Old Rags

Town dress with chemisette owned by Empress Josephine, First Empire

From the Chateau de Malmaision Costume Collection app:

“This high-waisted dress with its square, low-cut neckline and decorated with white embroidered flowers and leaves is typical of the fashion at the start of the First Empire. To conceal the low neckline, it could be worn with a chemisette which was slipped inside the dress. This one is in white muslin, embroidered with a sprinkling of flowers and embellished with a ruché trim. This outfit comes from the family of Madame Poyard who looked after the Empress’s wardrobe after 1809.”

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Slippers of Napoleon’s Sister Found

archaeologicalnews:

A delicate pair of slippers that had been sitting unnoticed in a Scottish university’s collection for more than a century may have actually belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister, Princess Pauline Borghese, researchers say.

The narrow silk and leather shoes, which measured just 1.5 inches (40 millimeters) across the toes and about 4 inches (10.2 centimeters) long, were marked on the sole “Pauline Rome.” They would fit a small child today, but might have been perfect for the famously petite princess who researchers say was often carried from room to room. Pauline would have been the youngest of Napoleon’s three sisters; Napoleon also had four brothers.

The tiny slippers were sitting inside a chest of clothes in the collection of the University of Aberdeen, where they attracted the attention of Louise Wilkie, a museum staff member. Wilkie said the slippers were given to the museum by Robert Wilson (1787 – 1871), who traveled the world extensively as a ship’s surgeon and had a friendship with Princess Pauline Borghese. Read more.

May 1st 1921 cover for the Smart fashions and Limited income themed issue.

Illustration by George Wolfe Plank

fripperiesandfobs:

Dress, 1880

From the Musee du Costume et de la Dentelle

“The Battle for Bobbed Hair” Photoplay Magazine, June, 1924

stellar-raven:

Animal Locomotion, Vol. 7 (1872-1885) - Eadweard Muybridge, photographer.

It’s interesting to be able to see these outfits in motion.

highvictoriana:

historiful:

Unknown woman, c. 1880s.

questionableadvice:

~ Woman’s Home Companion, July 1915
via Harvard University Library
(click to enlarge)

tuesday-johnson:

ca. 1840-1860, [daguerreotype portrait of a dramatically posed lady in an elaborate dress, possibly Scottish, with a star pattern, tartan sash and hat]

via the Harvard University’s Houghton Library, Department of Printing and Graphic Arts, Harrison D. Horblit Collection of Early Photography

Wow! A super rare look at shoes from the time.