We’re thrilled to have been selected to show at the Hagley Craft Fair!
Shop in person
October 16-17, 2021
Booth 52
Indoors at the Soda House
Hagley Museum
Wilmington, DE
Check out Anikka’s Sample Rack— First Quality. Great Prices.
Saturday October 16 10 am to 5 pm
Sunday October 17 10 am to 4 pm
Our favorite is Midsummer Day, the longest day of the year. This year it falls on June 21. We see a field of wildflowers, strewn on handkerchief linen in violet, blue, green, and yellow on an ivory ground. Celebrate with the Wildflower Linen Dress.
For more on the Wildflower Linen visit the Shop.
Sometimes a design is a challenge to grasp the essence of a beloved piece and create a new version. How to recall that fleeting moment? We look and study and think about the piece to understand its message.
Our very first visit to Washington, DC was the occasion. We remember a long ago spring when a father and mother, a boy and a girl took their first trip to the nation’s capital. This was when train travel meant white gloves and the trip from Boston to Washington took all day. The piece was a wool suit in a lavender and white check, a cutaway jacket with a round neck over a box-pleated wool skirt, now recalled as the Washington Suit.
How to capture that springtime family? We seize the bright moment with a crisp linen gingham in lavender and white. The short jacket grows into a fitted bodice with a round neckline, the cutaway inverts to a neckline slash. The structured volume of all-around box pleats is retained, but perhaps now with an eye on the grace of the long line rather than the brevity that allows a quick game of jump rope. With these memories in mind we bring you the Washington Dress.
For more information on the Washington Dress visit the Shop.
Read the story of the original Washington Suit here.
They went on the train. Four of them: a father and mother, a boy and a girl. The train was called the Senator. It went from Back Bay Station to Washington, DC. The president lived there, in the White House. There were monuments, a museum with a space ship, and cherry blossoms that would bloom when they got there.
It was an important trip. Aunt Louise had given them her old luggage, navy blue suitcases that matched. The father had a new umbrella, the mother a new spring coat. The boy wore a navy jacket and a white buttoned shirt with a necktie like a grown-up. The girl had a new suit, the Washington Suit. It was lavender and white checks with a pleated skirt and a jacket with a round neck. A saucer hat and white gloves because it was an important trip.
The father hadn’t been to Washington since he was a soldier in the war. He said that back then so many people were going to Washington you couldn’t get a seat on the train, but had to travel standing up. Now they had a reservation. Coach it was called. You sat in an upholstered seat looking at the back of the seat in front of you. It had a sign that said, ‘Thanks for riding Pennsy.’ The railroad was called the Pennsylvania, though it went to a lot of other states too.
On the train you could look out the window, read a book, or pull down the little table in the back of the seat in front of you and draw. The ride would take all day. The train stopped in cities along the way, like New London, New Haven, and New York. Then the cities weren’t News, but had one-word names like Philadelphia and Baltimore.
At lunchtime the family left their seats and went to the dining car. The father and the brother, the girl with her mother. This was definitely something to have a grown-up along for because the door at the end of the car was heavy. You had to pull it hard and cross into the between-cars section, which was dark and very loud with the sound of the rushing train. It shook. If you looked down you could see daylight through the places where the cars were stuck together. There was a worrisome minute when it seemed possible that the cars might come apart or that your mother might not be strong enough to pull open the door to the next car, and there you would be between-cars when they might come apart. But that never happened. Instead you entered the Dining Car.
The Dining Car wasn’t like Coach. There were tables along each side, under the windows. They were covered in white tablecloths and set with china and glasses and silverware. Passengers sat at the tables eating and talking in low voices. The scenery rushed by while they ate. It was quiet and elegant. The train chugged along and sometimes the water sloshed a little in the glasses, but it never spilled. The mother explained that the waiters knew exactly how high to fill the glasses to keep them from spilling over. On a ship they might need to wet the tablecloth to keep the dishes from sliding off, but on the train it didn’t jostle as much.
A tall, dark-skinned man in a white jacket showed them to their table. He handed out the menus. To the girl’s surprise, he left a card and a pencil at her place. The mother and father explained that on the train one passenger writes the orders on the card for everyone at the table. The Pennsylvania Railroad supplied a pencil; the girl noted that it didn’t have an eraser. Well, she was far into first grade. She’d worked hard on penmanship. The waiter, who knew exactly how high to fill the water glasses, seemed to think she was the one to write the order. She’d have to give it a try.
It was a good thing there were a lot of lines on the card because each order had a lot of words. But with careful work the card was ready. The waiter returned. He picked up the card and studied it. Maybe the penmanship wasn’t good enough for the Pennsylvania Railroad. No, he nodded crisply and placed the card in the pocket of his jacket. Businesslike. Just like all the other tables in the Dining Car where one passenger writes the orders on the card for everyone at the table.
Every now and then we see a fabric we just can’t forget. An encounter with an ivory colored silk shantung, embellished with chenille blossoms in ivory and apricot, was such a moment. It put us in mind of the glamorous spectacle of the Vienna Ball Season.
Every year the cold, dark months of January and February light up with dozens of balls throughout the enchanting city of Vienna. Many are organized around guilds, such as the Confectioners and the Coffee Makers. The Opera Ball, which takes place in ‘the most beautiful ballroom in the world’ in the Vienna Opera House is the official State Ball of the Republic of Austria.
The waltz is part of a ceremonial program based on courtly customs that date from the 18th century. After the opening fanfare there are formal processions, planned spectaculars, and the traditional call to begin, ‘Alles Walzer!”
Here in Washington, DC, where we find the embassies of over 200 foreign countries, the Austrians have made a special contribution. Years back they opened their embassy, which houses the most gorgeous dance floor in the city, to anyone who wanted to learn to waltz in the Viennese style.
At the time, the Austrian cultural attache was a Viennese Tanzmeister. He and his wife, both magnificent dancers, taught hundreds of us at a time. Sticklers for detail, they impressed upon us the correct footwork, posture, and etiquette to equip us to attend these glittering events. Well, once you create waltzers, you plan waltzes. A particularly grand white-tie event spent whirling in the ballroom of the Organization of American States stands out: full orchestra, sparkling champagne, and mountains of whipped cream delicacies for the spent dancer.
A glimpse of this embellished silk shantung instantly conjured up the moment. As we make our way through the cold, dark days of winter, we share it with you.
The skirt, sleeveless shell, and cumberbund of the Vienna Ensemble are custom pieces. For more information visit the Custom Boutique.
Vienna Ensemble 2021
Happy National Hot Chocolate Day!
We take this occasion to celebrate one of the world’s capitals of chocolate, Vienna.
The Viennese enjoy their hot chocolate in the city’s elegant cafes.
The most famous of these is Demel, since the 18th century making art in the form of fine confectionery.
So make yourself a hot chocolate in the Viennese style: mit schlag, with a mountain of whipped cream on top.
Enjoy the grand palaces, broad boulevards, enchanting music, and glamorous balls of this city with a reverence for sweets.
Look carefully for signs of the first design of 2021. Coming soon.
Meet Captain Aileen Marty MD, US Navy (retired), Weapons Inspector, Professor, Grandmother
For more about the Shirtwaist in Midsummer Lawn, visit the Shop.
For additional information and pricing for couture pieces, contact us.
