Persephone

Thrift shops for non-designer options (usually, though I suppose it depends on your neighborhood;))

We also have charity shops that support communities or not-for-profit organisations (e.g., Oxfam). I suppose that might be similar.

Geocruiser,

I once brought a silk bustier and a matching stole I had made. Typically, I only sew the things I cannot find in shops and online for a reasonable price. Good fabrics are expensive, plus one needs thread, lining material, boning, zips, hooks, buttons, interfacing fabric, etc. -- and time! It all adds up.

Unfortunately, the general decline of formality and elegance, has made it very difficult to find such things as opera and evening coats. My husband and I attend a lot of balls, which are typically held in autumn/winter, and since I don't wear fur (big animal lover), I need a stylish way to keep warm whilst being outside. I have a lovely black velvet cloak, a present from my grandma who was a young woman in the late 40s and 50s, but I like to have a bit of variety. Besides, a cloak (no sleeves) has much greater airflow and when it's -10C outside, the last thing I want is airflow.

Persephone,

 

Can you tell me what a dress agency is?

Of course. A dress agency is a shop or boutique that sells pre-owned clothing in excellent and/or new condition. Some specialise in couture and designers, others in vintage clothes, evening or wedding frocks, etc. Prices are far below regular retail shops, and one can get some amazing bargains. Another word that's frequently used is dress or designer exchange.

And we better not catch anyone doing the Foxtrot in there! This is Disco, people!!! ;)

Fear not, there is always discofox for that:

Similar to swimming in a public pool. At our local pool they have sessions for Ladies Only, lane swimming, Golden Oldies etc and when the specialist groups are not using the pool it's just general swimming. However, you want to try taking your kids down during that time, the looks you get from those who think that the importance of their swimming lengths in the pool far outweighs your time splashing around in the shallow end.

But you wouldn't use the deep end of the pool, which is where one swims, if you can barely keep your head above water, right? It's about safety. The same is true for the line of dance. I have seen some nasty accidents, including a broken back on dance floors, and following the line of dance is as much about courtesy as it is about safety!

This is exactly the intolerant attitude that scares social dancers away from the floor. :mad:

Really? I am a social dancer, and I am not offended at all. I received my ballroom training in Vienna, Austria, and I am used to crowded floors (5,000 people attending a ball equals a big crowd) and I've even had collisions. Again, it's rather unavoidable. You smile, apologise, and keep dancing. I was on a QM 2 crossing earlier this month, and I never noticed nasty looks. Perhaps I am blissfully oblivious.

However, having said this, common sense and courtesy dictate that dancers make room for each other, which includes inexperienced ones staying in the centre and the faster dancers travelling around the edge of the floor. You don't want this to happen:

I would love to know if any one else here sews clothes for their cruise vacation. I like to sew and try to make something new for each cruise. If you do sew, what patterns do you use? Are they for pants, skirts, dresses? What do you make? What kind of fabric do you use?

I can and do sew. I don't sew for cruises, but I attend a lot of black and white tie events, and I occasionally sew for those. It's mostly dresses or evening separates, and the patterns are typically Vogue, Vogue Vintage and/or vintage patterns purchased on Etsy or Ebay. I've also had some luck at flea markets and estate sales.

Here is a recent find:

I am using a silk brocade that I ordered from an expat Brit who's lived in Hong Kong for several decades. His speciality is finding beautiful silk fabrics at far better prices than I could ever hope to pay in the UK. As for fabrics, I am a stickler for natural fibres, and I mostly use silk in various weaves including taffeta, charmeuse, satin, brocade, dupioni, organza, and very rarely silk chiffon (too slippy and tough to handle).

There was a thread somewhere else about wearing white in Europe to which I replied (note where I live)

In that I said that my decision to wear white in 'fall' - is that September/October? - would more likely be governed by temperature. If it was blazing hot, and can be over 30 in September, then I would have no hesitation in wearing lightweight white trousers.

 

Two things (cultural) to note:

1) As Labour Day in Europe is May 1st, the US rule re no white after Labour Day obviously doesn't apply

2) Pants over here are what you wear under your trousers i.e. underwear. I certainly would hope never to see anyone walking about in their 'pants' - whatever colour they were!!:)

That is a good point. Yes, pants are worn underneath one's clothes and should never see the light of day. However, I think OP probably meant trousers.

I am a fellow European, and I would never wear pure white linen or cotton trousers/dresses/skirts in late September. If it's blazing hot, sunny and 30C, I have plenty of sun dresses in darker colours (brick red, blue, green, etc.) that will keep me cool. Even in southern France and northern Spain, the average high in October is 19C. I don't think one runs the risk of overheating.

We are taking a Mediterranean cruise in Sept./Oct. visiting Spain, France, Italy, Montenegro, and Croatia. Do men and/or women wear white pants in the Mediterranean during these early Fall months? I don't expect to look like anything other than a tourist, but I want to be respectful of local customs. Thanks for any advice you can offer!

I am European, and having spent many summer holidays in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, etc. the short answer is no. Late September is autumn, and we switch to darker colours and more substantial fabrics. The average daytime temperature in southern France in mid-October is 18C. White trousers or a white skirt is something I wear when it's 30C outside.

I remember attending a ball in Milan in northern Italy in October a couple of years ago, and I ended up wearing a velvet jacket over my frock since it was so cool.

My style was more or less fully developed at age 16: classic, elegant basics. I still wear quite a few things I bought or had made almost 20 years ago including a black vintage Chanel suit I purchased at a dress agency when I was 19, and ribbed silk turtleneck jumpers that I wore as a uni student aged 20. I also still have and wear a fabulous vintage Carolina Herrera gown.

Just wondering.

 

I have a few new dresses I'm thinking of bringing for formal night, but they are 100% poly. The dress I brought last time is cotton/poly and it has a bit of stretch :D but not as dressy. I had to dress it up with accessories. Dresses made of silk are pricey and impractical for travel since they wrinkle. Poly usually does not. But poly in the Caribbean? We like to walk outside after dinner.

 

All my dresses have sleeves too, although they are short ones. I have a new gold one that I really want to bring but it is thick, poly, and does NOT stretch! :eek:

No, none of my evening and ball dresses are polyester. Almost all are various silk weaves (silk satin, silk taffeta, silk organza, silk chiffon, silk dupioni) whilst a few are velvet (viscose and silk blends or cotton) and two are a mix of thin cotton and silk. I also have one that is a mix of cotton and viscose lace; it's a dark blue dinner dress (narrow skirt and 3/4 sleeves).

The linings are either habutai silk or rayon/viscose or even a very thin cotton weave. I cannot abide polyester, as it does not breathe, allows smelly bacteria to grow (there was a study earlier this year or last year), and my skin gets itchy after an hour or two.

P.S. I found the study: http://aem.asm.org/content/early/2014/08/12/AEM.01422-14.full.pdf?ijkey=7ZnH4A6MFZj2A&keytype=ref&siteid=asmjournals

It was done in 2014 at a university in Belgium.

You know it is still a faux pas to wear white after Labor day.

 

Even in the tropics.

 

That's what I read in Miss Manners......

That rule does not exist outside the US. Labour Day is 1 May in the UK and many European countries, so your "rule" makes absolutely no sense elsewhere, and it certainly does not apply in the tropics. BTW, I have had the pleasure of meeting Miss Manners, or Judith Martin, as she is called in real life, at a British Embassy event in Washington, DC, and she is well aware that Labour Day is celebrated in early spring elsewhere in the world.

I use Nivea deodorants -- mostly roll-ons but also the spray version. It's available at every supermarket/chemist's shop, and it does not leave nasty white stains on clothes or my skin. The very pleasant and subtle fragrance is a bonus since it doesn't compete with my body lotion.

Without checking individually on the couples who insist on dancing against the general "flow" of the dancers around the floor ( any floor) as to their nationalities, I reckon you don't have to be brain of Britain to see you are causing problems. If the woman partner is being pushed round by the man then it is his job to see where she is going really and try to keep both of them out of harm's way, and/or harming others by spiking the ankles of passing couples with backward movements of stiletto heeled shoes.He could steer easier with the "flow" if he was paying attention. A staged accident might work though!

We are in the "well over the biblical allowance of years allotted to your expected presence on earth " age group....if you get my drift.... but we can still get round the floor quite adequately and have never ( as far as I can recall anyway), caused a problem to others sharing the floor.I still believe it is the years of experience in frequenting ballrooms in our youth where we danced with many partners over an evening and became experienced in what was the right thing to do even if you didn't actually know you were following the specifics of floor craft.

The younger generations don't have that opportunity now because ballrooms died out...in our area anyway... the wonderful floors were sold, the buildings usually became bingo halls.The young folks had to find another venue to meet people , so IMO pubs became the new dance hall.

 

I look forward to the cruising on Cunard simply because we get an opportunity to dance with an orchestra/ singer and a great floor area . We do enjoy watching others , especially those who always go to a corner to begin, (obviously going to dance lessons) , and those who have got lots of routines to show everyone but usually go off and sit down when they can't get space to do them, and those who are not "freestyle" who have to start their carefully learned routine all over again from the beginning if someone inadvertantly gets in their way.

 

It's a joy!

I definitely understand your frustration having had my toes stepped on, a piece of flesh gouged out of my foot, and a hole torn in a dress by stiletto heels. I did not want to make a generalisation regarding the nationalities of offenders, but at the Officers' Ball it was easy to see as military uniforms are good identifiers.

You are quite right that most young(er) people at least in the UK, and probably elsewhere, too, have not had much social dancing experience. Leading and following are skills that take time to develop, and many people focus too much on their feet to pay attention to where they are going. I mostly grew up in the UK (Dad's a Brit), but my mum is Austrian/Bavarian, and in Austria young people still learn how to dance. They attend special classes where they get to waltz, foxtrot and cha cha their way around the room. My mum signed me up for my first ballroom class at the tender age of 14 or 15 - this was in the 1990s.

I do envy those in the "well over the biblical allowance of years allotted to your expected presence on earth " age group (love the expression), as they grew up with dance halls where one could dance informally. However, I am pleased to report that tea dances are making a comeback amongst the 20- and 30-something crowd, and the Blackpool Tower Ballroom is attracting uni students again - or so I am told (I am not in Lancashire). Perhaps things will improve in future. Happy dancing on your next cruise!

P.S. I love Edinburgh. My aunt lives in Balerno.

Floor craft does't really figure with some younger guests as they probably haven't had much opportunity to learn it unlike many of us of a certain age and I mean my own age group who went to dance halls regularly and had to work with crowds dancing round. We often wonder how the ones dancing round in the wrong direction don't notice they are going against the "flow" and causing problems?

We didn't encounter this problem on our Cunard cruise, but I do know what you're talking about. My dear husband and I, whilst not of a certain age, attend lots of balls, including many in Vienna, Austria, and the last time we were there, which was at the Officers' Ball 2013, we encountered several Americans who had apparently never danced a step in their lives, and completely went against the flow of traffic. They were quickly, politely, but in no uncertain tones told that dance floor rules mandate that one travels anticlockwise with experienced dancers on the outside and less experienced dancers on the inside. The Austrians are rather direct.

My generation (I am well under 40) can be very thick-skinned and unfortunately quite egocentric and entitled. It's very possible that they neither care nor notice that they are causing problems. You may have to take a page out of the Austrians' book: tell them, and if they don't change their behaviour perhaps a staged accident can change their minds?