Ragtime

Ladies' Evening Dress for the Ragtime Era. 1910-1920

"Fashionable gown styles varied from year to year during the 1910's. At the beginning of the decade styles were rather columnar, with long skirts that fell quite straight. By 1913-14 the skirts are elaborately draped and quite fanciful. In the middle of the decade, during 1915-16, the skirts developed an A line silhouette. By the end of the decade the skirt silhouette was once again fairly straight."

Ladies' and Gentlmen's Evening Dress for the Ragtime Era: 1910-1920

"Evening Gowns of the 1910's

Ladies' evening dress of this era often consist of a high-waisted gown (though the waist placement varys somewhat from high to natural to low waisted styles throughout the decade), usually in soft fabric such as chiffon or lightweight satin, often ornamented with elaborate lace, silk brocades or beadwork and draped asymmetrically. The long skirt should have enough fullness for dancing.

Skirts often would be made in many layers with elaborately draped overskirts in lightweight materials in various types of silk or lace. Skirts are usually draped in such a way that the rather full skirt falls in a fairly narrow silhouette but because of the nature of the draping great freedom of movement is possible. Colors can be pastels or jewel tones, with contrasting, striking color combinations as well as subtle tone on tone combinations."

The Tides of Change: Twenty Years of Fashion, 1900-1920: McCall's Magazine: November 1912

Attire for Ragtime Events

"Fashions of this period were strongly influenced by the exotic colors and fabrics of the Orient."

Orientalism in Dress: Edwardian Fashion/Titanic Era 4: 1910s Fashion History

Titanic & 'Teens

Timeline of Costume History: 20th Century Western Costume: 1910-1920
Books on 20th Century Costume

Economic Times

I was reading articles in the Economic Times of India, and they were reminiscent of newspaper articles in the Silicon Valley around 1999. Interestingly, some of the articles sound as if they were written by American journalists for American readers, which probably shows how intertwined the economic link is between the U.S. and India.

I learned two words used in the Indian number system:

1 crore = 10 million
1 lakh = 100 thousand

Dinner at Astrid's

Astrid invited a bunch of people over for dinner on Sunday. Dinner included a tomato salad of tomatoes grown in their garden, and watermelon from the garden as well. At one point, the three women went outside to the garden and stayed and chatted for what seemed like an hour. The guys didn't seem to miss us.

Engineers are defecting... to law, marketing, and other things. I'm just starting....

I heard that Emily got married recently. I had lived with her for one quarter when I sublet her roommate's room in the dumpy apartment in Mountain View. She married the Indian guy she had been dating at the time. I remember asking her about her thoughts on marriage. This is the second Indian-Chinese marriage I know of among my friends and classmates, the below being the first.

Tea with Ashish

I met up with Ashish a few weeks ago when he was in town for a conference at Stanford. I hadn't seen him in about two years. It's so nice to have made friends at Asera whom I still keep in touch with, although infrequently. I kind of miss those days, working at a start-up and hanging out, and being an honorary Indian. ;)

We had tea at Ray's. He mentioned that he was planning to give Q an engagement ring that weekend. We talked for a while but I can't really remember much. I asked him how much software engineers make in India these days, and he thought about $20,000. That was higher than I had thought. Oh yeah, and a funny story about his grandfather asking his parents why he hasn't found a girl to marry yet, since his grandfather didn't know about Q.

Engagements

At the last FNW I went to in August, I heard about two more engagements. One DL couple, and another dance couple, one of whom is in DL. M said that all the women in DL get engaged within two years of joining. Well... then it looks like I have one more year to go.... Uh huh.

Well, that FNW was pretty hot and sweaty. I didn't even bother going to this month's. I will return in the cooler months.

Wedding #2

N & J's wedding was at the end of July at a winery somewhere south of here. I carpooled there with Jen and her friend, whom I had actually met before when I lived in Burbank and hung out at Stern Dining Late Nite. This was the most classy wedding I've been too. It was small and intimate as well. I guess it was an honor to be an invited guest! There were many multiple connections among the people at the wedding. It's slightly amusing that J and I had both been J's Screw Your Sib blind dates. The hors d'oeuvres and dinner were catered by Le Papillon, a very good and expensive French restaurant in Saratoga. Steve was very excited about the foie gras hors d'oeuvre.

The ceremony was literally about five minutes long. J's cousin married them. N & J said their own vows. The dinner tables were each named with a Chinese character for words such as love, friendship, strength, happiness, etc. Without knowing it at the time, my bridal shower gift to her sort of fit in with that theme. I was at the friendship table, sitting next to J and one of the girls I had met at the bachelorette party. She's very pretty. Half the table were Berkeley alumni. Half the table were unemployed. All the Berkeley people went out to smoke, except for the girl sitting next to me.

After dinner, there was dancing. Not the kind that I know how to do. I don't know how to bop up and down, only social dance. The DJ did play some Swing and salsa, and one waltzable song. But nobody else knew how to dance those dances. I led Jen in a waltz, and she tried leading me in a salsa.

There was also the throwing of the bouquet and garter. The guys just watched blankly as the garter fell to the ground.

Afterwards, there was a wedding afterparty at their house. We played a game, but didn't stay too long.

New Blog

I just transferred the old site to a different URL, which is not even published, and this is a new blog, although it is at the same location. My choice of template shows my true Cardinal roots.