What a glorious Monday we have had today - feels like Spring, looks like Spring - sunny and mild. But don't be fooled, it's still winter. MEH! But I've made the most of this day and have done chores, taken photos, played with the dogs and tried to use the sunshine as my own personal battery recharger.

But now it's time to quickly blow out this weeks blog - dogs are now inside, my tummy is swimming with one of my infamous dirty mochas (got a slight buzz going on here - I shan't lie) and while I wait on the last load of laundry to dry, I'll have a tiddly little chat about the green dress in above photo.

As I hunt the internet for additional items to add to my collection, I am sometimes very fortunate to stumble across garments at a very respectable price and when I saw this dress listed on Etsy along with another as a wholesale listing, I had a happy moment and knew they would be much welcomed additions to my private collection.

Made the purchase and the vendor was terrific - communicated well and shipped the item off quickly. A few days later, I received a message from them and they had some interesting information about this dress. They were finally catching up with their DVR recordings of Downton Abbey and noticed in the first episode of season five, quickly into the show, there was a scene with Edith, Mary and Rose entering the drawing room prior to dinner and lo and behold, the dress Edith was wearing is near identical to the dress I had purchased.

Needless to say, I felt a little bad for the seller whom possibly would have sold this dress for much more if they had seen the episode before listing the dress. But it's a crap shoot out there in the world of vintage and I am now the lucky guardian who will treasure this dress all the more.

I examined the dress, I rewound, fast forwarded and paused the DVR recording of that Downton Abbey episode which oddly I'd not yet deleted from the masses of shows I have saved. I looked at the screen shot of Edith in the dress, ran to my clothing room to look at my dress and apart from the color and some rather distressing alterations, the two are as near identical as a dress can get.

So of course this made me curious. As noted on my dress, there are some alterations that had been made many moons ago - whether by original wearer or someone down the track, it's hard to say. Along the wide beaded band at the hip, there is some hand tacking which suggests someone was trying to shorten the length of the dress and I did carefully try to detach that tacking but felt the velvet was not strong enough to handle any modifications to the alterations (try saying that fast with a mild dirty mocha buzz).....

Anyhoo, best for me to leave the dress alone for now and when I get the chance, I'll sit and try to carefully attach some of the loose beading with invisible thread and hand stitch up the parts of the dress that are a bit sad at the seams which thankfully are only in the armpits.

As far as finding out the pedigree of this dress, I did stop to wonder about the situation of mine being almost the same as the one worn by Edith in D.A. and it's fairly common knowledge that the costume designers of D.A. use mostly reproduction clothing, crafted from original patterns of the era - which this dress is 1920s. They do that to give the show some accuracy as it would look a little weird for the characters to be wearing authentic vintage or antique garments since many like this dress of mine show signs of age and wear and the characters on the show would be wearing new garments in their day. Especially people of means. So kudos to the costume department on that score because I've seen many historical shows and movies that have the cast wearing colors and fabrics that are not even close to being authentic to the era depicted in them.

Yeah, I'm a bit bitchy when it comes to stuff like that. Example, watching a western movie and the saloon harlots are wearing the cheapest of taffeta in the brightest of tones and I screech at the TV "Thats not accurate!!!!" - am sure this little oddity drives the M.O.T.H insane. But I can't help it, I like when the movie and television industry put in some thought and research into the fashions they use, and Downton Abbey is among the best. While they have taken certain liberties in the styling and design of some of the garments, it's never glaring or inappropriate and always looks as tasteful and as accurate as can be.

Okay, so now the dirty mocha is wearing off and the laundry has stopped which means I'd better hustle this bustle to get it all folded and put away. It sure is a giant pain in the bum to have to deal with normal laundry when I'd much rather play with my vintage goodies. But it has to be done so I can enjoy my day tomorrow - my first picking adventure with the Merlot Ninja for 2015! Wheeeeee! Hopefully we shall find treasure and enjoy some much needed catch up time.

To wrap this up, I've yipped about the dress I have and how it appears the same as the one worn by Edith on D.A. so after a little consideration, I decided to email Cosprop, the supplier of clothing and costume for Downton Abbey among others. I'm hoping they can give me some insight on the dress that Edith was wearing, if it was reproduced based on the creation of a well known designer back in the 1920s. While it's certainly not a Chanel design, it may be possible that the one I have is an original from someone of that era or at least a very great representation of a design, copied by some individual back in the roaring 20s which is a stronger possibility. The only way to find out is to wait and hope that a member of Cosprop responds to my email in a timely fashion and until then I'll just dream.....dream of the lavish gowns and frocks from the age of the flappers and stare lovingly at my beauty of a dress and no matter it's pedigree, I'm proud to be it's guardian for as long as possible.

Rightie - oh. Off I go. I'll be sure to update you all if I hear more.

May you dream of velvets, scattered with beading like stars in the sky.

Sam. xx