Grazia Telling Tales

‘Still Life of Roses in a Glass Vase’ (Flemish, 17th century) by Jan van Kessel the Elder (1626–1679).

Illustrations of North American sylva (1841 - 1849) by Pierre Joseph Redouté taken from ‘The North American Sylva’ by François André Michaux.

Published by J. Dobson.

1) Iris Kæmpferi

2) Iris Kæmpferi

3) Asa-dsuma-bune

4) Lotus

5) Tree Pæony

6) Tree Pæony

7) Chrysanthemum

8) Hærdaceous Pæony

9) Hærdaceous Pæony

10) Lily

Hand-coloured collotypes (1896) by Kazumasa Ogawa (Japanese, 1860 - 1929).

Images and text information courtesy The Getty.

Fashion Friday 

Godey’s Lady Book and Magazine, April 1855

April weather can be quite fickle across much of the country. Shops and importers will entice you with wearable goods of lighter fabrics and brighter colors. Avoid a chill by accessorizing!

Godey’s has selected 4 of the most fashionable mantillas and mantles to present to you this month: The Antoinette, La Manucla, The Darro or The Rio Verde.

Novelties of the Month: Ensure your spring apparel is trimmed with the finest of details! Godey’s offers some advice for embellishing your of mantles, sacques, chemisettes, duchess sleeves, berthe, and morning cap. Have you been scandalized by just how low-cut that evening dress you imported from France was? Don’t fret, fashion yourself a berthe and retain your modesty!  (see figure 7)

Children's dresses: presented in increasing degrees of formality from a street dress (figure 1) to a fancy party dress (figure 4). Note that the street dress should be made of plaid raw silk in bright colors, while the fancy party dress is of white cashmere and red velvet. Just how long can a young child keep white cashmere clean?!

**If you’re new to our Fashion Friday series, we suggest you get caught up on the advice from Godey’s Lady’s Book. You can do so by reading some of our previous posts. As always, we advise viewers to model their attaire on the advice from the current month to avoid being out of fashion!! Or, view our other Fashion Friday posts to ensure your style sense is well-rounded.