ann lowe

Spring is almost here! I don’t know how February went by so slow and so fast at the same time, but it did. And now we are pretty much halfway through this month!

Last weekend, I gave a presentation for a girls’ youth group mentored by my local chapter of Zeta Phi Beta. I taught them about Elizabeth Keckley, Ida B. Wells, and Ann Lowe. The girls loved it, and the adults agreed. I will post the full video on my YouTube in a bit (I still have two seconds to go in and caption because I forgot my microphone at home). In the meantime, here are Parts 1 & 2. I’ve also attached the PDF of the presentation at the bottom.

This month is jam-packed with creative things (as always!). The March letters for the pen-pal Patreon tier will be going out sometime this week. I also finally realized my (mostly done) website for my historical costuming and art, which is outside of my main photography website: www.TheMarisaZimmerman.com

The BIG project that I am working on is my “American Beauty” gown to wear to Dandy Wellington’s Easter Strut Party on 4/5. I became OBSSESSED with 1960’s fashion since watching Palm Royale on Apple TV, so I decided to scrap my original idea of a 1950’s gown (since you all know that I love vintage), and wanted to go with something from the 60’s. Then a friend posted Ann Lowe’s American Beauty gown (which I had the pleasure of seeing in person when it was on display at Winterthur Museum), found the pattern for it by Charm Patterns, and now I am knee-deep in fabric. One of the best things is that I already had all of the fabric for the gown and the flowers on hand!!! That was also a sign to start cataloguing my fabric better.

The gown is going to be made of ivory silk taffeta, and the roses and vines will be made from blush pink and hunter green duchess satin. I may pull out another shade of pink satin that I had to give the roses some more dimension.

My 4th annual tea party is in two weeks on Saturday, 3/28! And while I don’t necessarily need something new to wear, I’ve been DYING to make an Edwardian tea gown from the Ikea curtains that I snagged on sale forever ago. I figure it wouldn’t take too long to make a simple top and skirt, along with a new dip-waist belt and a hat. I keep saying that the shapes of Edwardian gowns look so similar to ancient Roman gowns, just cinched at the waist. So, time to experiment!