Crinolina de paneles 3D o gajos de Jeanuell Rodríguez. #crinolina #tarlatan #ballgown #crinolinadepaneles #peticot #crinolinadegajos

I ran across this object recently, and was most intrigued: The MFA Boston describes it as: A guimpe of gathered and puffed white net, high round neck, open down front elbow length sleeves, foundation of tarlatan covered with net, white tulle ruching around neck held in place with narrow coral velvet ribbon. While interesting, this still doesn’t explain what a guimpe is (other than a sort of lacy blouse thing which you obviously had to wear under or over another garment, which you can tell from the photo), or what you do with it. So I did a little research. Apparently a guimpe is a short blouse worn under a pinafore/jumper dress, or a fill in for a low-cut dress. It’s very similar to a chemisette or dickey.  It was a word that was particularly common in the mid-late 19th century, and it comes from the Old French word for wimple, which is why the white thing that nuns wear around their necks/heads are also sometimes called guimpes. Here is a very early gown with …

Last week I presented Mrs Lockett Agnew (nee Augusta Isobel Sheil), in an 18th c. inspired 1880s reception ensemble.  There were a few tiny niggles about the very high neck, or the top-buttoning only jacket, but generally you thought it fabulous, and even if you didn’t like it personally, you thought it was perfect for Augusta, giving it a smashing 9 out of 10 (basically anything above a 9 is a perfect score these days!). This Week’s Rate the Dress dress shows the transition from 1830s to 1840s fashions.  The more elaborate sleeves and scalloped edging looks back to the cluttered detailing of the Romantic era, but the overall silhouette of the dress follows the smoother, sleeker  line  of the 1840s. Made from a stiff cotton tarlatan, with details in silk satin, the dress uses the shine of the satin weave to highlight and define the detailing, while keeping the an overall  simple, monochromatic ivory. While this may have been a wedding dress, white was also a very popular choice for evening dresses, particularly for …