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An Old Rose Shower
FOR a girl who was very fond of everything rose-colored, her friends planned an "old-rose" shower on Valentine's Day.
As a result, among the gifts were rosecolored silk stockings, a rose-flowered silk party bag, an old-rose boudoir cap, slippers to match, and towels with old-rose initials.
Each gift was wrapped in white tissue paper and tied with old-rose ribbon, and they were all presented on a big tray, the bottom of which was rose-flowered cretonne under glass.
The refreshments were raspberry ice and tiny cakes frosted in rose and white, and each guest carried away as a favor a wee glove handkerchief with an old-rose border. [121]
A single colour, chosen by the guest of honour, organises every object in the room. The food is on the list of objects.
- Raspberry ice is not sorbetA water ice of fruit juice, sugar and water, frozen in a churn packed with ice and salt and served while still soft. It is sharper and coarser in the mouth than a modern stabilised sorbet, and it melts much faster, which is why it was served the moment the guests sat down.
- Two colours and no savouryRaspberry ice and small cakes frosted rose and white is the entire menu. An afternoon shower was not a meal and was not meant to be one. Follow this page literally for a modern gathering and you will send a room of people home hungry.
- Old rose is a dull pinkIt is a greyed, dusty rose, much nearer brick than to a bright modern party pink. If you are matching ribbon, frosting and paper across a room, that distinction is the entire job.
- Cretonne under glassThe gift tray was lined with a printed cotton laid beneath its glass. The trick still works and costs nothing: any tray with a glazed base can be relined for any occasion in two minutes.
- Two vanished articlesA boudoir cap was a soft cap worn indoors over dressed hair. A glove handkerchief was a handkerchief small enough to be carried inside a glove, which is what the name is telling you. Both were ordinary presents and neither exists now.
The gift list is the interesting part: silk stockings, a silk party bag, a boudoir cap, slippers, monogrammed towels. These are the personal articles a young woman would be setting up with, and the colour rule does more work than decoration. Every present had to be in her colour, which gave a dozen friends buying independently a shared constraint, and a constraint is how you stop five people arriving with the same thing. A theme that looks like sentiment is also a piece of quiet coordination.