One of the things I love about our neighborhood and area more generally is its historic charm. So when we were blessed with gorgeous September weather in November, we took the opportunity to walk to some of our local historic sites, many of which have ties to the American Revolution, to photograph Luna’s new Taylor Joelle Hamilton inspired dresses.
When these dresses launched I couldn’t resist buying all three so I staggered the sizes so they would last us longer. While I expected the pink Angelica dress to be my favorite based on the color, I am really loving the shape of the gold “Peggy” dress. Luna fortunately seems to love them all and was thrilled to get to do some costume changes. The Angelica dress is currently too long for her, so I layered it over her Eliza dress for the photo op. Luna’s new “Create Your Own” American Girl doll from her Nana even got in on the fun wearing a dress I found on Etsy (I originally purchased it to put on my own childhood Felicity doll as her clothes are now missing, but it ended up being perfect for the occasion!). After Luna modeled the Taylor Joelle dresses, she even put on a 18th century cotton gown I bought her last year off of Etsy. She’s about to outgrow it so I was especially happy to photograph her in it and get it back into the dress up rotation – it’s something period appropriate that Stella can wear while Luna gets to be a slightly more glamorous Schuyler Sister. 😄
I’m really hoping we will be able to do a Colonial Williamsburg trip in the next few years and that the girls can wear their Hamilton inspired dresses there! I have fond memories of a family trip there when I was about 10 years old and would love to recreate the magic of stepping back in time with my girls. On my family trip 20+ years ago, my mom purchased some pieces from the venue’s costume department sale. I felt like Felicity in my pink peplum dress with white trim. (Funny story: While we walked around the park in our new costumes, the ox car driver snuck up and grabbed my brother by the collar. My brother thought he had done something wrong but the costumed employee exclaimed that he knew that vest – it had been his before he got a new costume and showed us where his initials were stitched inside! We thought it was so cool we were wearing outfits that had such ties to Colonial Williamsburg.) My dress actually fit me until I had kids and a few Halloweens back I even dyed it to wear as Outlander’s Claire when she wears *the* red dress.
With any luck, one day, when I can fit into that dress and when we can take vacations again, we will all get to visit Williamsburg and enjoy our colonial dresses together. I might even be able to convince my husband to break out his Jamie kilt…