Inspirations

Over the years I have collected inspirational and beautiful Victorian artwork and pictures. These are usually artwork or pictures of fashions from the era (either from museums or other people's recreations). I use these as inspiration for my own pieces. Bellow are some of the artwork pieces that I have fallen in love with.

This was the first picture I ever saw of this collection. I fell in love with the pink gown. There is a very talented seamstress that sells gowns on ebay that actually reproduced this dress. The gown was exquisite and I regret not getting it (although the price was a little high for me around $650)

I always felt that if I could sew my own gowns I would love to make this blue gown. All the ruffles and layers are just wonderful.


I have recently discovered the artist of this collection is James Tissot. And the even better news is he made a bunch of these. Some gowns even show up several times in his art. Below are some more art pieces that I now want to copy into gowns. I am going to be busy. :)

I have added this one to my definitely have to makes. That fabric is going to be hard to match but I love this one.

The infamous black and white stripped dress (also known as the Sleepy Hallow dress). He has this one in several of his pictures as well. There a few talented ladies out there who have successfully recreated this dress. Stripes can be tricky so this one will have to wait for a bit.


James Tissot was a very talented artist. I enjoy having art/pictures from the Victorian era that represent something closer to reality than the many fashion plates out there. Fashion plates are a great resources for ideas but sometimes can be a little stylized in their drawing making it harder to vision or recreate. Tissot has given us more of a window into this era to see what this gowns might have looked on real ladies. If you would like to see more works by Tissot, The Art Renwal Center is a wonderful resource for most of his works.