Showing posts with label victorian life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label victorian life. Show all posts

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Cottagecore Inspiration

So I've been intrigued by the "Cottagecore" look ever since the Nap Dress became a thing started by Nellie Diamond's Hill House company where the floral prints are the same as the bed sheet prints. 

It's girly and sweet, and reminds you of the country life, and I wasn't sure if it's for me...

Until season 3 episode 3 of Victoria, the PBS Masterpiece Theater's show that I'm currently hooked on...

This is my favorite Queen Victoria outfit from the show! Purple-ditsy print! Ah! you have my heart. And her bonnet is just perfect! Since the royal family is somewhat vacationing in the seaside escape at their home in the Isle of Wight, I would definitely consider this resort-wear for the Victorian times! 

It's hilarious that Prince Albert wears the classic Breton stripes too: 


Other views from the show on her gown:



So now I'm on the lookout of trying out this style in modern day form, and at affordable prices...

From Walmart:

Friday, May 26, 2023

Sanditon Season 3 is All About the Earrings

Honestly, the final Sanditon Season 3 was totally cheesy and sloppy in the plot, but at least they have happy endings for all the single ladies in the storyline. But what really inspired me this time, were the EARRINGS!

It all started with our rich heiress Georgiana Lambe being gifted these dainty emerald earrings from her family's estate in Antigua. She wore them in most of the major scenes and even though they are small, they twinkled so beautifully and vibrant in the close-up shots. 
The minimalist style makes the emeralds looks rare and expensive, but still perfect for casual and formal occasions.
Another favorite she wore were these dainty ~moonstone? leverback earrings that were for more casual outfits. Love how they glowed in the light. 
Also matches well with the pretty seafoam dress. 
Of course with her wealthy status, she wore many types of earrings throughout the series. Another memorable set she wore were these bluish ~aquamarine or topaz? ones that really distinguished her from the other characters, in the fact that she has access to some unique gemstones. 
Another view of the gorgeous earrings on her.
Continuing with her "dainty" earring styles, I also love the tiny white diamond earrings she wore in her formal daytime outfit. 
This was also one of my favorite Georgiana's meticulously tailored outfits and the earrings matched her bonnet perfectly.
Interestingly, on her wedding day to Sons of Africa activist Mr. Otis Molyneux, you see a drastic shift in her earrings to a very plain pearl bead, perhaps to signify her drop in status marrying a worker-class man for love and not for wealth.

Speaking of non-wealthy folks, our main character, Miss Charlotte Heywood, did not wear any jewelry in majority of the scenes, probably to signify her low income farm girl status. The only time we saw her in any jewelry, were for the evening balls. For the most part, her jewelry were unremarkable and possibly borrowed. They don't look as special as the ones Georgiana wears.
Her gemstones are probably made of glass? Kinda boring yeah. 
But! on her wedding day to one of the rich people in Sanditon, Mr. Alexander Colbourne, her earrings were a bit more interesting. I love the dainty little pearls, which fits her persona perfectly, coming from a simple background, not needing anything gaudy or showy, but looks pretty and youthful like her countenance.

The final season, we see young Miss Augusta Markham have a glow-up moment, where her outfits, hair, and jewelry were on-point to showcase her noble status as a rich heiress, ready to join society in finding a suitor. Her best look were these orange ~carnelian or amber? earrings that really brought out her complexion. The unique pop of color is perfect for a young adult, and totally something a wealthy rebellious teen would want to wear to stand out of the crowd back in those days.
Love how the earrings catches the light here:
For her evening ball look, where she is eyeing the attention and love of Sanditon's biggest flirt and bad boy, Sir Edward Denham, she wears these grey glass earrings and matching necklace that totally sparkles in the candlelight, where you can tell she is deliberately trying to look more mature to catch the affection of an older man. 

Most of the older ladies in Sanditon, like Lady Denham, Lady Montrose, and Lady Susan were also decked out in a lot of jewelry, but they were large, gaudy, and costumey, so none of them appealed to me. But I did notice that the older women wore more darker colored stones like garnet or rubies. Of all the older ladies, there was only one scene where Lady Susan decides she is free to love for love with average-joe, lawyer Samuel Colbourne, she let's her hair down in the wind, and wears these expensive-looking ruby-diamond drop earrings that are a bit daintier than her usual jewelry, signifying she's still rich, but her new man is making her feel young and new again! 
Another shot of those gorgeous earrings: 
So the takeaway of this whole thing is, smaller and dainty earrings are better. 
The things I learn from watching TV shows

Thursday, May 5, 2022

Bridgerton vs. Sanditon Season 2 review

So I previously felt season 1 of Bridgerton was not as great as Sanditon's season 1, but season 2 is definitely flipped around. Wow, Bridgerton season 2 is everything a girl dreams of in a romance movie/show. I haven't seen such great sexual tension between two characters in a long time. All the little scenes definitely brings back the wonderful feelings and senses of one's first attractions and longing for love. The show had Disney princess appeal with the colorful outfits, picturesque scenes and fantastic soundtrack music, and was more "Jane Austen" vibe than Sanditon with the epic love confession speech by Anthony to Miss Kate Sharma at the end with passionate kiss and fireworks included....yes!!! I love a happy feel-good ending!

Let's talk about the music! I adore how they make these string covers of current pop songs into old-time classical sounds.  These two renditions below are my favorites from the show. 



I don't care too much for the original songs sung by Miley Cyrus and Harry Styles, but I can't stop listening to these. The Bridgerton versions are so GOOD! Makes me want to crank out my old violin and join a small ensemble again! 

Bridgerton got me this round! 

And I was sorely disappointed in Sanditon season 2. I wished Sidney Parker had faked his death to escape his marriage to come back to Charlotte, because her love interests in the new season were not as appealing as Sidney (or even Stringer) was from season 1. The story line with her becoming a governess and falling for the antisocial single-dad, I don't know....doesn't seem right after the steamy-hot-and-bothered situations she had with the mysterious hunky Sidney. Thank goodness for Charlotte's younger sister who saved the show with her cuteness and her own little love story that seems also a bit cliche...another "Roxanne" moment from Captain Fraser, but at least there were some funny flirtatious insults between the two and a happy ending. I think the romance ship has sailed for poor Charlotte when Sidney's character died. Honestly, if Sidney really died (still a bit wishful thinking he faked his death), I think she should definitely marry that average local farmer guy in the end to be more practical and chuckle at the days when she was young, naïve, and had a whirlwind romance amongst the rich people as a small chapter in her life. 

Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Best Period Shows to Watch Now

So before Bridgerton became a hit, I was all up on PBS channel's Sanditon.  I love period movies and shows, especially the 1800's because I basically lived in Jane Austen's world as a teen (this is what happens when you have no friends to eat lunch with in high school and you are trying to read books to improve your vocabulary for SAT scores). So naturally, I had to watch these shows. I was literally blown away on how good Sanditon was with the plethora of scandalous plots and twists that kept me glued to the screen. I also love the old-time beach resort feel of the show and the classical-esque string music in the background. I was a huge fan! And I cannot wait till season two comes out March 20th, 2022! Save that date! 

Then a few months later, when Bridgerton came out on Netflix, I felt like that show was trying too hard to make it appear relevant to today's times. My favorite thing though from Bridgerton was actually how they used our current top hits music and turned it into 1800's classical sounds, which was pretty cool! Other than that, I thought the plots paled to the scandals of Sanditon

Right now, I am totally hooked on the The Gilded Age from HBO Max. Woah, this show nailed it on the costumes and set design....I literally feel like I'm watching a live version of the Victorian-esque paintings that I love so much from the likes of Jean Beraud, James Tissot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Gustave Caillebotte, John Singer Sargent, etc. This show is definitely eye-candy if you like antique fashion and art. The plot so far is somewhat slow and boring and cliché, but I got to say, my favorite character is actually Ada Brook, portrayed by Cynthia Nixon. Wow oh wow, I cannot believe the sophisticated lady from Sex in the City, is the same actress playing this sweet, nice old aunt that we all wish we had. She totally looks and acts the part for that Victorian character! Someone please give her an award for this acting talent! 


Are you loving these shows? 
What other Victorian-esque shows should I watch?

Sunday, August 29, 2021

Bridgerton Vibes

I've been noticing a lot of interesting online apparel shops popping up on the internet these days...this site caught my eye for vintage styles. This dress is totally what I would wear to a Bridgerton-theme party...

Simple Retro

Vanessa Chiffon Printed Midi Dress ($79.99)


So pretty and innocent, lol! 

Saturday, July 8, 2017

Tissot's Floral Print

My infatuation with James Tissot's picturesque fashion in his paintings continues...
Clearly, he has a thing for this printed dress:
 The Captain's Daughter, 1873
 Richmond Bridge (Declaration of Love), 1878           The Elder Sister, 1881                 
Le Banc de jardin (The Garden Bench), 1883

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

The Power of Feminine

1. Dream Dress: When I first started joining this blogging community, I only followed a few petite-style bloggers to help me figure out what to wear with a petite body. Then of course, I became curious who my favorite bloggers followed and obtained inspiration from. A commonality I noticed was that almost everyone listed Atlantic-Pacific in their blogrolls or mentioned Blair Eadie at some point in a post. Once I clicked into Atlantic-Pacific, I was hooked! Blair's style is like the epitome of all girlish dreams! No wonder so many revere her blog photos. Some of her outfits can be too crazy for real life, but man, they look like what dreams are made of if we lived in a fantasy world where everything is really pretty. Naturally, if Blair has an obsession, I am obsessed with it too because we girls dream the same...like this dress I spotted on her Instagram Stories/Instagram:  

2. Currently Watching: Victoria. Here are the reasons why I love this Masterpiece TV show:
     - I've always been inspired and obsessed with Victorian era costumes
     - Queen Victoria was only 5' 0"?  Yay for powerful short women! 
     - Great classical music and art references. The theme background songs are also fantastic. 
     - Can't believe all the drama and scandals are for real (I had to google if these crazy events really happened, and they did! Anyway, this show made me want to learn more about the history of Queen Victoria, which will probably spoil the plot for me though.)
     - Full of witty and snarky lines that keeps me snorting.
     - We can all relate to being annoyed at our parents, wanting to be loved, and having major hormones. 
  
3. Life Inspiration: "The Person You Really Need to Marry" from Tracy McMillan. Totally agree we should all learn to love ourselves first and forever. If I had seen this video long time ago, it would have saved me a lot of disappointments. I don't know why we are conditioned to believe that getting married to the "right" person would make us whole or happier someday. We can live happily being single, married, widowed, abandoned, whatever destiny throws at us, as long as we don't expect others to make us happy, but rather, we love ourselves that we can make others happy. That is deep stuff! 

4. Wardrobe goal: Back to pink. For a time, I wanted to be more mature and taken seriously and decided to cut out everything pink in my style. But ever since my Grandma fell seriously ill last winter, being by her side at the hospital and helping her recover from surgery, I felt the urge to surround myself with more pink, the color of life, caring, hope, and love. (More inspirations: here, here, and here

5. Trending on my radar: Multi-color stripes for spring.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

James Tissot

I'm an old soul and love Victorian paintings. One of my favorite artist of the era is James Tissot. I'm currently reading more about him from this book: James Tissot Victorian Life/Modern Love
This book has amazing prints of his paintings. I'm in awe of the fashion he illuminated in his artwork. And there's a theme going on here that I'm hooked on!

Holyday, c.1877
The Widower, 1877
 The Thames, c.1876
The Last Evening, 1873

The Captain's Daughter, 1873

Did you guess what got me? It's the buffalo-check print! Who would have thought the checkered pattern was popular since back then! Makes me wonder who invented the buffalo plaid/check and how long ago? It's always exciting to discover fashion that stands the test of time. I've been wanting something checkered ever since Khatu posted her amazingly versatile red Forever21 checkered shirt. I was thinking of purchasing that exact shirt, but based on the sizing available online, I think it might be too big on me. Thus, I searched around for other similar items:
 
Ralph Lauren Faron Shawl Cardigans (Girls) - sale $31.99
 

Ralph Lauren Buffalo Check Ruffle Scarf - sale $19.99

ASOS Brush Check Scarf - sale $14.32
I haven't decided which items to order yet. 
What are your picks? Do you love buffalo check?