Box of treasures

A box labelled "Halloween"
Came from Artistic creations
Inside a trove of beautiful fabrics
Decorations on body contorts
The ladies of past
How long did they fast
To wind their threads
And pass their mouths
Size is a number
And if you are weaving and winding for one
Your day's work was never done.

From time to time, people who understand my odd passion for fashion will pass on objects. This time, I was given and entire box full of great and very old objects. I have begun to wonder about their previous owners. Here I am thinking about doing a blog series that seeks to give these ladies voice. So let's start here.

This woman was petite, although this clean white garment does fit on a dress form that I could once use--unlike some of the items in the box, I suspect this woman was a bit large for her day and had at least a reasonable set of shoulders. The reference to contortionists might not have been far from the truth as her frame was still small. This garment has a small bit of lace at the collar and around the cuffs. It appears to have been done by hand, but I am not an expert here. I will take a closer look soon and see if I can discern oddities that would suggest so.

Currently, I picture this blouse being worn by a member of Rasputina and lulling an audience with victorian harmonies regarding very old fashioned daily routines. Perhaps if I were to make a character for the blouse, I would have her play the theremin and be given to eccentric gestures while donning odd hats. (Perhaps in the future.) It also occurs to me that I might like to play around with replicating the pattern of the blouse itself and the lacework in some much more common contemporary material. Something that could talk about the time and labor efforts we would have previously given to our clothing making. (I noticed that the buttons were all pulled from the back of the blouse, possibly to put on another newer garment.)