Grey, not gray. Befitting pretty dresses past.
What is the difference between gray and grey? A nuance. A slight shift in temperature or light (I’m totally making this up). Gray is nice enough…when I was little and worried about the inferiority of my green eyes in a blue eyed family, my dad told me they turned a beautiful gray when the sky was cloudy. But gray is also sweatshirts and battleships. In deeper hues, it holds the cold intensity of imminent storm and the Rockies in winter, while grey is evocative and gentle, reminiscent of Austen mist in the north of England (I like to imagine), or Ingrid Bergman, trying to remember. Fine wool, diffident tweed. Grey is the color of doves nestling in the eaves of an ancient library, or a Whistler painting. Grey hints at things vintage, imbues its own patina and romance.
Plus grey is a little wry (think Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant). Grey works for Maurya’s Winter Ball dance dress. And dance she did…her date (Jamon), is a very good dancer (his moves include ballroom, Maurya tells me. Though for some reason he wanted to keep that a secret?).
This was the first time I’d ever sewn real silk. Mmmm. I love silk’s subtle lustre (translation: luster) and its gentle, not quite crisp hand. The Dupioni silk Maurya chose seemed to be all about restrained elegance…I was enchanted, but I also realized, since the pattern was knee length and the color grey and the lustre limited, that the dress might need a little adornment to look formal enough for Winter Ball. I layered trims for a decorative band above Maurya’s waist.
Maurya’s wrap is made of a contrasting satiny jacquard fabric (just a finished rectangle, with elastic running through it a few inches down from the top, making a collar). Jamon’s vest and bow tie is from the same material; thankfully, they fit.
Distracted and entertained by the couple’s capers while we took pictures, we forgot to take any of Maurya without the wrap. So sadly we don’t see all the dress details on her here… But I love that I can squeeze into some of Maurya’s clothes (if there’s enough room at the hips), so I’ve included a couple shots of myself in the dress to show off bodice details.
