Caption This! 1-27 - 2-3-17

"so like, it's such a drag we can't have our I-phones with us during this....." And "yeah really, like this hat I got on is like really mussing up my hair so bad it's almost funny...."
 
Girl in red:
William, you look quite credible in the dress and whig, but you should defintely have left your kepi in the tent!
Apparently the girl in the red dress is committing a faux pas. 25 years ago my family got themselves immersed in CW reenacting with me. My wife got a 19th century dress ( hoops and all ) and she wanted to get my two daughters dresses also. When picking out material from the legendary Harriet Engler, my wife asked about why there was nothing in red. Harriett, who has created items for museums, movies and TV told her that red was used by ladies of the evening and no self respecting woman would've worn that in public! So unless that girl is trying to portray a soiled dove, she might not want to wear that dress again. :redface:
 
Apparently the girl in the red dress is committing a faux pas. 25 years ago my family got themselves immersed in CW reenacting with me. My wife got a 19th century dress ( hoops and all ) and she wanted to get my two daughters dresses also. When picking out material from the legendary Harriet Engler, my wife asked about why there was nothing in red. Harriett, who has created items for museums, movies and TV told her that red was used by ladies of the evening and no self respecting woman would've worn that in public! So unless that girl is trying to portray a soiled dove, she might not want to wear that dress again. :redface:
My experience: Beginners say: never wear red.
Next step up: it's a beginner's myth never to wear red. (See first paragraph after the numbers.)

There are red dresses in Godey's and other respectable fashion magazines. And all the cheap madder calicos that were used for something, surely not only quilts? Unfortunately, few original work dresses have survived. But she's not wearing a work dress or even a day dress.

There's a 20th/21st century myth or meme about red dresses meaning the wearer is fast or sexy. I've heard people say it may come from an early 20th century song/movie, but can't find a direct line.

More importantly, she seems to be wearing a post-wear (1865-1870?) evening dress in the daytime, without a shawl or anything, along with a post-war bonnet that does match the era of the dress. That could be an original older parasol she's carrying. The woman/girl beside her is just goofing around in two centuries, with a camera or phone in her hand, and her boyfriend's hat. I'd say one is surely period, the other obviously not. The style of her dress is wartime, though also an evening dress being worn in the daytime with no extra covering. But the issue is--the girl in the red dress is having fun with her friends who care no more than she does, and she probably isn't there to teach visitors about 19th century fashion, neither is she there to include other reenactors in a "time travel" moment that would make them care about her dress. Later in her life in the hobby, she can research more about fashions, pick what would be a period dress for what she wants to portray, such as a day dress from the wartime era--if she wants to, or not. I don't think anyone minds at the event she would be at.
 
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