Ardent Modiste= Me!

Ardent: enthusiastic or passionate

Modiste: a fashionable milliner or dressmaker

I'm not sure if other people feel this way, but in trying to come up with a name for this blog, I was feeling like everybody who has a youtube channel or blog had already used the great names. The ones that you immediately think of as the one you should use. So it took a couple hours, but I finally came up with a blog name I am proud of: Ardent Modiste.

It hits all the check boxes: it sounds old, it explains what I do, and it sounds kind of french.

Sounding french was not a check box, but whatever.

I am excited to start writing here! But first, here's a little summary of me and what I enjoy doing(if my blog name didn't already explain it to you).

My name is Zora, and I am a historical costuming nerd who loves Medieval, Elizabethan, 18th century, 19th century, and early 20th century dress.. I live in the United States and adore books, tea, and blankets.

I hope to post often-ish, maybe once a month, we'll see. I am going to try and have most of my posts about my adventures in costuming, but once in a while there might be something random. I hope you enjoy!

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An Edwardian Bathing Suit

For a long time now, I've wanted an Edwardian bathing suit. So, with summer quickly approaching, I happily decided it was a good time to start making one. I am basing mine mostly off of this extant one in The Met Museum, which has the top attached to the bloomers, with the skirt on a waistband that I will put on top. This one is made of wool, but I will be making mine out of a navy blue quilting cotton. Mine will have a sailor collar with some shell buttons, much like this one. I will be frakenpatterning, using a blouse pattern in Authentic Victorian Fashion Patterns, and a bloomers pattern in my turn of the century tailoring book. I haven't fully decided what to do for the skirt but I will probably just do a circle skirt, or just a rectangle gathered up to a waistband. I am so excited for this project! Thanks for reading!

The Hamilton Project- An Update on The Stays

Hello there, dear reader! So if you have read this blog post about The Hamilton Project , you will know that my friend Luiza and I are making a historical cosplay of Elizabeth and Angelica Schuyler, who are characters in the musical Hamilton. I have a little update on the stays, which is the first garment of this project that I am making. Mid-morning of a beautiful rainy day, the mail-human brought me the great gift- of linen! This linen, is special, being what I will use to make Luiza's and my stays. Also, I suppose I should address what stays are, being that it isn't really common nowadays to know exactly what the structured under-garment is underneath all 18th century clothing. Here is an example from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: These are British stays, from the late 18th century, made of blue silk. The shape of the stays changed a lot over time, due to needing the stays to provide the right shape for the fashion of the day. After all, you don't w

Happy New Year!!! - and a small update on 2022's happenings(which hopefully will happen).

Dear readers, Happy 2022!!! I wish you all a good year! I also apologize for the lack of activity of the blog, I can't believe the last post was in March! I've been really busy this past year, as I get back into a routine. I will try to post more often. I have a few projects that are almost done, so keep posted! I am really excited for this year, for sewing projects as well as other things I might be able to share on the blog. I ~hope~ to go to a few historical places this year. I have always wanted to go to Bodie, and I am hoping this year is the year! Bodie is a State Historic Park in California, near the Cali/ Nevada border. It is now a ghost town, but in the 19th century it was an important gold-mining town. A lot of its buildings are still intact with items like furniture still left inside. It sounds really cool! As always, thank you for reading and I promise there will be more content in the next few months. Best, Ardent Modiste

Ardent Modiste

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