strathspey@strathspey.org:24506

Jan Wilson

Re: White dresses, redux

Jan. 25, 2001, 12:01 a.m. (Message 24506, in reply to message 24434)

When I first got involved in dems I was not too happy about having to wear
white - when I started the POW Group I decided that we would be different -
we wore (still do) different coloured skirts, all the same pattern and
length from the ground and for day dems wear white blouses while for night
time dems we wear black leotards under the skirts and have tartan sashes
looped around the neckline.

Our patron was Jean London who was a great friend of Jean Milligan's.  I
decided to ask Jean about the white dresses before I made what was then a
radical change.  Her comments were as follows:

"When we first started doing demonstrations in Scotland all the young ladies
had a 'good' white dress so Jean thought there should be no extra expense
hence we all wore our 'good' white dresses."  When Jean came back to Sydney
and started SCD here the same thing applied - so the ladies wore their white
dresses and the men that first danced in Sydney wore their cricket creams
and danced in sandshoes.  At that time none of the men here had kilts.

I would also be interested to know what pattern you have chosed - I find it
difficult to find a pattern that suits all our varying shapes!

Good luck - and our coloured gear gets lots of positive comments and lots of
others have followed this lead.

Jan Wilson
Alexandria, Sydney
Australia