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