el ártico bar and grill

So.  I was not in the best of spirits when I left the house this morning. There was way too much chaos left behind as I wasn’t able to finish cleaning and a bunch of chores that I meant to do just didn’t get done. Plus, I wasn’t happy with the sheer volume of stuff I had packed into the three bags I was going to check, plus all the stuff in my carry-on backpack. And I was running later than I had planned. Not good when you are catching a flight that your employers paid for. Eh. I got to the airport on time. Being later than I planned meant that I didn’t have long to wait to board my flight, and I had Pre-Check for the first time in ages, so I didn’t have my usual really bad experience with TSA. When I got to my seat I put my bag away, sat down, and automatically pulled the strap as far out as it could go, and mentally crossed my fingers that I could fasten the seat belt without effort. Since high school I’ve known I was fat. I’ve known I was fat my entire adult life. Even...

So.  After a lifetime of seriously not giving a shit about period clothing, I‘m a little weirded out about how delighted I am to book my second Edwardian-era gig in part because I know the clothing style and how striking it looks on stage.  Part of that is how you carry yourself in that garb. Your carriage. Your gait. How you sit down. Your clothes can help you with that, and the most important part - for Western women - is often the support garment, aka the corset. The modern bra (yay!) didn’t come into common use in the US until around 1920. Before then, you kept the girls up with a corset. It was not just used as a way to squeeze yourself into the latest trends, nor was its use solely determined by social class. So. I promise, pinky swear promise, that I will not whine about wearing a corset if required. Welp, not as much as in the past. And to not opt out of wearing one if given a choice this time. Actually ... Come to think of it, I thoug...