Raising money for scholarships for women couldn’t be more fashionable when it comes to the local P.E.O. AT Chapter. On Saturday, Oct. 12 from 2-4 p.m., the women’s organization will host a Victorian Tea and Vintage Fashion Show. And hold on to your hats, there will be hats because the featured fashions represent the 1830s through the 1920s and hats were in vogue.
The fashions modeled at the tea, hosted at St. Luke’s Point of Grace at 2 Marion Avenue, were designed by Jeff Mandeville of the Richland County Museum and Oak Hill Cottage. Tickets for the tea must be purchased in advance, by Oct. 7, and are $15 each or six for $78. Reservations can be made by calling Margie Cutnaw at 419-756-6582.
“This is our big fundraiser for the year,” said Cutnaw, “Other ways we raise money have included a wine tasting fundraiser and our ‘Make It, Bake It, Grow It, Sew It’ fundraiser.”
Women are encouraged to bring their friends and daughters and granddaughters as well. The tables at the tea will be authentically set and the food will be prepared by the P.E.O. chapter.
The dresses, which will be modeled by P.E.O. members and volunteers, are authentic reproductions of women’s clothing.
“What we’re showing is what they actually would have worn. Some of the models will wear corsets,” said Mandeville.
Mandeville, who will retire from the Mansfield Correctional Institution in November, began making costumes for reenactments at the Richland County Museum for their Christmas Open House diorama and then for Christmas at Oak Hill Cottage. Mandeville and Cutnaw serve as docents at Oak Hill.
Mandeville has studied period fashions and is knowledgeable about how the clothing was made and worn. For example, he noted that cotton was not an everyday dress fabric until 1850. Before that time, linen and wool clothing was more economical to produce because the flax and wool could be grown on family farms.
“The fashion show is not just about the fashions,” explained Mandeville, though he can also explain the introduction of buttons and zippers. “It’s about what was going on in the period. The tea itself is going to be as authentically run as it was then.” There will also be a show of Queen Victoria’s life.
Mandeville, a Clear Fork graduate, enjoyed theater even in high school. He participated in the high school drama club and did theater at Ohio State. He has created so many costumes for men and women that his designs occupy his mother’s, Peggy Mandeville, basement.
Though the tea was intended to represent the Victorian era, Mandeville said, “So many peopled like the 1920s, we just threw that one in too. I also threw 1910 in there because that’s when women’s fashions looked the worst.”
“Jeff has poured his heart into this,” said Cutnaw. He spent approximately 40 hours making an 1876 exposition dress.
Fourteen dresses will be modeled at the tea including a dress representing Lowell Mills of MA. The textile industry in Lowell, Massachusetts was booming; and by 1840, the Industrial Revolution, the mills had recruited as many as 8,000 women to work. Mandeville explained that they set up a factory in system in a series of buildings.
The dress he made to represent the period was one a worker would made with money she earned.
All of the proceeds from this event will go to scholarships for women who wish to continue their education. P.E.O. is generally accepted to stand for Philanthropic Educational Organization, but according to members, only they know what the letters actually represent.
“Ohio has 144 chapters,” stated Cutnaw, “We have contributed well over $100 million to women’s education. We also have a loan fund offered at a very low rate of interest.”
Cutnaw recently interviewed two high school students for scholarship applications. Applicants at local chapters go on to compete for scholarships nationally.
“And it’s not just young women,” Cutnaw added, “It can be a woman in her 40s and maybe her husband left. We also offer a Chapter AT scholarship.” And fund from the Victorian tea will support that scholarship.
“The fashion show is not just about the fashions,” explained Mandeville, though he can also explain the introduction of buttons and zippers. “It’s about what was going on in the period. The tea itself is going to be as authentically run as it was then.”
P.E.O. is an international women’s organization headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa but with chapters all over the world. There are two chapters in Mansfield, the AT and the CJ chapters. The original organization was founded on January 21, 1869 by seven students at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. The group is encourages women to realize their potential in whatever worthwhile endeavor they choose.
True to the mission of promoting educational opportunities for women, education continues to be the primary philanthropy of the P.E.O. Sisterhood. P.E.O. Sisterhood sponsors no less than six international philanthropies, or projects, designed to assist women with their educational goals. The organization has awarded Educational Loan Fund dollars totaling more than $143.6 million through their International Peace Scholarships, Program for Continuing Education grants, Scholar Awards, and P.E.O. STAR Scholarship.
