Charles Fraser and Allison Lurie

Stumbled upon a great new portrait artist today... introducing Charles Fraser! I am very into the 1820s and 30s right now, which is funny because I used to really hate them. But my costume history class last semester totally changed my mind, I can't believe I never realized what fun they were. Maybe I just hadn't seen good pictures or something. In any case, please enjoy some lovely Fraser portraits, complete with M-notches (one early 19th century detail that I absolutely love).




Well, now that I'm on the subject of the 1820s and 30s, I simply can't resist posting some pieces from my favorite artist of this period, Joseph Karl Steiler. Such lovely, rich colors and textures... his treatment of velvet is amazing.

Now that we've got some eye candy to ooh and ahh over (seriously, how fabulous is that 1830s hair? And am I the only one who thinks that the Fraser portrait with the crazy mutton chops looks like a perfect Mr. Collins?), I thought I'd mention my most recent costume-related reading. I ordered Allison Lurie's book The Language of Clothes because it's required for the design class I'm taking in the fall. But I'm such a geek that I was dying to read it in advance- what can I say, despite the scary '80s cover of the edition I bought, it looked super interesting! And I'm happy to report that it was. As you can probably tell from the title, she basically analyzes fashion and clothing as a language of its own and she makes some really interesting observations. I particularly loved the chapter "Fashion and Time" because of her interesting analysis of the 19th century as a maturing woman- moving from the simple childish Regency dresses to the mature, full-figured silhouette of the turn of the century. It makes so much sense! My costume history professor (who will be referred to from now on as G) used an analysis of the 19th century as utilizing a constantly shifting puff of air (from the sleeves in the early part of the century to the hoops to bustles to sleeves again in the 1890s, etc.), but I like Lurie's analysis much better. Overall, a great read, which I think could be enjoyable even to non costume/fashion people.

Ta ta!
All of the paintings are from the Art Renewal Center.