Soon you will be able to buy through this website full ensembles as well as individual pieces. We will be selling many full and beautiful gently worn ensembles that were built for “The Buffalo Gals” at “rock bottom” (below materials’ cost) here. While the focus of Silhouettes is as always …
Author: Silhouettes
Now Building Bonnets!
Offered alongside garments & materials on sale, we will be specializing in historically accurate bonnets 1860-1890 as part of the “authentic from the waist up” movement during the year 2021. Specify a year, style, and color scheme, and let us build it for you.
And we must give credit to outstanding Natural Era designers…
.. from other genres of film and TV, like this gorgeous ensemble by designer Joan Bergin, worn by Scarlett Johannson in “The Prestige”.
It’s still fun to watch old Westerns like Gunsmoke..
.. where, in spite of her corsetless shape and historical inaccuracies, you’ve still gotta love a woman like Kitty who runs her own business wearing form fitting Natural Era made out of rayon and spandex. (Photos: Miss Kitty and the gang in about 1956 TV series “Gunsmoke”)
In the movie “Tombstone”, the dead on accuracy…
… of the men in shooting and the women’s ensembles is legendary. In one of the opening scenes, you can see the leading ladies wearing the long, single seamed Princess dress of 1878-79 before it merged with the Cuirasse bodice that made it armour like (which the high fashion characters …
One of our favorite Western movies for historical accuracy though..
… is the 1993 “Tombstone” with Kurt Russel. Not only are the character depictions spot on (wives are sedate in homemade goods, while the rich actress is in high fashion silks with copious trims), but they even have the undergarments fitted as the characters would. The “regular women” wear “every …
And some of the older Western movies like…
… the Wild Wild West of 1999 which take place in the Natural Form Era (around 1880), were quite a bit off the mark. Like many of the Westerns of the 1940’s, it appears instead of a corset or a heavily boned cuirasse bodice, she is wearing a spandex body …
Some of the newest Westerns just out..
.. like “The Lone Ranger”, have taken their 1880 depictions to extreme. In a world of fantasy costuming, though, saloon girls can dress like ladies, and ladies can paint themselves like saloon girls. They don’t have to be historicallly correct. (Photos: can you now pick out the historical accuracies and …
For some reason, Western movies like Natural Form fashion..
.. and the late 1870’s to early 1880’s time frame for their depictions. It is likely because those were the days when Wyatt Earp and brothers were at the peak of fame, or because it was the time of cattlemen range wars. Caroline Lockhart, famous Western novelist from Cody, Wyoming, …
The slim lines of 1879-80 were only really good…
… for very slim women and those who did not have to work. It took time to get into, was difficult to move in, and required yards and yards of expensive fabrics and trims to get the look right. It was a look for young and tall women, and lasted …