Mrs Daffodil is pleased to report that to-day marks an anniversary of sorts: the one-thousandth post on this site. Mrs Daffodil should enjoy breaking out the champagne for a toast, or at the very least, passing around a box of chocolate cremes, but, alas, this is impracticable, since her readers are scattered all around the globe.
In lieu of champagne, Mrs Daffodil will share her reader’s best-loved posts and some of her own favourites, interspersed with some cuttings from her fashion scrap-books.
“Sun King” fan with tinted mother-of-pearl sticks and guards and shaded copper and gold spangles, c. 1880-1910 https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/asset/fan/xAG2xDgj6hb8LA
Although it is difficult to choose from posts so numerous and wide-ranging, three of the most popular posts shared by Mrs Daffodil were
How to Make Stage Lightning and Thunder: 1829-1900
Men Who Wear Corsets: 1889 and 1903
Strange Flower Superstitions in Many Lands
A guest post by the subfusc author of The Victorian Book of the Dead on Bad Taste in Funeral Flowers: 1895-1914, also made the top of the charts.
“Blue Willow” patterned shoes c. 1926-1930 https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/asset/shoe/QAH-kZHaG2JEyg
Posts about the contemporary costs of fashion were quite popular.
The Cost of a Curtsey: Court Presentation Expenses: 1907
Where That $10,000-a-year Dress Allowance Goes: 1903
What Gilded Youth Spends on Its Wardrobe: 1907
As were stories of how to dress nicely on a budget:
Dressing on $50 to $200 a Year: 1898
How To Be a Well-dressed Young Man on a Budget: 1890
1923 Callot Soeurs orientalist dress http://kerrytaylorauctions.com
Some of Mrs Daffodil’s personal favourites include
How to Dress (or Undress) Like a Mermaid: 1868 to 1921
A Children’s Christmas Cottage: 1850s
1925 opal tiara http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/16073/ c.
How to Entertain with Impromptu Fruit Sculpture: 1906
The Dress Doctor: An Ingenious Lady’s Profession: 1894
The Angel of Gettysburg: Elizabeth Thorn: 1863
A Shakespearean Contretemps: 1830s
Stumpwork casket with a garden on the lid, c. 1660-1690 http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/39240/stumpwork-casket
Mrs Daffodil thanks all of her readers for their kind attention and she would very much enjoy hearing about their favourite posts on this site in the comments.
Mrs Daffodil invites you to join her on the curiously named “Face-book,” where you will find a feast of fashion hints, fads and fancies, and historical anecdotes
You may read about a sentimental succubus, a vengeful seamstress’s ghost, Victorian mourning gone horribly wrong, and, of course, Mrs Daffodil’s efficient tidying up after a distasteful decapitation in A Spot of Bother: Four Macabre Tales.
Mrs Daffodil Digresses 