A well-pressed daisy

Testing an IFTTT connection.

Source: wellpresseddaisy https://wellpresseddaisy.tumblr.com/post/781581916953575425/testing-an-ifttt-connection

Catholic students attending Hogwarts have to get a dispensation from Rome to go. Not because the Church has an issue with magic, but because they won’t be able to fulfill their weekly obligation to attend Mass.

While Hogwarts technically has a non-denominational chapel, it’s currently being used as an excellent place to store firewood. No one has asked to have a service in there for generations, nor do they still have a chaplain. The last chaplain at Hogwarts served at some point in the early 18th century, but no one really liked him and students weren’t complaining that chapel was no longer compulsory.

Rome put her foot down at that point (once they found out…and they always find out) and began requiring a dispensation to attend, necessitating Paperwork.

(There isn’t much the Church loves (beside the BVM) more than paperwork and bureaucracy.)

It’s mostly a formality. Usually this would be handled at the parish level (pastors have the power to give a dispensation for the weekly obligation) but it’s enough students and there may still be some Feelings about the Reformation.

Yes, there is a form.

I wrote this a while ago on the YouTube channel Ultimate Fashion History, but wanted to pull it into a separate post. Because I’m petty and bad information sends me B.E.C. Also I spent most of today trying to find the post (posted as a reply last summer when I apparently forgot to tag it).

Because I’m kind of a masochist, I watched the 1920s one. Now, I’m not an expert and I’ve just started getting more into the 20s for both research and sewing, but it was…not great. Also, she’s snide.

For a video purporting to be about fashion history, I got about 10 minutes of actual fashion history. Out of about a half hour. She spent more time on bios of three film stars, what Art Deco is, and showing modern interpretations of the 1920s.

Although, she clearly likes the 20s more (goes on about modernity and finally being able to move!), so that…actually didn’t make it easier to watch. I was annoyed at the subtle digs at the past.

Issues I Noticed

1. Spoke as if all women in the 20s used makeup on the regular. Didn’t differentiate at all between what you might see in a city and a more rural area. Was also quite judgy about makeup styles and possibly incorrect on some points. I have to look.

Ignored anything older women may have worn.

2. Spoke as if all women bobbed their hair. No mention of other styles. No mention of men or older women.

3. Keeps showing modern runway and fashion interpretations of the 20s.

4. Described the ideal body type as ‘short and squat/square’. Used a pic of a 20s Miss America whose measurements belied that claim. She had a 9 inch difference between her waist and hip and was 5'6". It 5'6" now short? Is a 9 inch hip to waist differential now square?

5. Claims that the 20s are the first time the arm has been fully bare (while showing an image with a short cap sleeve) since Ancient Greece. Clearly has an advanced case of Victorian Ballgown Bodice Blindness.

6. Claims that women wore cloche hats to appear to have a small head. I’ll have to look this up, because I’ve never heard this one before. I’m assuming this is bullshit.

7. She does mention that there were very few Flappers. So, like, half a point there.

8. Have to look up if there were laws on women smoking in public. I don’t think so, I think it was just convention, but I’ll check. (No laws on women smoking in the street by the 1920s. The laws once on the books were rarely enforced)

9. Claims women keep crossing their legs in photos to show them off since they could now. Also sounds like bullshit.

10. Appears to use an image of a late teens corset, possibly a very early 20s one, when talking about what’s under a 20s woman’s clothing. The picture is kind of small, but it looks like the late teens version of the Scroop corset.

No mention of slips, teddies, bloomers, or anything else. Apparently women wore a bandeau and Mrs. Dewitt-Bucater’s corset from Titanic and a dress.

No mentions of the difference between a young woman’s underclothes and an older woman’s.

11. Claims metallics were completely new and never seen before. Possibly connects that to beading, but I’m not positive. Has a bad habit of jumping topics.

12. Never mentions knitwear.

13. Claims Chanel was the most brilliant designer ever (seriously, when Vionnet also existed?). Does mention her collaboration during WW2. And no, Chanel did not design the first clothing women could both be stylish and work in.

14. Seems to talk mostly about the fads and very fashionable clothes. Ignores the early 20s and focuses more on the mid-to-late 20s. Still doesn’t mention knitwear. Or what fabrics were used. Or innovations in fabric tech. Art silk, anyone?

What did people wear at home? She’s certainly not going to tell you.

15. Uses some street photos of actual people, but leans very heavily on photos of film stars and modern interpretations from runway shows and fashion shoots (reiterated because I hate this so much).

16. Implies we see more men’s hats in the crowd for Valentino’s wake because they were gay. (This is the point my fitness tracker suggested I take 2 minutes to breathe).

17. Barely mentions Egyptomania because she covered it in the Ancient Egypt video. It got maybe a minute. Thanks, let me just torture myself some more for what’s likely misinformation.

18. Called Jazz ‘crazy music no one had ever heard before’, completely ignoring that Jazz grew from Ragtime. (Any music historians feel free to correct me here…about the birth of Jazz, not the 'crazy music’ comment. It was and is glorious music.)

19. Claims the 1929 stock market crash changed fashion overnight when we can see hemlines dropping before that. Also, fashion didn’t change that drastically from 1929 to 1930. Those changes started early in '29.

20. Did give a nice bio of Josephine Baker, touching on her service as a spy in WW2 and her work in the Civil Rights movement in the US. While nice, this is not 1920s fashion history.

21. ETA: Barely talks about menswear. She could have done a while separate half hour just on men’s trousers in the 20s.

22. ETA2: Doesn’t touch on the rise in home sewing in the period due to simplified shapes, etc.

If anyone knows more than me, feel free to correct anything. Honestly, if I were her student I’d ask for a refund from my university. I learned nothing new and her snide implication about the men at Valentino’s wake was both rude and unnecessary.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, ahistorical constant wearing of trousers by Miss Fisher aside, does a better job of showing what women were wearing in the late 20s

The Upper Class

The magical world’s upper class is comprised of families with great lineage and, in general, great wealth based on large estates. These families are generally not involved in industry, although some of that is changing. The magical world doesn’t have manufacturing on the scale non-magicals have achieved, but that’s partially due to the way a magical environment interacts with synthetic materials.

Some families, such as the Weasleys, are still considered Upper Class despite Arthur Weasley working for a living due to their long history in the magical world and the family participation in Great Workings (see The Weasley Scandal).

Many of the first families of the magical world received the honor, acreage, and accolades by participating in the Great Workings of history. (see The Great Workings) If they were part of a Great Working, then they have an hereditary seat on the Wizengamot. 

Guardian families were accorded the status (and land) of the Upper Class if they had not participated in a Working. These families watched the borders between worlds, protecting the secret of the magical community. Notable Guardian Families include the Prewetts, the Blacks, the Fairfaxes, and the Morningsides. All four notable families participated in the Workings of history.

Members of magical society also entered the upper class at later dates by way of the Sacred 28. While essentially meaningless, it conveyed some cachet upon those listed. The Sacred 28 tend to be the absolute crushing snobs of the magical world, unless the family was part of a Great Working. Then they’re just regular snobs.

Members of the upper class tend to dress from nearly all previous eras. A family will have a certain style they generally stay with down the generations. The oldest families, like the Blacks, tend to favor medieval styles. The Malfoys favor the late Georgian and Regency periods, with forays into the late Edwardian period for Narcissa.

One can enter the UC by participating in a Great Working. The last families added were added in the mid-1940s. They came from muggleborn stock but helped shore up the boundaries between worlds after the Blitz.

The Middle Class

The magical middle class is comprised of those who work for a living but who also enjoy a great deal of leisure time and money. Some of them may be extraordinarily wealthy, but are not UC due to family history. The top of the MC tend to be artisans of some sort - artists, musicians, inventors, etc or politicians elected to the Wizard’s Council. Those who work in the Ministry, St. Mungo’s, or who own a shop in one of the shopping districts round out the magical middle class.

The Middle Class tends to be more concerned with manners and morals than the upper class. Behavior may be more constrained. Members of the middle class tend to favor mid-to-late Victorian styles but eschew the more flamboyant versions. A cage crinoline may be worn, but only of moderate proportions. Puffed sleeves may not be of the largest type worn.

The Lower Class

Due to having magic, many of the lower class magicals don’t live with the kind of poverty seen in the non-magical world. These are the people who work in shops, restaurants, factories, on farms, in service, or as tenant farmers among other jobs. These are also the country people who make up the vast majority of the magical population. Most of the LC children won’t go to Hogwarts; they go to one of the smaller schools or to a day school. Most larger towns have a magical day school.

Clothing tends to be more modern, if by modern we mean late 19-teens through the early 1940s. 

The Great Workings

The Great Workings were feats of magic worked in unison by large groups, sometimes across the globe. 

The Great Working of 1692, known as the Statute of Secrecy to muggleborn students, was a global effort that removed the magical world from the non-magical one. From the 13th century through through the 17th century, global magical society saw a rise in violence against those viewed as or accused of being witches. Most of those tortured and murdered, however, were not magicals. 

To, hopefully, save non-magical people from a terrible fate, the global magical community devised The Great Working of 1692. They prepared for this feat of magic for five decades - devising the ritual, researching the runic sequences needed to shield entry points to the magical world, and preparing themselves - before they were ready to cast and chant. 

For seven days and seven nights, magicals around the globe joined together to pool their magic in one of the most difficult and dangerous undertakings in their history. In the end, the magical world receded from the non-magical one. The combined magical power created a perfect copy of the non-magical world in 1692, tethered at specific entry points.

The English magical community had several more Great Workings over the decades since, mostly to update their cities. London, in particular, was selectively updated over the years to include such places as the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and Almack’s, as well as the various city parks.

The Weasley Scandal

Septimus Weasley, known as a man who would wager on anything, managed to gamble away a sizeable fortune and go into a great deal of debt (the scandal). This wasn’t an amount of debt one might clear given enough time. It left the Weasley children with no dowries and what felt like no future (the Scandal part deux).

Upon his father’s death, Arthur discovered the depth (and breadth, and height) of the issue. After selling off everything not nailed down, except for the entailed land, he managed to clear most of the debt but had nothing left. So he went to work at the Ministry, determined he would never take one cent he hadn’t earned. Molly agreed with him. They supported his younger siblings until they could make their own way in the world.

They built The Burrow slowly on part of the old Weasley demense lands and rented out some of the farms. Much of the area where they live is their land - the Diggorys and the Lovegoods both rent land from them. Molly keeps the old home farm and orchard going and brings in a bit extra selling cider, jams and jellies, pickels, and other things. They are, slowly, managing to pay down what remains of Septimus Weasley’s profligacy