For a couple months I gathered photos from the internet for
each decade, and began looking for information of how the styles changed. I’m a
little more familiar with my specific eras of interest so I wanted to make sure
I didn’t give out any wrong information on those. But I found I had a pretty
good idea of most of them just from my experience with them, and seeing photos.
Come January, while having afternoon tea with a costume
group, I was talking to my friend Tracey, who turned out had done a historical
presentation to another DAR chapter herself. She said she had used a couple
photos from movie costumes. light bulb! I could expand on that and add photos from different movies and TV series that
matched the different eras so my “non-costuming” group could relate the time
period to a movie. So that began to expand my search. And of course I had to
start with Claire from the Outlander series for 1740.
A couple of the decades I had a hard time finding a decent
movie/TV photo for some of them, and couldn’t find anything for 1850.
Fortunately, at the last minute PBS came out with “To Walk Invisible”, about
the Bronte sisters, so I had one for the 1840s.
After helping my friend, Cindy, with her timeline
presentation at a local San Diego historic home, we both had commented how
interested everyone seems to be in what goes under the dresses, almost as much
as what’s on the outside. I added that search to my list, and decided I would
have all pretty and colorful dresses in my collection. I had to have a lot of
them for each decade because I would be doing a collage of them on my
PowerPoint show, which if you’ve never tried them, it’s a lot of fun! I
actually had a lot more photos but could only get about 6 per slide unless they
would be too small to see the details.
At the end of March into April I was up in WA state visiting
my Mom, and knew I would have some down time I could work on my narrative for
this, so I got as much of the slideshow done first, and got all the info I
needed for the narrative because I would have no internet there, except for my
cellphone, and even that is iffy due to only one cellphone tower in the area. I
transferred everything to my laptop so I could work on it there, and when I was
in desperate need of information, I was able to rely on a couple of my friends
to do a little internet searching for me. Thank you!!!
I also included some of my own experiences in learning about
the different eras, like Victorian versus Civil War; some funny and shocking
bits to liven it up; and added some sharing of actual underpinnings I would
bring with me.
As my narrative progressed, I added then edited
out a lot of things because I had to limit the whole program to just 30
minutes. I decided to leave in some history of sewing machines, and the S-bend
corset, but left out most of dispelling the corset myths, although after being
prompted by the audience, I was still able to share some of that. 
At Judith’s request, I kept in some of the story in the
1850s about the San Diego bloomer dress, and brought mine to display it. And
then Cindy sent me a Regency cartoon to include in my slide on Regency dress.
On one slide for I introduced them to Heather, and Truly
Victorian patterns.
I ended up with a total of 35 slides, and could have done
more if I had the time. But I needed to leave room for showing off the undies,
and as it happened, I also was able to have two of my friends, Birda and
Jeanette, as live models wearing their wonderful dresses. So with them and
myself dressed, a complete Georgian outfit on one dress form, bustle and undies
on another, and the bloomer dress on a third, we had quite the mini fashion
show.
While we were setting up at the Admiral Baker Clubhouse in
San Diego for their meeting and my program, some of the ladies began arriving
and we were immediately getting asked questions about what we were wearing, and
I realized this program was perfect for them. Some of them had a bit of
knowledge but were a little confused on some of it.
For my set-up, I had planned to hold my laser pointer in my
right hand to point out particular slides, and also advance the slides. My left
hand would hold my written narrative to read it. It was 17 pages, so this was
nothing I could do from memory. However, I also had to hold a microphone. I’ve
never had to use a microphone for this. I didn’t see any extra arms hanging
from me, so it was a bit awkward at first. I apologized to the audience at my
ineptness but they were so gracious about it and said I was doing fine. AND in
my annals of “learning something new every day”, a few minutes earlier, one
lady showed me how to use my remote for my laptop so I didn’t have to sit and
poke at it to advance my slides. After a
couple minutes I finally held the mike in my right hand, narrative in my left,
and poked the remote with my left hand for the screen. That worked great until
I had to stop and hold something up, but my “live models” were willing to
display most of the undies for me.
My introduction slide was a collage of movie/TV stills
showing the different eras I’d be covering. Part of my focus would be the
underpinnings that created the shapes they wore.
The idea was to make them familiar with the era by
connecting it to a movie. I think it worked.
Both Birda and Jeanette were able to walk around the room
and showing off their lovely dresses. Jeanette had just finished her 1860s ball
gown and was rightly proud of it. Birda’s 1810 blue silk dress lit up the room.
I was wearing my 1894 brown polka dot dress and had fun showing off the big
sleeves. A funny thing happened when I came back to sit down at my laptop. I
started to sit, then realized there was no chair. I was shocked. I looked
around for it. What happened to it? Then I saw it sitting off the side where
Jeanette had pulled it away so I could walk out front to show my dress. We had
a quick laugh about that.
Coming up with my closing slide was the hardest
to do. I’ve always had problems how to finish something, whether it’s writing
or sewing. Hmm, that's the first time I thought of that coincidence. I decided to include
a collage of historical men to admire us. I think they liked that slide the
best of all of them. Yep, nothing like a well-dressed man.
I think it was worth all the hours and months I put into
getting this together, and I really enjoyed the response I got. The ladies there shared
their memories with us of seeing photos of their grandmothers dressed in
similar clothing to what I shared that day.
At the end of my program, I was presented with a Certificate
of Appreciation from the DAR Chapter, and an honorarium. Both a first for me.
Now I'm on to my next project, a 1912 dress. It will require a new blouse, petticoat, and probably a new corset.
~~~Val~~~
