Neither of these images is Photoshopped and unfortunately, I can't recall where on the web that I found them originally. But I think they are hilarious (and a little weird). A good reminder that our ancestors were not a bunch of prim God-fearing people who never smiled (smiling was difficult for photos because it's hard to hold a natural smile for the length of time it took for the exposure).

Anyway, here at left we have two theatrical critters: Hedgehog and Rabbit. Hard to tell when it was taken ~ can't even hazard a guess. Even the style of the coats is likely "costume" and not contemporary.

This second picture is easier to date because the woman is dressed quite normally (so I would place this in the 1870s based on her hairstyle and dress style. 

Who knows who the person in the diving suit is ~ probably a man, maybe her husband? Diving suits of this type were still experimental (Jules Verne made much of them in this era, as did other adventure story writers). I like to think this couple, aside from being adventurers themselves, had quite a fine sense of humor to want to take this portrait, which sort of sets typical classic portraiture on its end.

Fun stuff!

Historical Fashion is a new blog with some really wonderful images of fashions for across all time periods (though there is a nice emphasis on 19th century stuff at the moment ~ including the image of two 1860s silk dresses reposted here).

Although the blog has just started up, it looks like it will be worth bookmarking as the creator seems enthusiastic on the subject and has been posting regularly. There is not much commentary, but it is a photoblog predominantly, and the pictures so far have been gorgeous!

If you are interested in more than just 19th Century fashions, then check it out!

I was looking for a picture of a dress for a girl in the 1850s (and I will be drawing it, which I will share!), but I came across this wonderful ambrotype from that decade (1856 to be exact) with lovely tinting. The dress is perfect and the girl looks so sweet as well. The original source is this blog (currently defunct), which nevertheless features a lot of lovely period images.

Old photographs as references are great for many things; you get to see particular patterns and trimmings and you know it was a garment actually worn by a person as opposed to something put together by a fancy designer and maybe worn once by some socialite. I think I have stated here somewhere that I'm much more interested in the day-to-day clothes rather than the fancy pieces, so here's a pretty good example of a nice dress that was probably worn often by this child. And even though she was likely a child of privilege, it's not a display piece like you would see represented in the ladies' magazines of the period.

Click on the image to see the dress in more detail. It will be fun to reproduce the plaid trim (I've never done plaid before!). I'm not sure that i will make my own dress blue, however. I am thinking of changing it to lilac/purple or maybe even red.