On 4/27/2010 11:08 PM, ladybeanofbun...@aol.com wrote:
Hello fellow costumers. ? I wanted to thank those of you who offered your suggestions on mounting swags onto my 1880s balldress. Your advice helped immensely in the creation process and everything went together mostly as planned. My only frustration was that once the decorative parts were?tacked by hand?in place, they lost the smoothness upon laying across the edges of the bodice as had been when initially pinned in place and puckered in some spots. ? After much effort and little discovery though, arranging my hair in a nice period coiffure seems entirely inpossible! Many people I know chose to wear wigs or hair pieces when in costume and although this looks very nice, I have been painstakingly growing out and caring for my own hair for 7 years now solely for the purpose of doing these styles naturally.
For many Victorian hairstyles (although obviously this is a long time period and numerous hairstyles were in fashion at different times), natural long hair is just insufficient. Even long-haired Victorians often wore hair pieces, sometimes several in the same coiffure. I've grown my hair for years too, so I know where you're coming from. But basically, all anyone really _needs_ is enough hair to put the hair pieces on. Hair pieces do have the advantage that if you have a cluster of curls, or a braid, or whatever, you do not have to keep restyling that piece them every single time you do the hairstyle. You just attach them. Sure, with long hair you may need one fewer hair piece for a style, but having or not having long hair is mostly a matter for your modern daily lifestyle.
Fran Lavolta Press Books on historic clothing www.lavoltapress.com _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
