Elegance

Life can be elegant.
I love reading old novels and looking at old pictures. People used to spend a lot of time
making sure that when they went out, they looked  their best.
I love the hair styles and the number of under garments made sure
a woman always stayed very warm.
It was not all about corsets either.

I remember as a little girl my Grand Mother made me a green velveteen
dress. It was one of my favorite dresses and I loved wearing it.
Looking at this doll reminds me of those days and I kinda miss
seeing people not dressing like this anymore.

We paid attention to shoes and wore gloves, as my grand mother said
 apart from helping keep germs away, they kept a womans' hands clean and white.
Everything had to match. Shoes, dress, coat, hat, and even the purse.
So it never ended with just a dress.

Hats were to keep faces from getting sun burnt and kept a womans' face looking
young for a long time.

Technology wasn't there yet and it was harder to take showers and baths,
but this ensured a woman took extra special time, to look after herself.
Perfumes, powders, were used a lot and many scents were made at home from
herbs and flowers growing in local fields and gardens.

Every household had special cups and saucers for afternoon tea, on tables covered in crochet
table cloths and doilies. Etiquette was a sign of fine breeding.

This was a womans' world and men delighted in sharing this world with a fine woman.

Today things are a lot less formal. People spend a lot on brand names while clothes are still made
by low cost factories elsewhere. So people like Chloe, become multimillionaires over night, while so many other good designers are not so lucky and can't make sewing a living making overpriced clothes people would not want to spend on, when brand names could be bought cheaper coming from poor countries
Stores close down and material is harder and harder to find, unless you buy in bulk or over pay.
Today hobbies like sewing and knitting and embroidery, are killed by high prices.
 We used to make our own patterns to embroider, using a paper pencil and and iron. Today
you need to pay 19 dollars up, for an embroidery kit and lose out on choice of material and thread to be used.
Thread has become very expensive. By the time you collect everything needed to do a project,
you can buy three times over what you intend to make at a store buying mass produced items.
It makes you wonder how other countries can get things to make and ship and pay salaries, for you to buy here in Canada,for a dollar. This means we over pay for most raw material, things we buy.
It also means that people work for nothing over seas and we  work for nothing in our countries, buying things we can't afford to make for that price.

I miss seeing a corner dress shop where a woman could go in and design her own, made to measure dress, from her own material. It allowed for many local  jobs, including for those people who made lace and edgings. Retired women would always have a job doing things they loved and still could do,
all by hand and when a woman wore her clothes, they were unique, and a lot better made, than what they sell in stores today, as brand name clothing.A lot of people took pride in the things they did
and all around, a happy customer made for many good vibes in a community.

I guess we can't go back in time when a persons hands were golden, producing things of value
that were treasured and handed down Mother to daughter, but looking at this doll makes me think that women sure are missing out in social graces,etiquette and couture, which made every day worth
looking forward to.
xoxoxoxoxxo