Faking it 18th century stylee

In my last minute pressie rush on Sunday, Beyond Retro in Soho was one of my pitstops and I did actually stop in my tracks when I saw that they had created an  entrance dedicated to Marie Antoinette.  I’d venture to say that the homage was made to the Sofia Coppola film as opposed to the general 18th century epoch because of course on the mannequins aren’t genuine mantuas with hooped underskirts.  Instead, the clever peeps at Beyond Retro have created an 18th century illusion/reinterpretation with their wares of 50’s-80’s dresses, skirts and accessories.  The effect is a little bit more exaggerated, frou frou and candy coloured what one would expect.  It got me thinking about recreating older period dresses with more contemporary pieces. 

Generally speaking, I have always been a staunch believer in the real McCoy where possible.  Why buy a Topshop 20’s style dropped waist dress when I could wear a genuine 20’s delicately beaded flapper dress?  However when I want to evoke elements of a certain period as opposed to looking like I have stepped out of a costume drama, playing with the origins of the outfit can swing in my favour.  An 80’s shoulder padded top with a modern pencil skirt will probably have a better chance of depicting the 1940’s in the way that I’d want, than wearing a 1940’s genuine tea dress which would probably be disproportionate on me anyway.  There’s historical inaccuracy, rose-tinting and distortion involved in the process but it all enables me to make it my own.  Taking clothing from the 20th century to turn back three hundred years is something that I’ll be slapdashing with in the future.