This Victorian ladies’ shoppe is housed in a decorated wall cabinet I had picked up at an auction. The two shelves inside are at the perfect height for 1:12 scale, although the cabinet is not deep enough to make it an actual room box. As I worked on this, my collection of items for the shop grew so much that I not only had to add a third level floor for fancy gowns and extend the shop out onto the “sidewalk,” but I also had to separate the Bespoke Dressmaker’s Shoppe, which originally was the third floor of the store.
There are so many items that I imagine would have appeared in a boutique shop like this during the late 1800’s, such as dresses, hats, parasols, lingerie, fans, jewelry and perfumery. Although things like hats had previously been made by milliners in their own establishments, by this time period you could find goods like these in department stores, too.
There are quite a few artisan made pieces, particularly the hats and the dresses, but unfortunately I don’t know who many of the artists are. I did make some things myself, such as the framed mask and glove picture, the perfumery table with all the bottles and one of the hatboxes. I also painted and embellished the little side cabinet on the first floor. The matching chandeliers are battery powered, and create a nice effect for evening shopping.
