Extended in advance of L.L. Bean boots were modeled by Brooklyn hipsters and Angela Adams’ purses ended up draped above the shoulders of folks in Los Angeles, Mainers experienced a heightened feeling of fashion.
In the 1870s, for case in point, style-aware Maine citizens understood the bulky design and style of women’s skirt known as “polonaise” was offering way to a a great deal slimmer silhouette identified as “cuirasse,” from the French phrase meaning near fitting, like armor. When Hannah P. Adams of Belfast received her marriage trousseau close to the time of this improve in tendencies, it involved a gown in the newer design and style, along with a knee-size jacket referred to as a basque.
“Mainers have normally been stylish, and which is a little something we see in our clothes collection,” explained Jamie Kingman Rice, deputy director of the Maine Historic Modern society. “Because of ties to British transport in the mid-1800s, people in destinations like Eastport and Belfast would have experienced accessibility to the most up-to-date fashions and suggestions in manner. But we see that individuals in additional rural spots were being intrigued far too.”
The plan that Mainers – at least some – have extended exhibited a aptitude for vogue is the concept of an show at the Maine Historical Modern society in Portland named “Northern Threads: Two Generations of Gown at Maine Historic Culture,” with about 50 ensembles from 1780-1889, together with Hannah P. Adams’ dress, on view via July 30. The society’s clothes collection is so substantial the exhibition has been broken into two elements, with apparel from 1890-1980 on look at Aug. 12 by way of Dec. 31.
The historical modern society is also now internet hosting two other exhibitions that support illustrate Mainers’ connections to or obsessions with fashions above the past 200 a long time. “Cosmopolitan Stylings of Mildred and Madeleine Burrage” focuses on two Maine sisters who ended up artists and consists of drawings from Paris trend designers in the 1920s and ’30s. It is on perspective through Sept. 24.
The other is “Representing Each Particular: John Martin’s 19th Century Fashion Illustrations,” that includes observations, thoughts and drawings about nearby style from the journal of a Bangor businessman in the latter 50 percent of the 1800s, on check out by way of Aug. 6.
On line variations of all three exhibitions are readily available to see at the Maine Historic Society’s “current exhibitions” web page.
“Northern Threads: Two Generations of Costume at Maine Historic Society” is a two-section exhibit. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer
Rice, guide curator of “Northern Threads,” experienced started off getting ready the display for the state’s bicentennial in 2020, but the pandemic and other troubles pushed the exhibit back again. So now it’s open up in the course of the historical society’s bicentennial calendar year, which is suitable, Rice claims, since it highlights element of the society’s collection of some 3,000 clothes.
The “Northern Threads” demonstrate marks a single of the couple of periods the historical society has put so quite a few items of garments on look at, Rice reported, as garments reveals are fairly labor intensive. Lots of pieces are light-weight and fragile and have to be taken care of and shown carefully. As well as, the lighting has to be meticulously arranged, so as not to hurt the fabrics. Some parts cannot be remaining out in the light and air as well lengthy.
A 1931 design and style from Paris for a dinner costume from the exhibit “Cosmopolitan Stylings of Mildred and Madeleine Burrage” at Maine Historical Culture in Portland. Picture courtesy of Maine Historical Society/Maine Memory Network No.54252
A good deal of the dresses come from spouse and children collections, donated to the historical society, while several came to the historical culture from the selection of the former Westbrook Higher education in Portland (now portion of the University of New England), which had a trend curriculum. Some parts that stand for the most up-to-date fashions of the day occur from households who lived in tiny, rural or remote spots, like the tiny city of Alexander, on Route 9 close to Calais, or the Oxford County town of Waterford. In the next section of “Northern Threads,” there will be a wedding day costume festooned with ostrich feathers made use of for a wedding on remote Matinicus Island in the 1890s.
This to start with element of “Northern Threads” features Civil War-era dresses and military uniforms, bustle attire, attire made with reused cloth at a time when substance was not quick to appear by, mourning fashions and attire with the “gigot” or puffed sleeves common in the 183os.
One of the gigot-sleeve dresses illustrates Rice’s issue about remote Maine spots owning a pipeline to international style. It’s a two-piece silk and satin weave ensemble, circa 1830, and belonged to the Leavitt loved ones of Eastport. It will come with a smaller cape, called a pereline, that matches in excess of the dress. The deep purple silk was pricey in its day and in all probability dyed with imported logwood, in advance of the advent of chemical dye.
In the 1830s, persons in Eastport would have been motivated in their fashions and tastes by the constant stream of British ships bringing European items to the remote Maine seaport, Rice reported. The amount of British ships coming to Eastport greater 800 p.c in the early 1830s.
Examples of the gigot sleeve in dresses from the 1820s-1830s, on display screen at Maine Historic Society. Ben McCanna/Team Photographer
One more topic that can be uncovered in the historic society’s garments selection is the creative imagination of Mainers, who occasionally would invest in the most up-to-date fashions but adapt them with their very own fingers and concepts, Rice reported. The gown belonging to Hannah Adams in Belfast, for occasion, has a label from a Boston clothier, W.H. Bigalow, 150 Warren Ave., Boston. But afterwards, the gown was hand embroidered with vibrant floral types – hinting at daisies, berries, cat tails and poppies. Also extra was a chenille fringe.
There’s an place of the “Northern Threads” exhibit dedicated to adaptive reuse. Just one really intelligent example is a eco-friendly, white and rose-coloured silk brocade costume worn by a member of the Jewett household to a Portland ball in 1825 honoring the Marquis de Lafayette, a Innovative War hero. The fabric of the dress dates from the late 1730s or early 1740s, and the gown was in the beginning produced in the 1770s. Then it was altered and re-styled for the 1825 ball, but in a Colonial Revival style.
Some other examples of Mainers’ possess creative adaptations of fashions will be observed in the next section of “Northern Threads” when it opens in August. A single of individuals is a women’s aviator’s jacket – think Amelia Earhart – which have been common in the 1930s. It was built by a Maine woman who labored at a shoe manufacturing facility and experienced obtain to leather.
Supplementing the eye-catching fashions are some stunning personal tales. Among the the several military services uniforms on show is the costume uniform coat of Oliver Otis Howard of Leeds, when he was a cadet at the U.S. Armed service Academy at West Level in the 1850s. During the Civil War, Howard shed his ideal arm at the Struggle of 7 Pines in Virginia. Right after the war, he was commissioner of the U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau and founder of Howard College in Washington, D.C., today one particular of the finest-recognized traditionally Black colleges in the state.
The other two vogue reveals now at the historical society also spring from personalized tales. Sisters Mildred Giddings Burrage (1890-1983) and Madeleine Burrage (1891-1976) arrived from a Maine family members that produced its fortune in lumber close to the Bangor spot and at some point settled in Wiscasset. Mildred analyzed and labored as an artist in France, exactly where she grew to become intrigued in haute couture. Madeleine became a jewellery designer, and the two traveled extensively in Europe and South America, frequently writing house about the fashions they noticed.
Among Mildred’s gathered papers and writings are primary drawings and descriptions of costume layouts from vogue properties in Paris in the 1920s and ’30s. The drawings have been despatched to opportunity clients in the days just before catalogs and web-sites, mentioned Tilly Laskey, curator at the Maine Historic Modern society and of the Burrage demonstrate.
Thirty of these “line sheets” that includes dress types are on screen as section of the present. Addresses and other facts show they have been not despatched specifically to Mildred, and it is not crystal clear how she acquired them over the several years, Laskey mentioned. Many of these drawings are in shade and come with pictures of fabrics and colour samples.
Laskey also curated “Representing Every Distinct: John Martin’s 19th Century Style Illustrations.” Martin’s drawings are particularly intriguing since he was neither an artist nor a pupil of manner. He was an accountant and store keeper from Bangor who was a eager observer. His individual father had died when he was young, and he realized little about him. So he experienced a solid motivation to assistance his youngsters study about his occasions and encounters. He still left powering a 650-page journal and many scrapbooks of notes and sketches, accomplished from the 1860s into the 1890s. He drew what he noticed and additional his own commentary.
Annie Martin drawn by her father, John Martin, in 1866 from “Representing Just about every Specific: John Martin’s 19th Century Fashion Illustrations” at Maine Historical Culture. Photo courtesy of Maine Historic Culture/Maine Point out Museum/Maine Memory Network No. 101171
One of his later drawings, “A Culture Lady of 1889,” shows a female carrying a bustled dress, coloured brightly with orange, pink, violet and environmentally friendly, and holding a parasol and a smaller purse. In his description of the drawing, Martin calls the subject “a Culture woman of the present day” and notes that although the content for the dress is not costly, it “shows that the wearer is a individual of fine style.” Ten of his doodles and illustrations are on exhibit.
“He can get a little snarky about what individuals were being putting on and his descriptions are rather amusing,” stated Laskey. “He was drawing these freehand and providing a good deal of facts about what he saw.”
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