Wednesday 8 July 2009
Aussie School Uniform Summer Dresses, Soap Operas and Inspiration
Tuesday 7 July 2009
More on Home Schooling, Victorian school uniform and Other Stuff
In particular I will be researching into the designs and styling of school uniforms of bygone ages, especially the Victorian era. As I said before; without giving too much away, the premise behind volume 3 is the idea of a pair of late-teenage sisters being schooled at home, having been removed from the conventional education system just prior to taking the final exams that would undoubtedly have opened the door to university placement and Independence. Their guardian’s original expressed reasoning being that, in this way when they did finally take those exams the grades they would achieve would be far superior - thus their placement that much more prestigious - seems belayed by the fact that some two years on, educationally they are still no closer to that goal, indeed if anything they are further than ever from it. The governess employed to rule over them, placing the greatest emphasis on discipline above all else, is of the opinion that there is little point in her attempting to further their education until such a time that she is satisfied that she has them both properly under her control, by which term she means living under - and accepting - what she calls ‘good boarding school discipline’. Two years of written impositions, line writing, parrot fashion rote learning of nonsense rhymes and meaningless tables of numbers - all under the constant threat of the cane or the strap - have undermined their expensive education and eroded their self-confidence.
But therein lies my problem as to date I found very little pertaining to Victorian school uniform, although I have come across one or useful sources dealing with the early part of the twentieth century. An example is the drawing on the top left dating from the 1920s; not likely to be particularly influential in my thinking - I'm thinking along far more fussy and restrictive lines - it is food for thought nonetheless. If anybody comes across any suitable pictures or descriptions or has any suitable ideas and inspirations please feel free to let me know either as a comment or by direct e-mail to yours truly.
Now last time I promised you a couple of links and here they are, albeit somewhat delayed (sorry). If you're interested in restrictive clothing as pertaining to discipline of the female than it's worth visiting Retroxotique (just click the pic on the left or site title to visit the fashion links - but I've also added it to the resource list in the sidebar). As well as vintage pictures they also have stories so click HERE for the site's story page or HERE to check out the story link list.
Monday 29 June 2009
The Posibilities Inherent in Private 'At-Home' Schooling as Pertaining to the Young Adult
The latter volume, although set in the present, I expect will deal with aspects of imposed discipline more likely to have been encountered in the Victorian era, perhaps around the turn-of-the-century. I intend it to be a tale full of stiffly starched, tight high collars; restrictive, breath-denying and spirit-quenching bespoke corsetry; deportment training and the use of rigid backboards; crushingly tight little lace-up ankle boots; ruffled-seat bloomers with their leg-cuffs coupled by an intervening short length of fabric that, should it become torn or damaged in any way, can so easily lead to a prolonged caning or birching over a leather topped whipping stall; cutie-pie ankle socks or short gartered and beribboned stockings; sailor suits or ridiculously flouncy childish and feminine school uniforms, the crisply starched puffball sleeve blouse, its high collar tightly buttoned and as stiff as to require the girl’s chin be kept always slightly elevated - and beneath it, the tightly knotted and freshly pressed school tie. Although set in a domestic environment rather than some private institution, here we delve into the private world of the country house, with the live-in governess, children's nanny and having the school room once traditional in an age when home-schooling for girls was often seen as the done thing. In such a world a young lady of, although too old for school in the conventional sense, at least to modern eyes, might nevertheless easily find herself continuing her education past 17, 18 or even 19 years of age or older and within a disciplinary regime far more rigid than anything that might have been encountered in the outside world even at that time. Now imagine a situation wherein such an environment has been recreated, down to the tiniest minutiae of Victoriana at the whim of the guardian of a pair of teenage sisters, both already trained by the time of the beginning of the story to the point of complete and accepting docility. Now imagine two of our heroines from volume 2, our modern day misses, albeit somewhat tamed by their experience in the institution in which they have been recently incarcerated, delivered to the door and staring astounded at what appears to be a view of from a bygone age.
The part about the stiff, high, collars has been largely influenced by input from an e-mail correspondent of mine but also, more recently, by having seen a series recently screened on UK television - see the picture above that I scanned in from some television magazine or other (I forget which). So having been stimulated off I went typing search terms into Google such as “stiff collars + discipline”. I came across a couple of quite interesting links, that I will post up later this evening I also came across this great little drawing - it really sums up the possibilities when one is no longer constricted by convention; such as if one were returning a small group of girls of above school age to the world of school-room discipline behind high walls, shuttered windows and locked doors. The design of the school chairs in particular is devilish, consisting of little more than a narrow and uncomfortable perch and leaving the rear of the buttocks permanently within reach of the correction of their master’s cane. (Note the hooks on the wall, waiting to receive their school knickers upon entry.
Saturday 20 June 2009
An Anonymous Reader's Contribution and a Couple of Blogs to Try Out
Yes, I think that for my preference I'd have to go along with the 'drop seat' approach especially if in combination with a suitably bulky absorbent towel or even a diaper - should the young lady warrant it. I feel I really must apologise for having left a week between postings but I have been away, cycling around the East Sussex country side. From Monday (or Tuesday, depending on whether or not I do the London to Brighton cycle ride) I plan to return updating on a more regular basis, perhaps every other day as I used to. My trusty note book goes everywhere that I do and I have been working on putting together some ideas regarding the structuring of the 'inbetweeny' volume that I have been talking about recently and also as regards the revamped cover for volume 2 that I wish to get completed before publishing that volume fully, ie through Amazon et al. Meanwhile a couple of blog links have been sent to me that you might like to explore: the first is Britsh Spanking . net (just click to visit), the link wasn't working when I tried it just now and so I am presently holding back from including it in my sidebar blog list (I am sure this is a temporary glitch, though, so keep trying and let me know).