Wednesday 4 May 2011

Another old photo

I found myself in Prague, with time to kill. Not surprisingly, I ended up in that second-hand bookshop. Surprisingly, I didn't feel compelled to buy any of the books. (Well, there were some I would have felt compelled to buy if I already didn't have them - like Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis.) So in the end I leafed through the old photos. And fell in love with this lady's bodice and felt compelled to share. So I bought the photo.

Here you go. If you click on it, it should lead you to a bigger version. Somehow, it ended up not not as big and hi-res as with the previous bunch. I guess Blogger automatically resized it for me... :-( So if you really want the huge file, try here. It's rather heavily scratched, but the scratches are tiny, so it does not disturb the details of the photo.

I have no idea how old it is - with my knowledge, it could be anywhere from 1890s to 1910s. Any better idea?


I love the cutwork on the bodice, and the pintucked yoke. I love how the cutwork runs along the seam and extends over it organically. The style puts me in mind of the Edwardian dress from Rijksmuseum I posted some time ago. It's not the same type of dress, but it has similar spirit - it makes me thing cutwork is the way to go if you want the style done cheaper. Probably not quicker, but cheaper. Maya on Little Treasures made a series on cutwork recently, so you can start there if you like. I guess it's why I was drawn to the photo...

3 comments:

  1. I love her hair style too.

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  2. I don't have an educated opinion, but I love the first line of your post... And the cutwork with pintucks is divine.

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  3. Jodi: She looks like someone with really frizzy hair doing her best to keep it under control. :-)

    Steph: Hehe. And yes, the cutwork with the pintucks is ingenious. I wish I had a project to apply the principle to, but right now none of the projects ahead of me lend themselves easily to that idea...

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