You can still RSVP!

The RSVP date is past, but we are still accepting RSVPs, so please let us know if you are, or are not coming to the ball! We haven't heard from many of you, and we'd like to know if you are planning on attending or not! It doesn't take that long to fill out the form, or send an email, or make a phone call! :)

Ladies Shoes

I pulled these out of the Eaton's catalogs so if you already looked at those, these will be familiar.

Like these!

Two similar styles

I like these too... as the description says, they're "swell"! :-)

That gives you an idea of the basic look of an Edwardian shoe... long, rounded pointy toes, and straps. Also be sure to check out the reproduction Edwardian shoes by American Duchess! They aren't cheap, but they sure are pretty...

Don't forget to RSVP if you haven't already!

A few more details!

Alright, everyone, some more news concerning the most elegant and enjoyable event of the year. :-)

Most importantly, we have secured our dance caller...s. :-) Misses Emily and Jennifer Duff, of Old Dominion Dance, will be traveling all the way from Omaha for our ball! The Miss Duffs are accomplished dancers and dance callers and we are looking forward to benefiting from their expertise. Of course that does mean we are adding another lady to the number dancing, and so...

...please RSVP! As of this moment we only have 14 people who are RSVP'd (including all of us hosts and hostesses). And that's 9 ladies and 5 gentlemen, and though I'm sure we'd still have fun, we don't really want to shell out tons of $$$ if that's all that shows up. :-) Tomorrow is the official RSVP date, so please send in your RSVP's as soon as possible!

Kitty: And Mr. Bingley is to bring six ladies and four gentlemen to the ball.
Lydia: No, it was twelve ladies and seven gentlemen.
Elizabeth: Too many ladies.
A&E Pride & Prejudice

Men's 1912 Fashion

We stated in the invitation that gentlemen are not obligated to wear authentic 1912 clothing; if, however, you are interested in being period correct, here is some info for you!

The most formal evening dress remained a dark tail coat and trousers with a dark or light waistcoat. Evening wear was worn with a white bow tie and a shirt with a winged collar. The less formal dinner jacket or tuxedo, which featured a shawl collar with silk or satin facings, now generally had a single button.

From Wikipedia

Rather dorky looking drawing but apparently this is an example of a 1912 fashion plate...

Film still from "Titanic" (which I have not seen and do not recommend that you see)

More Costume Photos

Check out Lily's 19-teens Pinterest board! Click Here!

The Dancing

A few people have asked what kind of dancing we will be doing, since it's a 1912 themed ball. Though it may not technically be correct for the period, here we'll be deviating from "authentic as possible" and we will be doing our usual English Country dancing. Just for the record, we're not big fans of the Patty-Cake Polka. :-) We're still figuring out details of the dance caller and what dances we will actually do, but as we get that figured out we'll try to post what dances we'll be doing with some tutorials so you can be prepared ahead of time - and we can spend less time learning the dances at the ball and more time actually DANCING!

*Edit: I just found out from a gentleman we are considering for a dance caller, and he mentioned that with the beginning of the jazz age at this period, and more "jazzy" dancing, English Country dancing was actually revived in response to that! I thought that was interesting!

Eaton's Catalogues

Lily sent us links to old catalogues that you can read online. These things have EVERYTHING you could possibly want, from clothes to bedding to furniture to groceries, so it's extremely long, but it might be fun to browse through. Unfortunately, they don't really have evening dress that I found, but they do have hats, gloves, shoes, etc. The descriptions are really funny sometimes too.

Eaton's Fall/Winter Catalogue 1909-10
Eaton's Spring/Summer Catalogue 1913
Eaton's Fall/Winter Catalogue 1913-14

Inspiration: Titanic Era Gowns

Here are some photos of actual 1912 (or very close to 1912) evening/ball gowns for your inspiration, whether you are looking to sew a dress from scratch or to modify an existing dress.

Not really sure what is going on with those things hanging from the sleeves, but the rest of it is pretty! I like the buttons.

Here's a dress that would be fairly easy to recreate using a modern formal dress. I have seen a lot of these types of dresses (with the split skirt) at thrift stores for under $10. Add some accents, tack a chiffon scarf around the top as shown and you've got something very close to this!

This one is kind of interesting with the waist "sash" that extends into an overskirt in the back.

This one isn't really ball-ish I guess because I don't think a ballgown would have that high, "turtleneck" look, but it gives you an idea of some of the unique draping of the period.

I think this one is really pretty and not too "out there."

The back is interesting with it pulled up on the side with that accent piece.

I wouldn't recommend you make a train like that - that's a recipe for a torn dress! :-)

This is rather bride looking but I thought it was lovely, and a style that would be pretty easily recreated in a color, which would make it look less like a wedding dress.

Interesting skirt on this!

This is kind of neat how the two sides of the overskirt are connected by the three ties which make a V pattern down the front.

We included this on in the dress sheet with the invitations but I thought I would include it here too.

All pictures except the last one are from Madame Guillotine (which site I do not recommend but she had some great gown sources). The last picture I got from Story of a Seamstress. No copyright infringement is intended in the posting of these images.