The ghost town of Bodie, California is frozen in time, preserved by dust, yet one can imagine how it was to live back in those days, in a blooming miners town with everyone having a gold rush. Bodie is just an array of abandoned houses, most of the things are left untouched, like maps and a wooden globe in the school house, canned goods, pattern catalogs (from 1897-98) in the general store.
Elegant men and sexy women:
I know I would have been sewing away custom handmade clothing for the ladies in town. There was no chain superstore with pret a porter fashions, everything was made to order from catalogues and custom fitted.
Photos from Bodie Museum and a darling little house in town. I adore the elegance in this corset, it was meant as underwear and was probably an instrument of torture for women, but look at all the boning and topstitching, rouching and the trims and shape of it, ooh I wish I could sew like that!
I don’t know much about fashion history, so here’s what others say about those times: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1890s_in_fashion
November 13, 2008 at 1:40 pm
That’s so cool, thanks for the photos. I think of wild west fashion as being all cowboys and “dancing girls” but the second set of illustrations are just so elegant! Not what I imagined at all…
November 14, 2008 at 3:27 pm
wow the elegant garments and the detail on that corset. But didn’t that grubby sewing machine just hurt your soul? I want to run over there and clean clean clean.
November 14, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Exactly!!! I wish I could have saved both the sewing machine and that beautiful dress from from the passing of time…I’m sure a new needle, cleaning and some oil is all it needs to run for miles and miles…those were built to last more then a lifetime.
December 3, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Really enjoyed the pictures of vintage sewing items — I agree with Mary regarding the sewing machine, though!