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All the Rage – Friday Fictioneers

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Good Wednesday-Friday Fictioneers Day, my peeps!  Today I have attempted a “Rochelle-esque” story.  Plus, it’s my photo and I swear, when Rochelle asked me for it, I knew exactly what I was going to do.  Well sorta-kinda exactly.  I also swear, I did NOT read her story first.

Should you like to attempt your own 100-word story based on my picture of the New-ish Montreal Symphony House, then click on the blue frog and add your link.  Easy-peasy.  If you want the official rules and regs, click on Rochelle’s name above….And THEN add your story 😉

Click here to get the link to your blog

©Me, Myself and I

A “Rochelle-Style” Historical Fiction

100 words

All the Rage

Charlotte looked at the metal contraption warily.  “It looks heavy.”

“Oh contraire, Mademoiselle.  It is actually going to reduce the weight of the dress as you no longer need to wear so many petticoats.  Now turn around and lift your arms, s’il vous plaît.”

Charlotte did as Monsieur Milliet requested as he lifted his invention and placed it over her head.  He then tied a ribbon around her waist to hold it in place.  “Voilà!  Is is not magnifique?”

“Oui, Monsieur.  Let’s try it with my dress.  It would be scandalous to waltz about in just my petticoat and hoop!”

Originally created by Mr. R.C. Milliet

136 thoughts on “All the Rage – Friday Fictioneers”

  5. Dear Dale,

    Alter egos? Us? GMTA. 😉 Mayhaps we’re spending too much time talking. Nah. I love it that we even went to the same link. At the same time they aren’t exactly the same story. You went with the creator and I went with the discomfort of all those layers. So there you go. Similar but different. Yours works very well and I love Charlotte’s sense of humor. Well done, my friend. 😀

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

    Liked by 1 person

  8. What a fun way to go with this prompt, I like it! Frankly I’m surprised it never became the fashion just to wear those cool hoops as outer wear… and I was only halfway through typing that sentence before it occurred to me that I can make that a real fashion in Eneana. Oo, thanks for the idea!

    Liked by 1 person

  9. They sort of were prisons, weren’t they? Ways for them and their menfolk owners to show off – ‘look how rich I am that my wife can wear such impractical clothing. No laundry, bread making, floor scrubbing for her – we have servants for that’. Cumbersome though the crinoline was, the corset must have been the worst, don’t you think?
    Love your view here, from a mystified young lady wondering at this new invention. Lovely stuff Dale

    Liked by 1 person

    • I think so… and even the “working womenfolk” had a version of this to wear – not quite so wide, I should think. I think I’d take the hoop over 4-5 layers of petticoats. Ugh. Fuggedabout the corsets! No wonder they were passing out left and right…
      Thank you; very glad you enjoyed!

      Liked by 1 person

      • Well I guess you needed a working woman to help you into the corsets too – another element of the ‘clothing as display of wealth’ nonsense. Like wearing designer labels today. And yes, the petticoats must have been sweltering and really heavy. No chance of swimming if you were unlucky enough to fall overboard on a seas voyage – you’d sink without trace!

        Liked by 1 person

    • Well, Jilly. It’s like this. As this is one of my pictures (of a few I took at the Symphony House) and I did take one more of the one on the right which looks even more like an underskirt contraption…
      It truly was a coincidence and they are bound to happen now and again!
      Thank you. Glad you liked,

      Like

  13. Lightweight my ass! Even with a hoop, those dresses are h-e-a-v-y. I used to deck out for Holidays at the hysterical – uh – historical society. Ach, but there’s no doubt why they had so many fainting couches! But, I really did like the corset… at least the one I wore.

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    • Ha ha ha ha! Jelli… can you imagine how much heavier 5-6 petticoats must’ve been? Love that “hysterical – uh – historical”… you funny one you.
      Corset does flatter the figure, doesn’t it?

      Liked by 1 person

      • Well, now, let’s see. On average, when I’m dressed for ‘settler’ I wear between 3-6 petticoats depending on temperature. Amazingly warm… but in summer…oh, How I LOVE the hoops!

        Liked by 1 person

        • Wow! So. You know it. You can totally relate! I watch movies or shows and am always wondering how they don’t just die on the spot. I loathe being too hot. No wonder people didn’t live long…

          Liked by 1 person

    • A question I always ask myself when I watch a period piece!! And variations of those bloody things still exist today (mostly for wedding dresses, but still…)

      Like

  20. Back in the very old days, when I was young and spry, I went to a dance camp in the Rocky Mountains years on end. One year we did a dance wearing hoop skirts. Yoiks! Walking, sitting, dancing in one of those contraptions was like torture.

    Liked by 1 person

  21. Talk about scandalous! When they were first introduced it took a while for ladies to get the hang of dragging their skirts around for things like sitting down. If you sit down without lifting the hoop, the whole thing flies up, revealing eveeeerything. Most embarrassing.

    Thank you so much for logging in again on my site. That helps a lot.

    Liked by 1 person

  22. Q,

    A well dressed 100 words . . as per!

    I find it remarkable the lengths to which women would go as far as fashion is concerned. It’s rather involved, if not totally painful! Us guys are wimps in comparison.

    Love the pics, the words, the very idea of a scandal. I mean . . who doesn’t dig a tasty ‘lil scandal every now and then?

    Sophisticated and sexy read, Mademoiselle.

    BH

    Liked by 1 person

    • Absolutely. I know men didn’t have it too easy either with the stiff collars and jackets and so on. It’s utterly ridiculous at times. At least in today’s society, there is more leeway. I’m not a trend-follower, tend to stick to classics so I’m not forever wasting money to “be one of the crowd”. I think back then you were seriously frowned upon if you didn’t.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Judged by our clothes, both sexes. And not only back then. Right through until recently. And only then did the pressure lessen because certain groups of females refused to conform. Yet there had always been the non-conformists. Eccentrics. They get my vote every time.

        Liked by 1 person

  30. Dale Rochellson? Rochelle Dalesoff? In any case, it’s a great take. I wonder how they could do anything in these torture devices. No wonder ‘close dancing’ was invented mauch later.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Thanks, Russell. Glad you liked!
      Course not! You’re a man who, I dare say, never had the occasion to see just what was under the dresses of women at certain epochs! 😉

      Liked by 1 person

  33. When I started to wear such things in the 1950’s they were starched petticoats called crinolines. By the time I was married they had come out with a stiff, plastic mesh petticoat. I think the one in the picture is sort of Frank Lloyd Wright-ish. A heavy duty petticoat.

    Liked by 1 person

    • In the 1950’s, they were definitely much lighter (and cuter) than the 1850’s version I added – actually 1859, to be exact 😉 Maybe Lloyd-Write based his designs on it!

      Like

      • Au contraire, chère dame. ‘It’ has no talent, thus not talented. Unless they had a meeting, and the meaning has been changed to ‘he who dances with rabbits’.

        Liked by 1 person

        • Là là mon cher ami… why you so hard on yourself, eh? IT… does have talent… but IT choses to keep IT for ITself. And, just so ya know… WE know you’re a good egg..é

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          • Lol to ‘there there’. Then growls at your acute insight.

            And they will carve into stone, ‘Alas He Was A Good Egg’, not such a bad epitaph when you think about it, though am sure a crack will develop in the granite between E and gg..

            Liked by 1 person

    • Nope. At least not for the every day wear. But wedding dreases? Lighter versions 😉
      They have some stupid-ass ideas that I am sure will NOT be popular

      Like

  42. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to wear one of those things. I used to complain when we “had” to wear hose with our dresses (so many years ago). Lovely tale! We’ve come a long way… =)

    Liked by 1 person

    • I’m with you on that… I would not even work for a company that “demands” hose… ugh.
      We definitely have (thank goodness!)
      Glad you enjoyed, Brenda.

      Liked by 1 person

  43. Oh là là, I’m still trying to get over the shock of you and Rochelle thinking of the same fashion contraption! 😁
    It probably serves the same purpose as a chastity belt. 😜

    Liked by 1 person

  44. Fashion that falls under same category as stilettos, push up bras, platform shoes, waist-trainers… the things we come up with as a society. Although we still wear these from time to time 😉

    Liked by 1 person

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