Historical featherwork for millinery
Sep. 1st, 2012 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labricoleuseOur department is often the recipient of generous donations of vintage and antique clothing and textiles, for which we are always overjoyed and grateful. These typically come from theatre patrons and university alumni, sometimes from the estates of the deceased, usually from people who for whatever reason don't want to discard the items or give them to charity. These donors may recognize the items' intrinsic scholarly or cultural value, or they may just have a vague idea that the theatre might could use great-grandpa's old top hat or Aunt Ella's collection of ballroom dance gowns.
When we receive a donation, our Loans and Acquisitions Supervisor works in tandem with our Costume Director, Assistant Costume Director, myself and other costume faculty and staff to determine how best to store and/or use the items. The donor fills out a donation form which basically thanks them profusely and advises them that the donation may be used for a variety of different purposes, but that we cannot make any guarantees about how it will be used. So for example if someone says, "I will give you my mom's wedding dress, on the condition that you use it in your next play," we have to regretfully decline, because we can't make that type of guarantee. Even if the show has a wedding in it and the costume designer loves the dress, what if it is 6" too small in the bust for the actress who gets cast? So, no.
If an item is particularly remarkable--say, an intact or reasonably intact 19th century gown, or possesses a couture label inside--it is likely to be put into the Costume Archive collection for documentation, research, and study. Research assistants work on photographing and writing descriptions of these pieces for sharing on the website, and our graduate students make an exact reproduction of one of these pieces as part of their final year of study. For example, if you look at the page for this silk Edwardian blouse, you will see links to a full descriptive paper, bibliography, the reproduction which was made, and the pattern.
If an item is not something we would put into the archive but is nevertheless in great stageworthy condition (say, a decent 1950s day dress, or a standard 1960s-cut mens 3-piece suit), we put it into our extensive departmental costume stock where it may be used potentially in our own productions or by the many student and local groups who borrow costumes from us.
If, however, a piece is not an archival item nor is it stageworthy (by which i mean, it may be too fragile to withstand a theatrical run, or be damaged beyond repair), then one of the things which we may choose to do is salvage whatever parts of it might be useful in other ways. For example, a dress made of rotted silk with some beautiful cotton lace trim, we might remove the intact lace and put that into trim stock or antique trim study collections, and discard the rotted silk.
I often have this sort of task come up with hats--a hat comes in where the base structure of the hat is wrecked with moth damage or irreparably torn, but the silk flowers or vintage plumes on it are still in fine or restorable condition. This post is about just such an item.
In a recent donation, we received this feathered headdress,
probably made for a regional burlesque show.
The buckram and wire base of it was no longer stageworthy, however.
One of my students and I carefully removed the antique feathers.
Above is one of several plumes we salvaged. Note how dense and fluffy it is.
Ever wonder why the plumes you buy now don't look like this?
This is why. That single plume is actually composed of these five feather
sections, all carefully split and sewn together. Often these were made by
the deft fingers of tenement children in the late 19th century.
Here's another example of a feather ornament. The brushy spray at left is actually
composed of many, many split sections of flues like you see at right,
all secured to a wire base kind of like a boutonniere.
When we receive a donation, our Loans and Acquisitions Supervisor works in tandem with our Costume Director, Assistant Costume Director, myself and other costume faculty and staff to determine how best to store and/or use the items. The donor fills out a donation form which basically thanks them profusely and advises them that the donation may be used for a variety of different purposes, but that we cannot make any guarantees about how it will be used. So for example if someone says, "I will give you my mom's wedding dress, on the condition that you use it in your next play," we have to regretfully decline, because we can't make that type of guarantee. Even if the show has a wedding in it and the costume designer loves the dress, what if it is 6" too small in the bust for the actress who gets cast? So, no.
If an item is particularly remarkable--say, an intact or reasonably intact 19th century gown, or possesses a couture label inside--it is likely to be put into the Costume Archive collection for documentation, research, and study. Research assistants work on photographing and writing descriptions of these pieces for sharing on the website, and our graduate students make an exact reproduction of one of these pieces as part of their final year of study. For example, if you look at the page for this silk Edwardian blouse, you will see links to a full descriptive paper, bibliography, the reproduction which was made, and the pattern.
If an item is not something we would put into the archive but is nevertheless in great stageworthy condition (say, a decent 1950s day dress, or a standard 1960s-cut mens 3-piece suit), we put it into our extensive departmental costume stock where it may be used potentially in our own productions or by the many student and local groups who borrow costumes from us.
If, however, a piece is not an archival item nor is it stageworthy (by which i mean, it may be too fragile to withstand a theatrical run, or be damaged beyond repair), then one of the things which we may choose to do is salvage whatever parts of it might be useful in other ways. For example, a dress made of rotted silk with some beautiful cotton lace trim, we might remove the intact lace and put that into trim stock or antique trim study collections, and discard the rotted silk.
I often have this sort of task come up with hats--a hat comes in where the base structure of the hat is wrecked with moth damage or irreparably torn, but the silk flowers or vintage plumes on it are still in fine or restorable condition. This post is about just such an item.
In a recent donation, we received this feathered headdress,
probably made for a regional burlesque show.
The buckram and wire base of it was no longer stageworthy, however.
One of my students and I carefully removed the antique feathers.
Above is one of several plumes we salvaged. Note how dense and fluffy it is.
Ever wonder why the plumes you buy now don't look like this?
This is why. That single plume is actually composed of these five feather
sections, all carefully split and sewn together. Often these were made by
the deft fingers of tenement children in the late 19th century.
Here's another example of a feather ornament. The brushy spray at left is actually
composed of many, many split sections of flues like you see at right,
all secured to a wire base kind of like a boutonniere.
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no subject
Date: 2012-09-01 09:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-01 09:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-01 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-02 03:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-02 10:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-02 12:56 pm (UTC)http://lynnmcmasters.com/OstrichPlumes.html
...is a good overview, yes. She's got great advice on choosing the feathers and the thread used. Looks like she is talking about double and triple plumes attached along their entire length, and the one I've got taken apart in this image consists of five graded feathers.
I also like to use a device called a feather board to help control the floaty fronds while working. Thank you for asking this question and bringing that McMasters article to my attention!
I think I should probably write a follow up post illustrating (hopefully) exactly how those five pieces become one, and addressing feather boards as well. It has been five years since i wrote my original post about them here: http://labricoleuse.livejournal.com/29033.html
...so they probably deserve a second mention at this point.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-05 04:57 am (UTC)Painting Freathers
Date: 2012-11-05 08:47 pm (UTC)Re: Painting Freathers
Date: 2012-11-09 09:41 pm (UTC)