Pleasure and Beauty in La Belle Epoque
by Sally Norton. Published in the September/October 2016 issue of Finery. In the late 19th century Paris was a large, urbane city, but the neighborhood of Montmartre retained a village atmosphere; festivities and artists mixed, with pleasure and beauty as their values. In 1886, Edouard Marchand conceived a new entertainment for the Follies Bergere, the music hall revue. On 6 […]
The Conquistador Hat for Girls
by Thena MacArthur, First published for the May/June 2011 issue of Finery No, not talking about that metal helmet worn through the jungles of the Yucatan on the way to wiping out entire civilizations, I’m talking about a style of ladies’ hat and bonnet made popular in the 1880s. A useful fact about hats in the Bustle period that will […]
Bee in Your Bonnet?
by Thena MacArthur, First published for the March/April 2011 issue of Finery I am crazy for Victorian hats and bonnets. It should come as no surprise that I am writing about them: those who know me are probably rolling their eyes. For the sake of brevity, I will not comment on what passes these days for a “Victorian Lady’s Hat,” […]
Gilded Age Outerwear
by Shelley Monson, First published for the November/December 2010 issue of Finery The period known in America as the Gilded Age, roughly 1870 to the First World War, saw repeated radical changes in the silhouette of women’s clothing, moving through first bustle, natural form, second bustle, into the triangular shapes of the 1890s and the flowing curvilinear styles of the […]
