One of the places I most want to visit is Antarctica. There are lots of reasons, fascination with Scott’s doomed expedition and the heroic self-rescue of Shackleton’s expedition are a major part of it. You can see the Scott expedition versus the Amundsend expedition as the conflict between romanticism and modernity writ small. There’s such great literature of the expeditions – from the harrowing personal narratives of  Byrd’s Alone, Cherry-Garrad’s Worst Journey in the World and Shackleton’s South to the wonderful fiction like Antarctic Navigation and the current travel writing and scientific books such as The Crystal Desert. I am certain I have read the vast majority of books about Antarctica – it has such a strong fascination for me.  So far, my Antarctic adventures have been solely armchair traveling, but there’s one phenomenon of that frigid continent that can only be seen and experienced in person – the amazing blue ice which is pure ice from pure water. The purer the water, the bluer the ice. I have seen photos and it’s so beautiful it makes your heart hurt. For me, there are few things more beautiful or entrancing.

So when I say that this lovely gown from Sascha’s Designs by Saschi Frangelli makes me think of blue ice,  it’s because I think it’s incredibly beautiful. The delicate silver tracery makes it sparkle like the ice in the light – and the intense blue with that lovely tracery is entrancing. I particularly love the three bands on the back to give it visual interest.

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