Iffy's Adventures on the Berengaria

Before their departure, Mother Ackermann presented Iffy with a nicely-bound journal to record all the interesting details of their up-coming trip. Of course, Mother's ulterior motive was to read this journal and see if Dolly and Minerva were up to anything unseemly. 

Through the travel brochures left by the Arrow family, Dolly and Minerva were able to book staterooms on the HMS Berengaria, a luxury liner travelling from Southampton to New York. Immediately, Iffy began collecting all sorts of labels and beautifully printed advertising.

Behind the Times

Dolly and Minerva are beginning to feel that their travels through other publications are not very enlightening. A visit to Harper's Weekly Magazine makes them realize just how far away from home they are.

Amazing, isn't it, how when fashions change, we look back in horror at what we we once wore with such confidence! I like to think, however, that with so many well-made movies of other times coming out, we have an appreciation of the beauty of past fashions. If actors are dressed well, not as caricatures of style, we see their clothes as people in those times did. My grandmother turned 20 in 1913, a beautiful era of fashion. Today, everyone is aware of that through the gorgeous costumes of Titanic and Downton Abbey. My grandmother grew up on the Lower East Side of New York City, a neighborhood of poor immigrants, but she had the luck of being the only child of a skilled custom tailor who ran his own business. When she married in 1912 (the year of the Titanic sinking), she couldn't afford a fancy wedding dress. A stroke of good fortune arose - a woman had commissioned a very pretty dress, paid for the materials, but never returned to collect the dress or pay for the labor. It was a pale blue dress of layers, with the semi-sheer overlay embroidered in a floral pattern made of hundreds of French knots. And it fit my grandmother perfectly. Where this dress ever went, I don't know, as I've never seen it or even a picture of it, but it must have been beautiful. I look at pictures of dresses like this and think it must have been similar.

Then my mother turned 20 in 1946. When I was a child, I'd be fascinated by her descriptions of how she rolled up her hair in those amazing styles, padded out with long hair switches. She made a lot of her own clothes and would bring left over material to a hat maker, who would whip up jaunty hats to match her outfits. Mom worked in NYC and studied voice at Juilliard School of Music, hoping for a career in opera. Her publicity photos were so gorgeous, and I looked forward to the day when I was 20 and looking like a million bucks.

Fast forward to 1972. I turned 20. And it was 1972. Good Lord...seen that..., worn that..., wondered about that. There was a big "Unisex" thing going on then. I guess someone had a bee in her bonnet about gender equality, but when you go unisex, one or both of the sexes is going to come off looking not quite right. I hear people say that everyone thinks the fashions of their own day look great and the opposite sex looks great. Not true, just not true. That's when a whole generation pulled on a pair of jeans and an old shirt and just said no.

Prinny's Scottish Obsession

In 1822, shortly after he became king, George IV made an important trip to Scotland, in order to gain support from that part of the kingdom and quell radical opposition. No British monarch had visited Scotland since 1650, and this event proved to be a great success. The famous Scottish author, Sir Walter Scott, took the opportunity to orchestrate the reception of the king, with the main motive of reviving ancient Scottish identity. The elaborate pagentry included the use of clan tartans and the wearing of the kilt, which had gradually disappeared over the years. Since that time, kilt-wearing has become a fixed feature in Scottish culture. George appeared in Scottish garb and the press reported that the king was "a portly handsome man looking and moving every inch a King". The caricature artists depicted him as less than regal. When some complained that George wore his kilts too short, Lady Hamilton-Dalrymple wittily responded "Since he is to be among us for so short a time, the more we see of him the better." In case anyone is wondering what George wore under his kilt, it was a pair of flesh-colored tight pantaloons.

The Scottish visit was a smashing success, mainly on the part of Scotland, which received a much needed boost in national pride. The Act of Union in 1707, in which the United Kingdom appropriated a bankrupted Scotland in exchange for paying its debts, had left many Scots bitter. The wearing of clan tartans and Scottish regalia had been banned from 1746-1782, because it signified Jacobite support. Robert Burns' 1791 poem Such A Parcel Of Rogues In A Nation, exemplified the general feeling still burning in the Scottish heart. It's one of my favorites set to music by my beloved Steeleye Span.

It reflects the times that an Ackermann fashion print of the time includes a little boy sporting the same costume worn by the king.

JADG - Conceited Independence

On with the Drinking Game!  No Jane Austen novel is complete without the young woman who just goes off and does something rash, usually ending up with mud-splattered stockings, ruined shoes, or a serious chill that develops into pneumonia. What were you thinking, foolish girl?

An interesting series of Ackermann prints are the Poetical Sketches of Scarborough, etched by the well-known artist Thomas Rowlandson. Scarborough was one of the many popular seaside resorts of the late 18th-early 19th centuries, but Rowlandson's pictures show a place I would avoid completely. If  it's not dumping buckets of rain and blowing up a storm, the sky is gray and heavily overcast. Visitors arrive in the rain, struggle up the beach through strong headwinds, and line up in the drizzle to see tourist attractions. Some misguided girls plan a picnic on a wind-battered beach, only to find themselves caught in a furious thunderstorm. If that wasn't bad enough, Cousin Delphine, always the independent spirit, decides to take off in search of assistance. What good can come of that, Delphine?