18th century day at the Norwegian Folk Museum

Last Sunday, the 22^nd, the Norwegian Folk Museum in Oslo went back to the year 1700 (or rather, 1700-ish). The open air museum was filled with music, dance performances and handicrafts from the era and, of course, people in costume from the early to late 1700s as well as national costumes.
So I packed my bags with my best finery and went to my old haunting ground Oslo to meet up with my Norwegian friends and fellow Swedes Madame Nordlund and Madame Westholm.

Outfit of the day: Anglaise and cap by Mme

Nordlund, fan and belt buckle by yours truly, shoes

 from American Duchess and bag by Court Tailor 

Armand.

Monsieur Kjaerstad, Court Tailor Armand, me, monsieur Fjeldet

and Monsieur Bjerke. Photo: Mathia Leuch

And the Swedish ladies managed to land the front page in the local newspaper Vårt Oslo...

Mme Nordlund, Mme Westholm and I at the market stalls, getting 

tempted by a  brand new book on stays. Photo: Patricia Varela, 

Vårt Oslo

Apparently, King Frederik V himself held a solemn audience outside the museum entrance...

...nevertheless, it was impossible to hear what these guys were saying (despite the oh so modern microphones), so we never even got who was supposed to be the King.

Mathia with her new fan (guess who made it)

Tasty cream waffles

On our way to Gol stave church

A grey and humid morning had turned into a sunny day with scorching heat... and according to Murphy's Law, I had left both my wide-brimmed hat AND my parasol at home! But somehow we survived without ruining our pale skin in the sun.

All in all, it was a very exciting day, full of events and surprises. And beautiful art, costumes and bunader (the Norwegian national costume. I could have owned one of those too if only I had let my late Norwegian grandmother make one for me while she was still going strong with her embroideries and knittings. Oh well...). Oslo was as beautiful as ever in the spring. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take pictures of everything, cameras were prohibited in some places (and what's more, for some reason, Blogspot will not allow me to upload any more images in this post).

An 18th century emergency kit

Dreams and downright nightmares always tend to follow specific, recurrent themes, and judging from my own and my friend's personal experiences, there seem to be at least two rather similar ones that are common among reenactors.

"Oh no, how am I supposed to get into the car now?!"

Number one is "delayed for the ball".

You are on your way to the event of the year, and after the usual, slow dressing procedure you are about to leave, looking great in your best toilette. Or so you thought, for you have somehow managed to forget to do your hair... your poor unkempt tresses are hanging about your face as on a particularly shaggy sheep dog. And not only that – now that you know that you will be delayed by at least one hour, the clock shows that the ball is just about to start...! And you were positively sure that you had plenty of time... Further dressing incidents, delays and agonies usually follow, and you never manage to get to your destination...

Number two is ”the magically disappearing clothing articles”.

Curiously, a friend of mine who has only been to one 18^th century ball in her whole life so far, had the following dream several days before the event:

She was at the ball wearing her dress, looking and feeling perfectly all right. When all of a sudden, she discovered that her stays had magically disappeared, leaving her with the bulky look of a Butterick costume from hell. Then she looked down on her feet, and realised with horror that her shoes were gone and that she was walking around in stocking feet – modern sports socks too! - under her fancy skirts...

Those dreams may of course have a much deeper meaning than mere fear of missing a party or fear of looking and feeling more or less awkward and historically incorrect. Still, forgetting basic garments, accessories and details while packing before attending an event IS a nightmarish possibility even in waking life - as every reenactor knows.

"I know I must have forgotten something..."

Due to problems of a logistic nature, I haven't been reenacting a lot lately (which you probably have noticed from my virtually nonexistent blog posts and pictures on the subject.) Something which of course has made me more afraid of forgetting something vital next time... So, I have taken the time to write a list on what should be in every lady's ”18^th century emergency kit”:

1. Pins, needles, safety pins (and maybe even some sewing thread!)
   Sooner or later something will fall off your dress: some trimmings, your stomacher, and if none of that happens, someone will step on your train and rip your dress apart...
2. Some yards of extra ribbons for corsets and lacings.
   Oh yes, it happened to me once when I was about to put on my green, front laced française... the ribbon broke (luckily I was able to tie it together and still get it through the lacing holes).
3. Hairpins, hairpins and tons of hairpins. 
   Because of the simple fact that late 18th century fashion in particular demands no less of your hair/wig and headwear than to defy the laws of gravity...
4. A small bottle of hairspray.
   Say no more.
5. Some yards of extra ribbons for the hair (to bind up and conceal mistakes and potentially missing hairpieces, of course).
6. Mouches/beauty patches (and maybe some mastix glue). In case your makeup rubs off leaving glowing red patches here and there... and offering a new aquintance a mouche might be the start of a beautiful friendship too, who knows? ;-)
7. A small set of cards, playing cards, tarot/whatever... a great way to pass time on more quiet occasions. 
   
   

   

   My personal kit.

   So, what do you people keep in your "emergency kits"? And has any of those nightmares about missing pieces ever really come true for anyone of you? As far as I can remember, it has only ever happened to my hair (and several times too!), but that's stuff for a later article...

Midnight pique nique

I have no new fan pictures this time, I just want to share some photos from the midnight picnic that took place in the Drottningholm Palace Park last weekend...
Only ten persons showed up, those from Gustaf's Skål that weren't on vacation were probably afraid that it would rain after a week of rather unstable weather conditions... Well, it did, but so little it really didn't matter, and the park was even warm and cosy enough to sleep in (even if no one did after all).

Unfortunately, almost all my pictures turned out very blurred, but if I have to choose I almost prefer that to a flat, unflattering flashlight, it was supposed to be a nocturnal event after all....

Moi

It's getting dark...

Ellinor resting

Midnight in the labyrinth. There were lots of bats fluttering around us...

Ellinor and Apollo