☆ Small Town Dreams ☆

Civil War Gowns

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Okay so I have discovered that shopping at goodwill yeilds the best clothes if you go an hour before closing! I think they are really getting it all out on the floor then to sort in the morning ~ I found these the other day:

The top dress is a vintage kids dress ~ Possibly grandma made, it has no flaws. It fits me like a baby doll dress! I love the puffy sleaves, the brocade texture, and the gorgeous peach color (which really looks iffy with my skin and hair but I love the color anyway). It's above the knee ~ safe enough to wear without tights but I probably won't take the chances. The bag is an italian woven leather shoulder bag by Desmo. It's gorgeous and I was drawn to it because of it's practical shape, the sturdy leather weaving and that designer bag smell lol. It has a fullness that will fit my canon camera, and has a change pocket and pouch. My aunt (bag queen) approves and even has a few Desmo bags! The last photo is a civil war era costume gown! It's a cheap rendition but still a very neat thing to find and add to my costume box. I tell you, I live in a city (Charleston, SC) that likes to live in the past. Civil war re-enactments are big here and it's not uncommon to see women dress in southern belle gowns - like above (but hand made!). It's really quite neat. If only it was about the costuming and historic tales, but there is still a strong confederate sentiment and old-fashioned politics which leaves me from wanting to participate in any historical events here (being a european yankee from NY). Just the othernight at city market ~ two older ladies in "antebellum" (1890's I beleive) dress ~ big hats included, came to sample my soaps. They even talked in character with the old proper southern accent telling me "This is quite lovely" and as I told them what's in the soap - "There is evening primrose and honey in this one ~ which provide luxurious moisterizer and skin softening" she replied with "Oh, Indeed. It is just lovely." She and her friend lived in homes that were apart of the historic home and gardens tour! I love local history as I've always been an enthusiast growing up on long island where you can attend colonial barnyard dancing, flapper tea parties, and visit museums dedicated to eerie 1900's immigrant slums to the glamorous 1920's museums and estates. But here history is a bit darker from start to nearly present and there are far too many southern people willing to give up civil war tensions, even ideology. They won't forgive or forget that the north tore through the south - burning cities, raping women, obliterating men, stealing heirlooms, and so on. And so the south took a long time to recover from the war-inflicted damage. The rich were poor and had to start from scratch. The south remained mainly agricultural and while the north thrived into the industrial era - the southern hatred towards freed black men and women began the civil rights era. There is very little to celebrate in southern american history in my opinion except the end of such human catastrophies (slavery - black and white school integration). Well tomorrow in South Carolina ~ people are celebrating the START of the civil war. I think celebrate is wrong term, but nevertheless, that is what the city paper reads! I could go on ~ but I do have a northern view of American history. My boyfriend and I compare our school history from growing up all the time and it's not merely bias as in southern and northern history is written differently -we just seem to have learned about different things, and I learned about history more graphically as well. We had holocaust month and down here they focus more for black history month (we only had an educational day or two for this ~ and then we always had a day for hispanic heritage month which my bf never heard of) *Hana*

Labels: charleston, clothes, fashion, history, politics, shopping, thrift

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