ANOTHER FASHION SHOW AT A SENIOR COMMUNITY

My Historical Dressers and I just finished presenting our fifth fashion show at a local senior community last weekend. I was disappointed that our March weather wasn’t nice and cool, as I’d hoped it would be when we were asked to do it again that month, instead of the usual November date. It was always hot in November. Nowadays you can’t win no matter what time of year it is anymore.  (I’m not responsible for the flyer’s artwork from them. It’s done by the Coordinator there.)

We actually had a bigger turnout of residents for this time of the year, and with many of us being so busy during the end of the year holidays, this wasn’t a bad choice all around.  If the other models are agreeable, I think we might keep it to that month.

I didn’t write this show’s narrative as detailed as I do sometimes. Our audience is older, not costumers, and so my thoughts are for it to be a pretty fashion show with some historical information thrown in, which in turn makes them curious, and yes, asks lots of questions. The audience participation at the end is one of my favorite parts.  Many times they ask where we wear them, do we make them ourselves, and mostly things that aren’t usually included in the individual descriptions. I keep forgetting to poll who used safety pins. The stage we were on isn’t very wide, so I time the descriptions so we aren’t walking back and forth too long.

Our theme this time was just a chronological history, starting in the 1500s with a Cranach dress, then moving forward to late 1700s, then 1850s, ‘60s, ‘70s, 90s, and ending with 1910-1914. I had twelve models, with one gentleman, and we even had the debut of a 7-year-old in an 1860s dress her grandmother made her. She was delightful and had a lot of fun. She loved showing off her hoop and undies. The audience really enjoys the young girls we include.

I’m waiting to see if I can get some photos from one of the employees there who was taking them, but I have some I can share that one of my models and I were taking prior to the show, and then of the models in front of us as they walked. I wore my 1855 Green Floral tiered dress, and it was nice and cool for the 85d temperature we had that day. Of course the room was air conditioned. I made a new straw hat decorated with yellow flowers rather than the bonnet I'd worn in the past. I think it looked much better. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are photos we took during the show from our seats in back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now after a couple days’ rest, I’ll begin this all over again, this time writing the narratives for 19 models at the Port Townsend (WA) Victorian Festival fashion show at the end of April.  I’m also working on a reproduction dress for myself from a photo of one of the city’s former residents from 1877. I’m about half-done so I need to focus on it too. I found out they’ll have a tintype photographer there this year, so I hope to have one taken in this dress. It’ll be interesting to see what “color” it looks like in it, especially since we don’t know what the color the original dress was.

 

MY SECOND EVENT OF 2026 IN MARCH

In 2025 I did a historical clothing Powerpoint presentation for the San Diego branch of the Mayflower Colony, whose membership is comprised of descendants of that famous ship who arrived in the 1620s. About a week later I was contacted by two other “colonies”, one in Escondido, and another in Santa Ana, asking if I could do a similar one for them later that year. I told them I’d be happy to.

Originally the Santa Ana Colony was going to have me come in November but as we got closer, they had to reschedule for the following February in 2026. That was fine with me because it was getting a bit busy for me, and I was glad for a delay.

This was the insert they had for their February meeting. I find it funny at their choice of my photo they used. I gave them six to choose from.

I suggested that maybe I could get the ladies of my fashion shows to come with me to do a regular show, but when we got closer and I started inviting them, it turned out driving 2 hrs to get there at 9:30 in the morning wasn’t feasible. I decided to just stay overnight at a hotel nearby so I didn’t have to make that drive myself.

I started working on updating my Powerpoint show I do for them and wanted to include historical details for their 1620s clothes, which I didn’t know much about, nor had many photos or paintings I could use for information. My searches automatically took me to England and the upper classes clothing, which the Pilgrims did not wear. I finally found some lower class and farmers clothing that looked like ones I saw and took it from there. I even found some pattern lines they could use to create their own, plus fabric sources.

The location was at the Elks Lodge in Santa Ana, and it was a beautiful building. The room we were in was very large and I was impressed with its décor. Besides the large screen up over the stage, there were also five video screens around the room for better viewing.

 

I’m always a bit anxious about how I’ll be set up with my laptop to their projector and worry that I may not have the right connector for it to work. But they had someone there that was very familiar with doing this, and she just plugged into my laptop and handed me a remote so I could advance my slides. The only drawback to that was I couldn’t see my laptop screen so I wasn’t able to point out certain things but fortunately I had written “photo on the right” etc, in my narrative.

After showing my slides on their Pilgrim clothing, I jumped 100 years into the future and showed them how similar the Colonial clothing of the 1700s were to the 1620s clothing. It turned out just like the San Diego Colony, they too were very interested in that time period for dressing in, so I got a lot of questions about those. I’m assuming it’s because there are more opportunities for events wearing those to than the earlier Pilgrim era. Again, this wasn’t specifically a costume group but are more into their history. But there were some interested in costuming.

I’ve been bringing my dress form with me for these groups and dress it in my 1780s red/white/blue caraco and skirt. I think it stands out really well in the room and looks very patriotic. I also decided to wear my 1873 blue & white striped seaside dress since it was easy to get dressed in and gave them a mini-fashion show of myself. I brought a couple underpinnings and showed those off too.

 

One thing that fascinated me was at the beginning of their meetings they do a roll call of the descendants. They call out each name of the original Pilgrims, and the attendees raise their hands if they are traced back to them. Some would be related by 2 or 3 family lines to a single name. I’m still trying to work my brain around that. I was provided with a nice lunch afterwards put on by the Elks Lodge. 

 

 

 

 

MY FIRST EVENT OF THE YEAR 2026

 My year began not so much sewing something new but wearing what I had already. And they weren’t necessarily costume events but rather presentations I was in or did myself.

My group of ladies in the Historical Dressers had our first fashion show of the year at a new location: the New Frontier Senior Community. I was excited about doing yet another senior community and one of our models, Jeanette, lives there. She pretty much was a major part in making this a perfect event and having our fashion show as the entertainment for an afternoon tea for the residents there. She found beautiful garden backdrops to hang that showed us off on the stage to our best advantage. She also modeled in the show. 

Since this was a new location for us, some of the ladies were able to wear one of their favorite dresses again and some of us wore new dresses. This was my first time wearing my 1887 Autumn Plaid bustle because I “thought” the weather would be cool or cold in January, since my dress was pretty warm. Hah! Mother Nature had other plans, and it was 86d that day. Fortunately they had good air conditioning in the community room we were in.

Our theme for this show was the standard historical timeline, “One Hundred Years of the Fashionable Woman: 1750-1920”. Although I need to change that next time because we had two gentlemen who participated with us, although one was helping seat everyone at the tables, and the other escorted each of us off the stage. But they got to walk the runaway and be described too.

Because the community room was pretty long, and the stage not very wide, I decided to have us step down from the stage and walk the length of the room to the back, giving those seated in back a chance to get a good look at us. Because of this I had to make sure the narratives were longer, so the models weren’t walking in dead silence. This calls for really pulling details of their outfits from the pictures I have of them and adding historical details I either know or pull from the internet. Each location has its own requirements for the narratives, depending on how long the entire show can be, how many models I have, and again, the size of the stage area. Fortunately this community room was perfect for a long runway-type show, and we had the time. Also it was a bit younger crowd so our longer descriptions didn’t put them to sleep.

We began the show with our first model, “Nelly”, a dress form in the center of the stage that we demonstrated all the underpinnings and different skirt supports worn in all the eras. We even demonstrated how a lady would use the “facilities” using an antique chamber pot with it. I was seated to the side with a small table where I could read the narratives for everyone until it was my turn to walk the runway.

We were lucky this time to have someone who was taking photos of us on stage, and then while we were walking the floor.

 

 

 

Afterwards we were all invited to join the afternoon tea at our own tables.

As I mentioned, this was the first time I got to wear my new dress and seeing it on me. Note to self: make that front apron shorter and more appropriate for my height. But I loved how all the colors worked out. Since it looks like our “winter” is over and done with in SoCal, I guess this one will be going back into the closet until next year.

Next up is my presentation in February for the Mayflower Colony in Santa Ana, CA.