Historical Fancy Dress

Magpie

Written by

Susan de Guardiola

in

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FD-Holt-1887-Magpie
(Here's a dramatic woman's bird costume with two separate descriptions of different approaches to take to the theme, the second of which is illustrated at left.  Note that it's built over a small bustle!  Click the illustration to enlarge.)

Half black, half white dress; hair powdered on one side and not on the other; one glove and one shoe black, one white; short satin skirt, with gauze tunic bordered with fringe; basque bodice; gauze fichu; satin ribbon tied in a bow at the throat; gauze cap.  All half black and half white, so that the wearer seems on one side all black, on the other all white.  A magpie on the right shoulder.

[second version]  The front of the skirt is striped black and white satin plaited; the bodice cut in one with long side revers of black, lined and turned back with white ruching to the hem of the skirt, opening down back to show full plaited skirt.  The black bodice bordered with white; low striped vest; magpie on the shoulder and in hair, which may be powdered or not, or half-powdered.

Source: Holt, Ardern.  Fancy Dresses Described, 5th Edition.  London: Debenham & Freebody, 1887.

Comments

6 responses to “Magpie”

  1. Neil W Avatar
    Neil W

    Any idea if the “magpies” on the shoulder and head would be stuffed, or constructed from feathers or possibly from fabric?
    (I’m assuming there weren’t trained magpies for costumes in actual 19th Century London)

    Reply
  2. Susan de Guardiola Avatar
    Susan de Guardiola

    Interesting question, and I’ve no idea of the answer. They were quite into wearing actual stuffed birds on hats in the late 19th century (interesting article with a list of birds here), but the idea of wearing taxonomy on one’s shoulder and in ones hair seems a bit creepier. And I wouldn’t have thought the magpie would be a typical bird to use; hard to go out to the store and just purchase a couple. But it doesn’t seem out of the question.

    Reply
  3. AJ Avatar
    AJ

    Well, that brings up an interesting questions… are these illustrations really indicative of what people would wear, or in some cases are they as unlikely as they perfectly styled foods in gourmet magazines? Whoever designed this costume might very well have envisioned the wearer acquiring real, stuffed magpies to wear on their head and shoulder, thus being the talk of the town, whereas real ladies would look at it and say “Wherever would I find stuffed magpies?”

    Reply
  4. Susan de Guardiola Avatar
    Susan de Guardiola

    I’ve got both a (period) photo of someone in costume as a hornet and also have the drawing it seems to be based on, and she did a pretty good job. So in at least some cases, yes, they were indicative. That photo/drawing pair will show up here eventually. But I’m sure there was lots of room for individual interpretation — for magpie, the concept seems to be either (1) black and white stripes or (2) half black and half white. Then add stuffed birds.

    Reply
  5. Neil W Avatar
    Neil W

    Assuming people of a certain class (landed gentry), and a few days lead time, one could ask one’s gamekeeper to shoot them a magpie or two. The taxidermy would be the time consuming bit.
    If one is a time rich lady of a certain class, and one’s gamekeeper has made something of a mess of the magpies (as a shotgun might), then plucking the magpie and constructing something with the feathers might be a quicker way of making a magpie.
    If one were to attempt to purchase, I note that ebay appears to have only one stuffed magpie for sale at the moment.

    Reply
  6. Susan de Guardiola Avatar
    Susan de Guardiola

    Well, then one could only do the first version. The second requires two magpies! 🙂

    Reply

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