One’s Diary

A message from HM Queen Elizabeth II

In this the year of my Diamond Jubilee, I am delighted to be able to present, for the first time, the complete on-line collection of Queen Victoria’s journals from the Royal Archives.

These diaries cover the period from Queen Victoria’s childhood days to her Accession to the Throne, marriage to Prince Albert, and later, her Golden and Diamond Jubilees.

Thirteen volumes in Victoria’s own hand survive, and the majority of the remaining volumes were transcribed after Queen Victoria’s death by her youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice, on her mother’s instructions.

It seems fitting that the subject of the first major public release of material from the Royal Archives is Queen Victoria, who was the first Monarch to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee.

It is hoped that this historic collection will make a valuable addition to the unique material already held by the Bodleian Libraries at Oxford University, and will be used to enhance our knowledge and understanding of the past.

 

On 1 August 1832, the 13 year old Princess Victorian of Kent wrote these words:

“This book, Mamma gave me, that I might write the journal of my journey to Wales in it.

Victoria”

Thus beginning a lifelong habit of journaling.

141 volumes of these personal diaries are now available to view and search on a new online resource from Bodleian Libraries and The Royal Archives (together with ProQuest).

The diaries detail her life, including her thoughts around the time of her coronation, her marriage and her Diamond Jubilee and are littered with her sketches.

http://www.queenvictoriasjournals.org/home.do

One is a stamp

 Journal Illustration: Wednesday 21st August 1850

Queen Victoria: pen and ink sketch by Queen Victoria

Copyright and all rights reserved:  Bodleian Libraries and The Royal Archives

The Titanic, 14 April 1912

“I can never understand why God would have spared a poor Finnish girl when all those rich people drowned.“

So April 14 was the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.  I really wanted to mark the event so I invited some friends over for a weekend of eating and dressing up.

I appreciate it seems a little ghoulish, but I find it fascinating.  I adore the spender of the ship and the extravagance of the first class passengers areas, juxtaposed with the third class passengers who sold everything they had to get a ticket and go and start a new life in America bunking up with strangers in the simple but sturdy steerage class areas.  I am in awe of the mechanics of the Titanic, and that it should have been bigger than anything nature could throw at it, and that it wasn’t.  I love the romance of the people on board, enjoying life and planning futures.

Moreover, I love the all too human tales of bravery, of cowardice, of the people that stayed behind together and the people that survived and how it touched everyone regardless of what their ticket said.

One of the things I really wanted to achieve with the weekend was to show the array of food and to really highlight how even the food echoed the inherent backdrop of social class.

As part of their fare, third-class passengers were provided four meals a day, being breakfast, Dinner, Tea and Supper.  The provision of food for steerage class was not a new invention, but it was still in its infancy and the food provided on the titanic was considerably grander and heartier than many of its passengers were used to.

The meals were served in two sittings at long rows of tables lined up next to each other, as the two third-class dining saloons could hold only around 475 people.  The dining rooms were located on F Deck between the second and third funnels.

The Tea menu for third class on the 14 April appears to have been Ragout of Beef with Potatoes & Onions with fresh bread and butter and currant buns, followed by stewed apricots and plum pudding with sharp sauce

In contrast, and exactly two floors above, the first Class passengers dined A La Carte in luxury in the immense Jacobean-style dining room.  The floor of the first class Dining Saloon was laid with linoleum tiles intricately patterned to resemble a Persian carpet.

At an extra cost the First Class dinners could also choose to dine in the Café Parisien,  where the large picture windows over looked the sea.  This was something of an innovation for cruise liners and was later adopted on White Stars other carrier, The Olympic.

White Star literature of the time described it as a ‘…charming sun-lit veranda, tastefully decorated in French trellis-work with ivy and other creeping plants…’.

The Café served the same menu as the first class dinning saloon (cooked by the same chefs), and on the last night included oysters, Consommé Olga, Filet Mignons Lili, roast lamb with green peas, Pate de Foie Gras and Peaches in Chartreuse Jelly.

Titanic’s second class dining room could accommodate all second class passengers at a single seating.   It was a large elegant room located on ‘D’ deck, with oak panelling and mahogany furniture upholstered in crimson.  A specially designed sideboard with a piano at the centre was provided so there could be entertainment for the diners.

The dinner menu on the evening of 14 April 1912 lists a hearty three-course meal, with a consommé to start, then a choice of four main courses: baked haddock, chicken curry, spring lamb and roast turkey, followed by dessert and coffee.

For many of those on board, this would be their last meal.

The Titanic hit the iceberg at 11:40 pm and took 2 hours and 40 minutes to sink (approximately 2:20 pm on April 15 1912).

The total number of people on board is not known (as there were some people sharing tickets and others who never boarded) but it is agreed that approximately 2225 people were on board on the 14 April 1912.  Of the 2225 people on board, 706 passengers and crew survived, including 61 % of the first class passengers and 24% of the third class passenger.

The majority of those who survived were women (75% of the female passengers survived), the 20% of the male passengers who survived were mostly pulled from the freezing sea by the returning life boats.

“Striking the water was like a thousand knives being driven into one’s body. The temperature was 28 degrees, four degrees below freezing.” Charles Lightoller, Titanic Second Officer

its a Big Big day!

“At least you two have decent manners. The pair last year ate everything with their hands like a couple of savages. It completely upset my digestion.“

So the Hunger Games comes out tomorrow and having seen the trailers with the bright and beautiful colours and costumes I must admit my interest has been peaked.

I have read the book and I have started making comments about the costuming, which puts me in mind of the 1890’s leg of mutton sleeves, early 40’s America and Dior’s new look!

The detail shall wait until I have seen it all, but in the meantime I just wanted to get a little excited over the wonderful Ms Effie Trinket and her fabulous pinkness!

what will you be wearing for the opening ceremony?

Eiko Ishioka : Japan’s leading art director and graphic designer.

“Eroticism is very important in attracting people’s souls.”

Ishioka

 
Eiko Ishioka (石岡 瑛子 ) was born on Tokyo and was often described as Japan’s leading art director and graphic designer. 

She passed away on January 21 2012 from pancreatic cancer, aged 73. 
  
 Throughout her career Ishioka designed costumes for the stage as well as designing advertising and print media.
 
 
 
 
 

Starting in the ad division of Shiseido in the 60’s, Ishioka promoted images displaying big, strong and even bad women.  By the 70’s she had opened her own agency, attracting the sophisticated boutique chain Parco who she worked with throughout her lifetime.

crazy horses...

Her stage work included creating visuals for David Copperfield prestidigitating on Broadway in 1996  and designing the soft living sculpture costumes for the 2011 Spider-Man Broadway musical on Broadway. 

She also designed the costumes for the impressive opening ceremony for the Bejing Olympics.

She also worked with Bjork’s on her 2002 video for cocoon and later created dramatic pieces for Grace Jones’ Hurricane tour in 2009
 
   

  
 

However, it is her work in films that I have most often noticed and been exposed to. 

Her work on designing for films started in 1985, when Paul Schrader asked her to be the production designer for his 1985 film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters.  Her scenic landscapes stylised as a folding screen won her an at Cannes for artistic contribution.

the blood is the life

In 1992, Francis Ford Coppola, who had worked with her on her designs for Closet Land a few years earlier, asked her to design the costumes for his ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ which he called his “opera with sex and violence”. 

“the costumes are gonna be the sets”.

 
 
The clothes , including the stunning wedding dress with an headdress that mimicked an amphibian mating display worn by Lucy as the seductive child killing Vampire and the blood red sinew armour worn by Dracula in the opening scenes, were more dramatic and captivating than the actors (the less said about those accents the better). 

I still lust after Willamina’s green walking dress, which is exquisite in its embroidered details and the delicate contrasted folds that run down the skirt. 
 

Her work quite rightly won her an Oscar.  

does my ego look big in this?

Ishioka designed costumes for Tarsem Singh’s The Cell in 2000, which stared Jennifer Lopez

It is described at IMDB as “An FBI agent persuades a social worker, who is adept with a new experimental technology, to enter the mind of a comatose serial killer in order to learn where he has hidden his latest kidnap victim”.  Which doesn’t make any sense when you read it out loud; or when you have in fact sat through the whole thing. 

Yet again Ishioka’s genius of design outshone the people wearing it, but it is no less visually stunning and worth watching for the costumes.     
 
 

Singh’s grandiose fantasy features matched Ishioka’s creative genius and he asked to work on The Fall in 2006. 
 

I spy with my little eye...

 
 
The touching but fragmented story line and beautiful high fantasy costumes met with a luke warm reception with one critic saying;

 
 
“you might want to see for no other reason than because it exists. There will never be another like it“. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

In 2007, she worked on Teresa, el cuerpo de Cristo (Body of Christ), the over erotised tale of the 16^th Century Saint Teresa of Ávila and her visions of Christ.  Ishioka’s which designs showed her ability to costume in a predetermined setting, albeit with her unique style.   
  

what a big hammer you have

 
 
Immortals in 2011 saw her working again with Tarsem Singh. 

The predefined Greek mythology was not quite to her taste but the costumes were at once beautiful and evocative of the period, albeit not the most traditional of armour. 

 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mirror Mirror was her last work, and was fittingly with Singh.  It is due to hit the cinema on 16 March 2012 and is appears a wonderful mix of traditional styled costumes, that take their bearings from history and lift them to new proportions with dramatic 16^th Century inspired dress collars and foppish frock coats with a touch of whimsy.    

I have already had a little ponder about it here (and amusingly wasnt far off with the title!)and I am excitedly waiting its release.

one bad apple

a nice warm muff

In part inspired by the fact that I am now wearing three pairs of gloves at the same time and there is yet more snow forecast for the weekend, and in part because I am currently home alone awaiting the return of my chap (who’s taken a tumble) and so have recently watched clueless one of my favourite feel good movies, my brain started wondering why on earth we have not seen a revival of one of my childhood winter items; the hand muff. 

I suspect some of the sniggering at the back might be the reason for it, but bear with me on this one.

a matching muff and collar

 

A muff is at its most basic a tube of fur or fabric and is designed to keep the hands warm.  It also served, depending on fashions and size, as a small purse.

It probably developed from the Roman (manicae) and later Medieval (muffulae) practice of covering the hands with longer sleeves edged in fur during the winter months.  The word muff probably derives from the old french word moufle which means ‘thick glove or mitten’.

The muff was first introduced as an female fashion accessory in the 16^th century, but found favour with both sexes and was used throughout the 17^th and 18^th Centuries.

The muff offered a whole other aspect of dressing and a chance to show off with a little finery.  

a well presented muff

This offering 12 inch long from ca. 1780 is covered with silk, which has been embroidered with silk thread flowers, giving the wearer an opportunity to also show off her needlework. 

The fabrics reflected the fashions and given how little material was used could probably have been a relatively cheap way of dressing up plainer practical outerwear or keeping up with the ever-changing fashions

a very large muff

As this late 18^th Century cartoon attributed to Henry Kingsbury shows the simple tube took on a life of its own alongside fashions, in this case made growing to large proportions as to be worthy of mocking (and hopefully exaggerating!)

Examples from the time suggest that ermine fur was popular.  Maybe this was an extension of the prevalence of white clothing being very fashionable, or maybe so that the muff would out live the fads and trends.

The muff fell out of favour with men in the 19^th century, but remained a ladies fashion must have.

a bright red muff

Although french fashions in the early 20^th century had reduced the size of the muff, as this beautiful 8 inch red feathered muff shows.

Each feather in this muff would have been applied and sewn by hand to a natural hemp base, ensuring the continued curve and flow of the feathers echoing the round shape and giving a sence of motion. 

Fur muffs were also very popular during this period.

The muff had been mostly abandoned the 20^th century, perhaps with the increase of factory made clothing including gloves, and the fact that fur and feathers fell out of favour as they were not as robust or easy to care for and clean. 

There was a small revival during the 1940’s when fashions were all about the glamour of Hollywood. 

a jazzed up muff

The muff then was not so much a practical accessory but very much a piece of adornment and pure fashion, such as this bright purple velvet muff is emblazoned with sequins and glass beads.

 

It’s particularly grey at the moment and the world is quite drab and depressed so I think we could do with a little glamour kick.

Who wouldn’t rather walk along with a fake leopard print muff and matching hat than some acrylic high street scarf and cold retaining leather gloves.

leopard print muff

I think it’s about time the muff made a return! 

 

All images the property and copyright of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

the lady green sleeves

In my other wanderings around the internet I stumbled upon this beautiful hand crocheted Victorian dress which is decorated with 1,000 iridescent wings of the jewel beetle and which has been restored to its glory by The National Trust.

Green Sleeves

The emerald and sea green gown was worn by Ellen Terry, known as the Queen of the Theatre, for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth at the Lyceum in 1888 which ran for more than six months to packed houses.

Ellen’s iconic portrayal of Lady Macbeth in the gown was immortalized by John Singer Sargent in an 1889 portrait which is currently on display in the Tate Gallery.

Paul Meredith, House Manager, at Smallhythe Place, said:

“We had collected the beetle wings that had fallen off over the years so that the conservator was able to re-attach many of the originals, plus others that had been donated to us – 1,000 in total…

The one hundred or so wings that were broken were each carefully repaired by supporting them on small pieces of Japanese tissue adhered with a mixture of wheat starch paste”.

The dress had been subject to wear and tear and even alteration in its 120-year history before the Trust started its slow process of conservation and restoration over two years ago.  The work has not only involved repairing and replacing the beetle wings, but also carefully restoring the original shape of the sleeves and tailing hemline.

The gown is to be displayed supported on a custom dyed nylon net after all the holes in the crochet fabric, described by the designer Alice Comyns-Carr as being, “a twist of soft green silk and blue tinsel”, were repaired using a re-crochet technique.

The Trust raised over £50,000 for the work to be completed by a team at Zenzie Tinker, who clocked up over 1,300 painstaking hours restoring the gown.

The gown is part of a wider new collection of personal items which are to go on display at Smallhythe Palace.  The 16th century half-timber house was purchased by Ellen in 1899 and she lived there until her death in 1928, the house was donated to the Trust along with her possessions in 1939.

all images are the property of the National Trust and Zenzie Tinker

all the best intentions

 “New Year’s Day:  Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions.  Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual”…Mark Twain

 I don’t really do resolutions for new year, they tend to be hurried and the first week back after a break is in my opinion the stupidest time to start anything that requires extra will or brain power. 

However, January lends itself to reflection.  It is the first month of a new year with its fresh sheets feeling; it’s the first month where the dark hours start to retreat and you can see the sun rising again; it’s the month when I am faced with my mortality and tick off another year.  

There are a number of things I want to do this year, exciting, run before you can walk, mad dash things.  There are also a number of events and weekends and festivals that I have already marked in my head as possible.  So, in an attempt to try to bring some sanity and substance to some of them I am going set down some points in soft clay.  No resolutions, not rules and certainly not a plan, but more things that I am trying to aim to do this year.  I also tend to get carried away so hopefully writing stuff down will help me calm down my exuberance.

birds of a feather

“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.” …Oscar Wilde

I am in the process of finishing a fuller piece but stumbled across this and I just felt it needed a place of its own to shine: 

a bird in the hand

 

 

I think this is amazing. 

I would seriously wear this.  I have started eyeing up the million and one seagulls that sit on the roof of my building and make so much noise whilst I am trying to work.  Ok so maybe I wouldn’t order and wear a new one, but I do wish my mom would occasionally pull things like this out of the attic!

 

Credit:

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Mrs. H. W. Garbe, 1965

it’s beginning to look a lot like christmas

“Do not give a person who is socially your equal a richer present than he is able to give you. He will be more mortified than pleased. But between equals it is often an elegance to disregard cost and depend on rarity, because gold cannot always purchase it. Still between very rich people presents should also be very rich or else their riches are set above their friendship and generosity”… Harpers Bazzar [1897]

So it is past the 1^st, the temperature has finally dropped below zero and the radio is playing Nat King Cole; it is now safe to mention the C word.  

Christmas.

I have been a bit bad so far with my making of stuff for Christmas.  Work (and the budding building career) has meant that I have less capacity in the evenings and life has kept me busy and or ill at the weekends.  However there is still time. Totally.

And who better to take tips from than the Victorians who are responsible for the majority of the things that make up Christmas as we know it.  Christmas Trees, Cards and Carols were all trends that found favour in the Victorian era.

The steep learning curve

 The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. – Elbert Hubbard

 

I had a bit of a melt down at the weekend.

The dress wasn’t even remotely the cause, I would like to think I am slightly stronger minded and emotionally less unhinged to actually break down over being unable to turn a hem quick enough, but it was the final straw in what felt like an excessively long week of battles and bruises.

In fairness, it was not so much the dress that was the final nail of frustration, but the pattern.