"You SHALL go to the ball Cinders!" Er...what?

Hello again everyone and Wilkommen to the next bit. Pray do ignore the title, as I was typing under the influence of sherbert. Anyhoo, here are the promised dress photos.



This is the earliest surviving dress of Queen Victoria's and she wore it when she was about twelve, so that would've been around 1831. The mannequin does look a bit creepy, but it's quite a pretty dress and very...lacy. Well I think that that's aboot it, so on to he next one.



This is, I have to say, incredibibbly funky, mais oui? Tartan, tartan, tartan even before the Balmoral days. Well I'm guessing again here, but I'd say Victoria was about fifteen or sixteen when she wore this, as it goes down to the floor and just generally looks more mature. I can't quite get over the amazing tartannesss, so while I recover, here's one from a lot of years later.



10th February 1840. There's a date to put in your diary (if you're reading this in the past that is) as it's the day that Queen Victoria married Prince Albert. Ok, just ignore the mannequin, who looks like a corpse, and just concentrate on le dress. Pretty non? Thanks to Victoria, now pretty much everyone wears a white dress at their wedding, as all the girls getting married back then wanted to copy her style (man) and you can see why...from the helpful piccy by my fave Winterhalter, back again to give us this lurverly painting.



Next we toddle off to a particularly bad photo of a particularly nice dress and tiara-ra-ra. Now personally I think that the person who took these photos was either very tall or on stilts, as they're all at a really unflattering angle aren't they? The small child with the bob could be Bertie or Affie, but I have no idea which (probably Bertie, as he went to the partay in the mahoosive greenhouse.) Again, there's a Winterhalter to add gravitas and a better impression of what it looked like on and with all the jazzy jeweeeeelllsssssss, etc. This portrait, called 'The First of May' in 1851, depicts the Duke of Wellington (who was actually Irish by the way), Prince Albert being distracted by some pottery triffids while presenting his wife with the bill for all their bus expeditions in the posing of photos, Prince Arthur holding some premature mistletoe (I know it's not, but y'know) and the Queen wondering what on earth they were going to do with yet ANOTHER casket.





Please excuse me for a second. WWWWRRRRRAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!! Thank you. Now, the reason for that little outburst was because I've actually SEEN this dress with my own eyes (as opposed to anybody else's...) in Lunnun at the triffic exhibition there. I love, love, LOVE this dress and desperately want one of my own (a bit longer though, I think I'm a bit tall to pull that particular one off) to wear around the house, around the world and in general. Well, I'll stop gabbling now and let you just absorb the wonder that is that dress. :)))



Ok, I've decided to leaf it there for a bit, as I need to go and make some lunch, but stay tuuuned for more. Oh yes, and expect some links to several stories I've written involving all my favourite (and some of my least favourite) royals to appear razzer qvickly. Adios amigos. :)