ornamentedbeing: The V&A says ~ Round, flat straw hat with shallow crown. Embroidered with straw-work flowers on crown and around brim; wreath of straw flowers around crown.
Yes, please :)
ah, I wish I had a bulldog
Mummy punkins! Easy, quick … boo! I mean: Make!!
Research chemist William Perkin was trying to make quinine when he instead came up with a substance that has ensured the world is a brighter place.
“… For that privilege, thank a young Victorian research chemist. His attempt to create the anti-malarial medicine quinine from coal tar in his flat in Cable Street in the East End of London went serendipitously wrong as he worked over Easter 150 years ago… . Appropriately, considering the origins of Perkins’ colour, he was to receive a helping hand from the two most famous women of the day - both empresses.
“Queen Victoria caused a sensation when she stepped out at the Royal Exhibition in 1862 wearing a silk gown dyed with mauveine. In Paris, Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugenie, wowed the court when she was seen wearing it. To propel the scientist further on the way to a great fortune, the fashion of the time was for crinoline skirts that, happily for him, needed a lot of his revolutionary new dye.”
The entire article is fascinating!
ornamentedbeing: c 1805–10
ornamentedbeing: ca 1735 Robe volante (Flying Robe); France
ornamentedbeing: ca 1735-70 Whale Bone Stays, France
ornamentedbeing: 1788 Johann Heinrich Tischbein I (German 1722-89) ~ Frédérique Louise Wilhelmine, Princess of Orange-Nassau; oil on canvas. Musée des beaux-arts
![ornamentedbeing: c1932 Wedding Hat [Cloche]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lni8vrJ1pW1qegasto1_500.jpg)
ornamentedbeing: c1932 Wedding Hat [Cloche]
And now we are combining lotus slippers with Manchurian platforms. So we have a weird cross of Chopine meets Manchu meets bound feet!
