To go with it, there is a cape or tippet, based on that worn by Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, St Elizabeth Seton, more on whom below:
I'm leaving the options open on the next one about the waist - a slightly higher waist was certainly period, and is in any case flattering to most women. having a gathered overlay is both for modesty and to get that period 'shepherdess' look without hanging out all over.
For the longest while I thought the late 1820s-30s look was odd, dowdy, neither fish nor fowl nor good red herring. Then I saw some Aesthetic Dress gowns and changed my mind. My new 'Christmas dress' is basically in this mode. I want more!
Now, I am under certain constraints in matters of dress, both vowed and by choice. In the Third Order, we are adjured to dress plainly in inexpensive stuffs, avoiding anything that is ostentatious, vain or costly. This, to my mind, naturally includes modesty, but does not actually fall under the requirements of dress in Canon Law (a neckline no more than two or three finger-breadths beneath the collarbone, elbow-length sleeves, dresses at least 8 inches below the knee.) Modest is pretty easy for me; plain is not. Like Hester Prynne, I have a 'rich Oriental fancy', and my favourite colours are scarlet and forest green. Not very modest or plain! When I became a Franciscan I limited myself to brown, charcoal grey, black, and dark green (alas not my favourite but olive.) Because I am a penitent, it feels fitting. But it is so very hard! Daily, I offer it up to God, as I look with envy others' embroidery, lace, or clever knitting.
As for Mother Seton, she is my patron saint, rather than someone more obvious like Clare or Brigid, because she was born in 1774, was a convert (as was I as a teenager) and she was beatified on the day I was born. Of the cape: when she was widowed in Italy, the Fillicis - her beloved William's friends - gave her Italian widow's garb: her little bonnet, the cape and a long-sleeved gown. This was something for the former Miss Bayley of New York! At any rate, Mother was religious anyway and was in Italy very drawn to Catholicism. When she returned to NY, she converted from the Episcopal Church, founded an Order (of necessity - she was desperately poor and needed to teach) and died quite young. Little was I to know as a young girl how close Mother's life would be to my own, in terms of grief. But I still hear her whispering to me, I still draw comfort from her person. So the little cape is a tribute to her.
4 comments:
trying to picture the cape over the sacque and not doing a good job of it...
i posted a pic of myself in one of the aforementioned dresses on the blog a couple of days ago. you'd have to scroll down to see --sitting on a joggling board in front of our library building, one of our dogs looking on, much admiring himself.
love the 1820s bodice --that is one of my absolute favorite periods. some lovely artifacts of that period in the collection at old sturbridge if you ever get a chance to see them.
back to work now! have a lovely day. oh, and i am one of those young adult converts as well, whose patron saint is Clare... but since then have been received into the episcopalian church as that is where my husband makes his home. interesting to learn another of our similarities!
the cape is more or less just a tippet (I have pretty much decided on a tie or flat clasp)- I have an aversion to coats, generally, except motoring dusters - so I think it will work.
your pics on the blog are great! you are so lovely, though I aver you don't believe that.
(by the bye, I danced ballet for 10 years, semi-professionally, then took up tap, jazz, Irish dancing and English country dancing instead. but I still have the posture and arthritis to prove I was once a ballerina.)
Sturbridge. I love the place! next to Plimouth it is my favourite for all-round atmostphere.
I have found the episcopal church -in VA and elsewhere - very welcoming. one of my friends here is a practitioner of buddhism, who has not given up his place in the episcopal church. Then of course there's all the tradition in the C of E - Oxbridge and all that - don't get me started. Ah, little churches in VA! the thought makes me homesick. I have lived on the Eastern Shore, in Jas. City Co and in Nelson Co.
I did read on the dresssite of your peregrinations in re churches and the reasons therefore (more power to you), but Clare is news. Lovely serendipity!
these are lovely, Kelly!
=) thanks, Kristin!
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