Sunday, October 16
2-5pm
$75 Workshop

$40 Special Reduced Rate for students and Friends of Meridian Gallery

To register for this class, please email: info@meridiangallery.org

In 1911, artificial flowers adorned the hats, clothes and decollete of everyone from factory girls to society matrons. Made in workshops, couture houses, factories, sweat shops and even in private homes, they were crafted into bouquets, used in wreaths, decorated homes and were fashioned into headpieces. Today artificial silk flowers are assembled in the same way as they were 100 years ago.

Learn the basic techniques of artificial silk flower-making from fabric preparation to shaping the petals using flower iron tools to assembling the finished hand-painted and dyed product.

Overdress and Undress in the Working Life of Tessie Wall
Date: Night of the Gala, November 12, 2011
Time: 7pm-9pm

Erin Algeo will be presenting Overdress and Undress in the Working Life of Tessie Wall.

From maid to madam, what did an upwardly mobile member of the demimonde wear in 1900? Particularly, if she desired respectability? Take an uninterrupted look through the key hole at the fashions worn in the reception rooms and bedrooms of the famous ‘parlor houses' on San Francisco's Barbary Coast during the working life of one woman.

With the audience, she will examine the transformations in outerwear and intimates from Tessie Wall's early days as an unassuming domestic servant, to her time as a proprietress of a "lodging house", and her ascendency as one of the most successful madams operating in San Francisco. Even her most infamous moment will be analyzed through the prism of fashion. What would have an overwrought madam wear to accost her former husband with a gun in 1917?

About Erin Algeo: Algeo has a background in Art History and Fine Art. She works as a curator of historical costume. Possessing a lifelong passion for historical fashion, she is particularly interested in the social forces that influence fashion and how people use fashion and make it their own. She does textile and costume restoration and conservation.