The beautiful dresses described in the ladies' magazines of the early 19th century weren't for everybody. Then, as today, only the privileged could afford them. By far the greatest part of the price was the material—often adorned with exquisite embroidery, pearls, and even diamonds. Labor was very cheap.
This short excerpt, from a longer Chanel documentary that seems to have disappeared from YouTube, offers some insight into the level of craftsmanship involved in creating beautiful garments by hand.
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4 comments:
Fascinating to watch! I quite fancy that painstaking job myself sometimes. :)
I usually like detailed, painstaking slow tasks, but THAT! Phew! I think I'd run away screaming.
Thanks for the video.
Thanks for the post - good grief that is a lot of work. Now I know why those things cost a fortune. I love fabrics and threads, but I think that would drive me away from it forever. Although I did watch a video about the women who work inside the Vatican restoring the tapestries and other Catholic vestments - color me jealous!
Reminds me of an exhibit I just saw, an 18th century palais of Frederick the Second. Hideously expensive now and then, only back then the materials, like the glass for the chandeliers, was fiendishly expensive. Nowadays, the labor for repairing all the leaf-golded plaster work is much more expensive than the gold itself. Similar for the clothing - an artist made some awesome imitations (if you want to take a peek: http://www.bz-berlin.de/bezirk/umland/der-alte-fritz-im-neuen-palais-article1444339.html) from paper, and that was probably still a freakish amount of work. But still, I envy her for that job!
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