My Grandma and my Mom are amazing gardeners. I am not a gardener. I don’t enjoy digging in the dirt and planting, and watering and weeding and all of the assorted chores that a garden entails. However, I do absolutely love the flowers that result. I also enjoy being in the garden, and I especially love to take pictures of the flowers that grow. (As you can probably have guessed by now, considering the number of floral themed photos that appear on this blog!) This means that, even though I don’t personally enjoy gardening, I will always have flowers, as houses and yards without them, are so cheerless.
I am constantly amazed by the rainbow of colours in nature, the enormous variety of species, the unique details of the petals. . . I like taking photos of flowers as they are so easygoing: they don’t move out of frame (unless it’s windy I guess), they sit nicely while I compose my shot, and I don’t have to worry about them not smiling nicely 🙂
Both my Grandma’s backyard, and my Mom’s garden are full of such vibrant flowers – so, today’s garden is brought to you in technicolor!
Magenta Purple Daisy
Orange Lily & Hybrid purple and yellow Lupin. I say “hybrid” because the first year, they were purple and the next year they grew up, both purple and yellow combined.
Coneflower
I have no clue what variety this rose of my Grandma’s is, but it is absolutely stunning. The entire shrub is just covered in hundreds of bright pink blossoms, that fade to a delicious pale pink. The first picture in this post, is also from the same rosebush.
Soft Blue Cornflower
Such vibrant colours in this Blanketflower
Cornflower & Sweet Williams
Turk’s Cap Yellow Lily. It’s called ‘Turk’s cap” because the lilies hang downwards instead of up.
Allium, or Ornamental Onion. One of my favourites as they are a large, 4″ balls of spiky flowers!
*All technical and horticultural information in this post, brought to you by my mom. I did not remember what all of these flowers were and so I asked her for the names of them 🙂
I finally got my sunny pictures in the bright yellow canola field! And, I had the perfect outfit to wear with the field. (There I go again- matching my outfits to the farmer’s field!) Well, that is not the whole story. The real story is, I thought to myself, “What could I wear for pictures in the sunny yellow canola field?” A cursory examination of my current wardrobe revealed that I had nothing that would coordinate or contrast with a bright yellow and blue background, that I haven’t already worn a billion times, or catalogued on the blog here before. (And I really wanted to do the field justice!)
So, what to do? Why sew something new, of course! I had an old, 1980’s, baggy, rayon, navy gingham dress in my stash, that I had purchased from the thrift store with the sole purpose of refashioning into something new, and I decided that now was the time. It had been sitting there for a couple of years, waiting for the right project- and this was it! (I will detail that project’s process later.)
So, I had a pinafore, a white blouse to match, and then of course some white sunglasses as it was bright out there, (and I am nothing if not colour coordinated) and a straw sunhat to finish off the look. It was the perfect 1940’s Hollywood interpretation of a farm girl or a milk maid. (Which means that it is nothing like what a real farm girl or milk maid would actually wear, but there is nothing better than a fake Hollywood interpretation of reality, right?) So, that leads me to the title of this post- Dorothy, of The Wizard of Oz. I was almost done making this pinafore when I realized that my outfit looked very fairytale like, although I couldn’t place my finger quite on which character. At first I thought of Alice in Wonderland, but then I remembered that Alice has a solid blue dress with a white pinafore. So then I was trying to remember whose dress mine looked like- and then I realized that it is strikingly similar to Judy Garland’s outfit in that movie- and it was completely by accident! 🙂 I don’t have a yellow brick road, but I do have a road surrounded in yellow- so does that count?
Do you have any dresses similar to movie costumes, either on purpose, or by accident?
Harem pants have got to be one of the most interesting and comfortable garments ever invented, and honestly I don’t know why they are not more popular in Western fashion. Most commonly known as “harem pants” in the West, they can also go by the names “genie pants”, “elephant pants”, “Aladdin pants”, “parachute pants”, “Sarouel pants”, “Thai pants”, “pantaloons”, and “bloomers” (And I am sure the list goes on. . . ) The true name for these pants, which are “extremely full, puffed Turkish-style pants, very full at the waist and gathered at the ankle”*, is “Salvar” or “Shalwar”. These are simply the Turkish and Persian words for “pants”. (Other languages also use the word “shalwar” for this style of garment, with variations on spelling.)
Harem pants are one of those distinctly “exotic” garments we encounter very little in the Western world. Even the name “Harem Pants” conjures up images of foreign, glamorous and outrageous fashions. Yet in much of the world- the Middle East, African, and Asian cultures- these pants are still worn daily by both men and women as a practical and comfortable everyday garment. When my brother was traveling in Nepal, he saw many people wearing this style of pant, and even purchased a pair like the ones I have, only in red. This style of pant is alive and well, yet despite the fact that this fashion has been around for ages, much like the Turban, which I shared about in my post here, it has only been sporadically and minimally popular in the West.
Originating in ancient Persia about 2,000 years ago (as we don’t have any records to substantiate the fashion before then) these trousers were everyday clothes for both men and women. They are thought to have developed from the man’s dhoti, which was a skirt/tunic tied and wrapped into a trouser shape, eventually evolving into a true trouser like garment. There is very little evidence of what women wore in ancient Persian/Middle Eastern cultures, as there are no records depicting women in artwork of the time. While we do have some record of what men were wearing, one of the earliest records of women’s fashions is from 5th century BC, in which a Queen is depicted wearing trousers and a long tunic. Interestingly enough, women are also shown wearing more fitted and “modern” styled trousers underneath long tunics at home. However, whenever women left their homes, they did not wear the more revealing trousers, instead wearing baggy ankle length trousers, long tunics and shawls over their upper body and head. The combination of these trousers, and the large mantle effectively concealed the body, and maintained modesty. Up until the last century, this remained the standard outfit of Middle Eastern women.
However, the Western fashion world went in a completely different direction from the East- both literally and figuratively 🙂 Although Europe had much the same ideology of feminine “modesty”, this manifested itself in a different way. Rather than baggy pants, women instead wore skirts and dresses. Although they varied in length, style and shape, the one thing they had in common was that they never showed or revealed the shape of the leg, rather concealing it, lest it be revealed (heaven forbid!) that women had these two appendages on the lower half of their bodies! Although some fashions could hardly be called modest (the low cut bodices of the 18th century, or the tightly laced Victorian silhouette, for example), by not revealing the leg, they were considered “proper” and modest by society. Trousers, Breeches, Pants, all generally the same garment, by different names, were firmly a man’s garment throughout the next centuries of Western fashion.
18th Century Costume from “The Orphan of China”, Source
Although there are several examples of blowsy pants depicted in fashion plates of the late 1700’s, pants for women do not seem to have burst onto the scene until the mid 19th century. However, I can’t seem to find much out about the pants of the 1700’s, and it appears that they were “fancy dress” costumes, or stage costumes, rather than actual garments women of the day were wearing. (If you know more about harem pants in this era, please do let me know, as I’d love to find out more about this era!) Of course, throughout the centuries, women have dressed as men, whenever circumstances behooved them too, but the key was that it was done incognito.. If women dressed as men, they were disguising themselves as men, and this remained the norm up until the 19th century, when things were suddenly going to change in women’s fashion.
In 1851, Amelia Bloomer, who was a women’s rights activist, burst onto the European world stage in a “Turkish Dress”. The was a Victorian styled Turkish outfit consisting of a short dress with baggy shalwar pants underneath. Amelia Bloomer was an advocate for this outfit, reasoning that it would provide women with ease of movement, ability to excercise, freedom from restrictive corseting, hoop skirts, petticoats etc, and would also prevent the germs, dirt and mire that collected on the trailing skirts of the time from being dragged into the home. This style, she argued, was successfully being worn by women of Asian and Middle Eastern countries. Unfortunately, the style did not pick up as she hoped, and was dismissed by many as to leading to the downfall and decay of society if it was to become mainstream. However, the style of pants were popular enough, even if dismissed at the time as extreme, to be immortalized as “bloomers” after her name. Some women did choose to wear this style of pants at the time, although it was more for practical and social reasons than for fashion. In the later Victorian years, these pants were adapted into “bicycling bloomers”, and were actually thought to be more modest an alternative than bicycling in a long skirt (which could also be dangerous!) However, despite the fact that 50 years or so had passed, they were still not thought to be fashionable, and were instead regarded as much too scandalous.
Poiret, whose designs were most popular from 1904-1924, would finally introduce the harem pant to the Western world, not for practical or social reasons, but for fashion alone. (although the timing was certainly influenced by the culture). Poiret was greatly inspired by Oriental, Persian, and Eastern styles, and these played heavily into his collections. His collections were made up of kimonos, turbans, tunics, flamboyant embroidery, eye makeup, ornate jewelry, and finally in 1911, the arrival of the long awaited “Harem Skirt”, as it was first called. Poiret’s harem pants arrived at a time of women’s rights advancements in history, (this was right around the peak of the woman’s suffrage movement) and they became popular with the more progressive ladies of the time willing to “shock” polite society. Even the name “Harem Pants” was designed to stand out as modern and exotic. Poiret’s One Thousand and Second Night Ball (inspired by the 1001 Arabian Nights stories) was a place to show off his collections, and harem pants along with hobble skirts and lampshade tunics, were the most desired styles of the time.
One of Poiret’s 1002nd Night Inspired Garments, Source
Although harem pants didn’t end up “taking off” as they were, they instead became a bit of a stepping stone to women’s wearing pants of any kind. The blowsy and full modest shape of the trousers, allowed society to get used to the idea that women actually possess legs, and by the time World War One was over, women were wearing pants for fashion, not just for practicality. Although the popularity of harem pants died out in the 1920’s, we see other styles of trousers rising to take their place in women’s fashion. Interestingly enough, the garment that was designed to conceal the body in the East, was destined to reveal it in the West.
Harem pants would fade out of style after the 1920’s. They didn’t see much success in the 1940’s or 1950’s, as the fashion sensibilities of those eras was a tightly corseted “ladylike” silhouette. The blowsy, flowy exotic pants, didn’t quite fit that image. I have, however seen one example of a harem skirt dress, designed by Jaques Fath in 1952. The “Canasta” dress was made of turquoise chiffon although, unfortunately, the pictures are in black and white. The tightly fitted bodice of this garment is very “of the era”, while the loose billowy culottes have the appearance of a skirt, rather like a puffball skirt.
Harem pants were to be resurrected in the 1960’s and 70’s, with the “global” inspired craze that again swooped through fashion at the time, bringing kaftans, turbans, peasant styles, tunics and other ethnic garments back into style. Although they never reached fashion heights, the harem pants of the 1960’s, were reinvented in the form of “harem pyjamas” which were either sewn as a one piece, like below, or paired with a short tunic, or oriental style bolero. They were often worn as loungewear.
In the 1980’s and 90’s, harem pants again became popular, this time with street culture, since the loose fit of the pants were perfect for hip-hop dance. Several rappers such as MC Hammer famously wore them while performing, thus they became known as “hammer pants”.
Harem pants today are still a controversial fashion item in the West. We hardly see them in European and American wardrobes, and yet they are such a versatile and unique garment. They have faded in and out of fashion throughout the past century, but have never really caught on. In my personal opinion, the pants that have been released in recent years have not retained that exotic and elegant air, and have instead come across as shapeless, baggy, stretched out, dropped crotch garments which are as far as possible from fashionable as can be. Sorry to be so derisive, but harem pants of the past, and harem pants, or more correctly shalwar, of the East today, are so beautiful and unique, that it seems a shame that they should be reinvented in such a bad way. However, even the more traditional style of harem pant- blowsy and drapey- is rarely seen in Western fashion. It is kind of funny when you think about it: that one of the oldest garments- predating even the “dress” as we know it- is largely considered too avant garde for Western fashion. I do appreciate the fact that the 21st century allows me, as a woman to choose what I want to wear, whether it is a skirt, a dress, fitted pants – or more unconventional styles like harem pants!
Oftentimes true harem pants, whether in a Thai Pant style, or gathered harem style, are associated with a more hippy culture, but I think that they can easily be styled for a more vintage look as well. When I wore my pants a week ago, to church, I paired them with a pin tucked blouse so that I would get the 1910’s silhouette, and some sparkly jewelry and headband and black Mary Jane’s. I feel like this conveyed the style, without being too over the top. I did feel a bit out of my element, and yet, it is so fun wearing harem pants. I was serious when I said I don’t know why they haven’t caught on in Western fashion. They are the best combination of skirt and pants: the comfort, looseness and coolness on a hot day, that a skirt gives you, with the ease of pants for working, running, exercising and leaping (even on windy days when you don’t want to accidentally flash the whole world!) I can see why women around the globe wear these daily! So, do you want to give harem pants a try? Here are some tips to keeping you look fabulous as you do!
To wear harem pants in a vintage style, look for inspiration from Poiret’s collections of the 1910’s.
Tucking your shirt in, will create a more vintage silhouette, rather than wearing an untucked t-shirt, which will give you more of a modern, causal, “earth mother” silhouette. (you know what I mean!)
A blousy shirt, either a peasant style top, or any kind of soft drapey shirt, will tuck in nicely, and pair well with the softness of the pants. Make sure that the top is not too bulky or stiff, as the pants will be “big”, and you will end up looking big all over. It’s like the opposite of wearing a pencil skirt, where a large top is OK because it is balanced out by the slim bottom, here you want a softer or slimmer top to balance out the larger bottom. Details like pin tucking, pleats, buttons, lace, chiffon etc. will evoke a 1910’s style.
A button-up or structured blouse or shirt will play off the drapey pants well, and keep you looking vintage. For a casual look, wear a tie front shirt. This will keep the look structured enough, while also looking a bit “dressed down” without being a t-shirt, which will read as modern.
A structured jacket or blazer will work nicely too. I have seen a more modern style of cropped blazer paired with harem pants and it looks fabulous!
I also really love the look of the crossover top the model is wearing in the 1960’s image above. It is fitted and elegant, and suits the style of the pants nicely.
Pairing these pants with high heels, will elevate the look (literally- haha) as well as making you look dressed up, rather than dressed down. If you aren’t careful, harem pants can easily look like “I didn’t even try” instead of “I am fabulous”.
Pairing the pants with sparkly jewelry, bracelets, earrings, headbands, feathers, cloches, etc. will give you a Poiret 1002nd Night’s look. Be careful of going overboard, as it could look very “costumey” very quickly. But, then again, if you love that more embellished look- I say “go for it!”
If you want to try a 1960’s look- pair your pants with a vest or tunic. This would be a really fun look.
And most importantly: Be confident! If you are anything like me, you are most likely in the minority with this style of pants, you are out of your comfort zone, and people are probably staring at you, so just walk with confidence knowing you look great- and are in league with many other stylish women both past and present!
So, what do you think- will you try Harem Pants? What do you think of Poiret’s 1002nd Nights style? Do you think we will see a resurgence of this fashion in Western culture?
Also, PS: While doing research for this post, I came across this company, Hippie Pants, that sells Thai Pants, which are fair trade too! While I have not personally purchased anything from them, they have some beautiful styles, (this is the style of pants I have, in rayon) and I thought you might like to see where you can get some for yourself – or just simply be inspired 🙂
Want to read more about Harem Pants? Here are the sources I used:
“The Mode in Costume” (book) by R. Turner Wilcox is an invaluable resource for of fashion history.
* This definition is from “Fairchild’s Dictionary of Fashion” (book), which has definitions of all fashion related terms, and is also quite interesting to read.
If I have a “windblown” appearance in these photos, it is because I was. This was the fastest photoshoot in the history of the world, as we were literally racing to beat the thunderstorm rolling in! I live in rural Alberta, in a farming community, and in the summer that means that you are surrounded by either canola or grain- this summer the majority of fields are canola. As the blooms have just opened, and the landscape is a gorgeous sea of yellow, I wanted to take advantage of it, and get some photos in the field. Unfortunately this summer we have received an extraordinary amount of rain. For my readers in other parts of the globe, this is normal I am sure, but for us we are not used to this amount of rain. It has rained almost every day since the Victoria Day weekend, interspersed with periods of sunshine. This is great for the garden, but not so great for other things, like getting photos for the blog 🙁
Last week, I was thinking about which outfits would be good to coordinate with the canola field. (I am sure that is a sentence that has never been spoken before in the history of man. I don’t think farmers usually worry about how their outfits match their fields! “Bloggers- doing new things every day!”)
Anyways, I decided that I really wanted to get some pictures of these amazing harem pants I got earlier this summer, and I thought that they would stand out perfectly against the canola. I wanted to evoke a 1910’s/1920’s Paul Poiret’s One Thousand and Second Night Ball feel with my outfit, so I paired the pants with a slightly Edwardian styled pin tucked blouse, black Mary Jane shoes, and lots of sparkly jewelry and a headband. With a parasol as a prop this turned out to be a 1910’s styled outfit. (I say “prop” as obviously a paper parasol was not needed in the brink of the approaching rainstorm!)
Thus, I had my clothes chosen, and the sun was shining, which was a rare occurrence, so I got my sister (who loves makeup and is an aspiring makeup artist) to do some a modern 20’s makeup. (As much as I love the look of 20’s makeup in vintage photographs of movie starlets, it does tend to make people look like racoons in this day and age.) She was more than happy to do so, and came up with this lovely gold shadowed eye.
By the time the makeup was done, and I had finished getting ready, we went outside only to find that in the half hour or so, the sun had vanished behind a bank of clouds and a storm was rolling in- and quickly too! But, it wasn’t raining quite yet, so we jumped in the car and raced down the road a 1/4 mile to get to a good spot for photos. We battled the wind, we could see the lightning in the distance, the farmer drove by in his tractor (probably shaking his head at the crazy person dressed up in a “costume” taking pictures) and there were a lot of outtakes owing to hair being tossed about- but at least I wasn’t wearing a circle skirt! Then the images would’ve had a distinctly Marilyn Monroe vibe to them. . . 😉
Sorry this is a rather photo heavy post, but I really couldn’t whittle the number down, as I love how they turned out! At first, when we raced out the door, I was sad that the sun was gone, as the canola is so vibrant in the sunshine, and yet, I love how the towering storm clouds and the perfect lighting you get before a storm, gave such a brooding depth to the pictures. I think they really capture that Art Nouveau, exotic feel of Poiret’s fashion style, with an almost painterly appearance. This outfit deviated so much from what I normally wear, and yet I love it. This might just be my favourite outfit shoot so far!
What are the craziest circumstances you’ve ever taken photos in? Would you wear harem pants? What do you think of Paul Poiret’s 1910’s styles?
(I will have more about on the history of harem pants later this week, by the way, so stay tuned for more!)
Blouse – thrifted
Pants – imported direct from Thailand (that’s all the tag says)
(Alberta: Canola in bright, sunshine-filled bloom)
We are a culture surrounded by and immersed in images and photos everywhere we look. Advertisements, magazines and social media: a constant influx of images. Everyone is a photographer, and each one is documenting the world they see around them, the way they see it. I love how these little snapshots are being captured and catalogued. They are memories of a moment in time.
I have always been a person who takes photos daily. I used to carry around my little point and shoot film camera, always hoping for that special photograph I knew was waiting for me. A few years ago, I even challenged myself to a “Photo a Day” challenge: sometimes taking photos of the beautiful, sometimes of the mundane. Today, I don’t always carry my real camera with me, but I have one in my phone (as many of us do) and so I always have it ready to capture an experience, or something interesting. Do the photos I take need to be perfect and professional? Do I need to have a “purpose” for the photo? Do I have to share them on my blog or on Instagram? No. Sometimes it’s just nice to look back and think- “Oh yes, remember that time?” Or, “When did such and such happen”, and you have a picture to refresh your memory. Sometimes the photo serves no purpose, but to be there and bring a smile to your face. And really that is all they need to be. Snapshots; offering a glimpse into one little moment that was, no matter how fleeting it may have been.
So, here are some photos, taken over the last month or so. Not related to anything, or related to each other, but I like them nonetheless. Do you take “purposeless” photos too?
berry picking, my Grandma’s beautiful rosebush & so many mushrooms this wet year
a weedy clover bouquet & my favourite country lane near my house
books read/reading (we are reading Little Dorrit aloud, as Dickens was meant to be)
baking, tea- always tea & the latest sewing refashioning project
Three Persian Ladies, 
From Mode In Costume, by R. Turner Wilcox
Algerian Lady in Traditional Dress, 
Traditional Persian Clothing, 
18th Century Costume from “The Orphan of China”, 
Amelia Bloomer’s Turkish Dress, 
Mid 19th Century, Amelia Bloomer. 
House of Worth, c. 1870. 
Late Victorian Women’s Cycling Bloomers. 
One of Poiret’s 1002nd Night Inspired Garments, 
Jacques Fath’s Canasta Dress, 
