Bustles at the museum

This weekend the DFWCG took a trip to the Kimball Art Museum to see an exhibit on Impressionism, and we all wore bustle-era fashions for the occasion.  We were quite the side show at the museum, but everybody was so gracious and nice to us, and we had a really lovely time seeing the art and chatting with people about our clothing.  We finished the day by heading over to La Madeline for desserts and more socializing.  It was such a fun afternoon!

While waiting for other guild members to show up at the museum, we posed for a LOT of pictures from all the curious bystanders.

Eventually we all arrived and we went into the exhibit, where unfortunately, photos were not allowed.


   
But they did allow photos in the permanent exhibit, so my friend Christy and I posed for a few quick pics with the art.

Here's the majority of our group at the end of the day. We had already lost several of our lovely ladies at this point, but it's the best group shot that we got. More photos from the day can be found on my flickr.

As for me, I ended up wearing a "this old thing" dress from my closet, but I had to make a new hat for it since my original bonnet got crushed on the return from from Costume College last year.  The straw on the brim was broken in several areas, but the crown was fine, so I chopped off the brim and recycled all the bits and pieces to make it into a small brimless bonnet similar to the one seen on the top right here from koshka-the-cat's collection of 1883 Godey's illustrations.  I really miss my wide-brimmed bonnet, but this was better than nothing.

I also tried wearing a curly fringe hairpiece since it is almost impossible to find a photo or illustration of women in the 1880's without bangs.  I know it it technically "correct" for this era, but seriously, y'all - I hate it.  I feel like I'm back in middle school in the 1980's with a bad perm.  LOL!  I think I'll try wearing straight bangs next time since I've found a few photos of women from the 1880's with non-curly fringe.   But oh well... at least I tried!  :)