Scheherazade

Miriam just finished a major project for her history of fashion design course. From the list of available time periods she chose the Edwardian Era, which she has loved for ages. She dressed up as Mary Poppins for Halloween when she was four (her choice). And she cherished the Edwardian fashion sticker book Naanii sent her years ago, carefully placing each sticker in its correct spot and referring back to it frequently (though admittedly it has spent more time on the bookshelf than in her hands in more recent years). 

She was thrilled to get to sign up for that era...she was less thrilled with the group she had to work with, but group projects are an evil we all must endure, it seems.

Anyway, one of the odder fashion trends from the time, in my opinion, was the hobble skirt (though to be fair and completely honest, I did wear a long pencil skirt to church today and realized that the hobble skirt never entirely went away).

Miriam asked for help pronouncing Paul Poiret's name, a French designer often credited for the invention (she had to give an oral presentation so wanted to be sure she was pronouncing things correctly). We practiced and practiced saying Poiret together until she felt comfortable with it. 

Later we were on a walk and I asked how Poiret even conceived of such an idea in the first place. What an absurd thing to do—tie women's legs together so they could hardly get a good stride in (this was before I willingly put on that aforementioned pencil skirt, revealing my hypocrisy). 

Women used to even have hobble skirt races! 

Anyway...she said it was inspired by Orientalism and ballet. 

"The skirt was inspired by the costumes in a ballet that was rather Orientalistic..." Miriam started. "The company who put on the ballet was Russian and just...rather Orientalistic."

"What ballet was it?" I asked. "Because I can't think of a reason to tie anyone's ankles together in a ballet. That just seems...counterintuitive."

"Well, I think the costumes were actually pants, but the skirt was inspired by the pants...to be somewhat billowy around the legs but then cinched at the ankles."

"What ballet was it?" I asked again.

"Oh...Skerzherdywaz," Miriam mumbled. 

"What?" I asked. 

"Shkerdertywitz," she tried again, mumbling and turning her head away from me as she spoke.

"Can you...tell me a bit more about the story?"

"Oh, you know it!" she insisted. "It's about a girl who has to marry a murderous king, who will only keep his wife alive for one night. But she starts telling him stories and..."

"Scheherazade?!" I nearly screamed.

"In my defense," Miriam said. "I don't think I've ever heard her name. Well, okay, I've heard her name. But I don't think I've ever seen it written down before. There are so many random letters in there!"

"It's fairly phonetic," I argued. 

At least she knows now. 

So, once upon a time in 1888 Rimsky-Korsakov composed a symphonic orchestral suite based on One Thousand and One Nights. This was soon adapted into a ballet performance by Michel Fokine (Mikhail Mikhaylovich Fokin) and evidently Scheherazade's billowy pants are what inspired Poiret's hobble skirt (though...the timeline seems a little suspect to me...there's another theory that the skirt was inspired by a female passenger of the Wright Brothers (Edith Ogilby Berg), who tied the bottom of her skirt together during the flight to keep it securely about her ankles rather than blowing up in her face). 

*****

Last night we had a brief video call with Rachel. Miriam was agonizing over getting her assignment turned in on time (her group was honestly a bit of a nightmare) and the conversation came around to hobble skirts...more or less.

"Wait, wait, wait!" I said. "Rachel how do you say..."

I stopped because I suddenly wasn't sure how to ask the question without revealing the answer, so Andrew jumped in for me: "Who narrated One Thousand and One Nights?"

"Oh—Robin Williams!" she answered without missing a beat. 

"Robin Williams?!" I (definitely) screamed (that time).

"Yes!" Rachel said.

"Robin Williams didn't narrate One Thousand and One Nights!!"

"He did so! He's the guy at the beginning of Aladdin! Corbin agrees with me!!"

(So quick, she is, to throw her friends under the bus).

"Sure, but Aladdin isn't One Thousand and One Nights!!"

"Ahhh!" Rachel said. "You're right! It's totally not!"

I mean, Aladdin is a story within One Thousand and One Nights, but Disney's Aladdin doesn't represent One Thousand and One Nights. We have work to do, it seems...

Anyway, Andrew sent Rachel this picture a little later in the evening: