The Right Royal Frock          - 9/10/2006      <--Prev : Next-->


THE RIGHT ROYAL FROCK
Are there no lengths that the paparazzi will go to in order to get 
some inside knowledge of royalty ?

Being an ardent royalist and a journalist to boot, my interest was 
piqued recently when one of the Bridge and Tennis Girls announced 
that she had been invited to a Right Royal Bash where a certain
young 
Prince was to be a guest !!!!

It transpired that the only way I would be able to get info on the 
Right Royal Bash, was to offer to make TeePee's Right Royal Frock !!

The theme for the occasion was to be Gatsby, you know those Halcyon 
days of the Charleston, the flappers, the era of prohibition, the
era 
known as the Age of Intolerance and the Age of Wonderful nonsense
......

Even the language was different then, the buzz words were "making 
whoopee, doing the jitterbug, having fun in the backseat of a 
Struggle Buggy, and drinking bootleg hooch from the local gin 
mill ....."

The fashions in the roaring twenties were fabulous ...it was after 
all the romantic era. You must remember that n the 1920s, a new
woman 
was born. She smoked, drank, danced, and voted. She cut her hair, 
wore make-up, and went to petting parties. She was giddy and took 
risks. She was a flapper.

And there is no better personage than Teepee to take off that era, 
she is the perfect flapper, the most obvious tassel tosser !!

Of course the occasion necessitated the inclusion of  a few
hilarious 
Charleston lessons on the tennis court, and then all thoughts
turned 
to the making of the Right Royal Frock.

It was much discussed and talked about but at last a discreet but 
also tasteful fabric of apple green satin was thought both fetching 
and appropriate for the occasion.

Of course every flapper dress had to be fringed, but the question 
was, where to buy fringing in Bulawayo, especially the amount of 
fringing that would be needed to cover the Royal Derrière !!

Much advice was given and taken over the bridge table, to the 
eventual exclusion even of a grand slam , but after many phone
calls 
to friends and fashion houses, fringing suitable to festoon the
Right 
Royal frock was at last located in vast quantities, in an elegant 
cream colour and the Royal dressmaker began her task.

(Of course there will be no lampshades manufactured in the country 
for a number of months as there will be a notable dearth of
available 
fringing.)

And so,  sigh....... as I stitch and sew, I can only but reminisce
on 
how close I once came to being included in a Right Royal Bash, even 
if it is only as the sewer of the Right Royal Frock