center back, where the butt bow would have been.
However, a) I have already planned for my tabs to go all the way around, and have already made enough small bows to go around the skirt as well, and b) I definitely don't have enough fabric for that style of butt bow, and c) I actually really like the look of the dress in the website image with the white waistband. So basically, I'm seriously debating about forgoing the butt bow/belt altogether. I'm also not sure I like the little bow on the center back of the bertha, though I'm sure it's actually masking the closure of the bertha. I might not make that one either, though. And if I really don't make the butt bow or bertha bow, then I will definitely have enough fabric left that I could make the two small sleeve bows, which would be nice! But then I would be diverging even more from the original, and I feel like part of the fun of this project has been to make a really close repro (minus the fact that I'm adding sleeves, and two overskirt tabs). Any opinions?
I managed to get one overskirt tab entirely bound while at the airport and on my flight today. And I pinned and started to sew the second row for that tab, too. I might still do a little bit more before going to bed, too.
So anyway, I now know so much more about this dress. Like the fact that the image of the dress on the MFA website is actually just the dress and overskirt, without the belt/bow that is described on the page.
Just as a reminder, here is the image from their website:
And here are the four images that they sent me:
So besides the fact that it wasn't orginally shown with the belt, the other interesting thing I learned is that the five overskirt tabs on the original dress did not go all the way around the skirt. Instead, a gap was left open in the center back, where the butt bow would have been.
However, a) I have already planned for my tabs to go all the way around, and have already made enough small bows to go around the skirt as well, and b) I definitely don't have enough fabric for that style of butt bow, and c) I actually really like the look of the dress in the website image with the white waistband. So basically, I'm seriously debating about forgoing the butt bow/belt altogether. I'm also not sure I like the little bow on the center back of the bertha, though I'm sure it's actually masking the closure of the bertha. I might not make that one either, though. And if I really don't make the butt bow or bertha bow, then I will definitely have enough fabric left that I could make the two small sleeve bows, which would be nice! But then I would be diverging even more from the original, and I feel like part of the fun of this project has been to make a really close repro (minus the fact that I'm adding sleeves, and two overskirt tabs). Any opinions?
I managed to get one overskirt tab entirely bound while at the airport and on my flight today. And I pinned and started to sew the second row for that tab, too. I might still do a little bit more before going to bed, too.