Cassidy Percoco, Fashion Historian
On BlueSky, there's a bot account that uses the Metropolitan Museum of Art's API to auto-post objects from the Costume Institute collection that are listed as open access. (There are quite a few of these accounts, for different Met departments as well as for other museums.) I like to check in on it every so … Continue reading The Robe à Transformation
The Challenge: #4, Gender Bender. I know what you're thinking, but if we go back a few decades drawers were really controversial for women - they simply didn't wear bifurcated garments. So even though I'm not aware of the attitude that drawers were inherently gender-bending still existing in the middle of the nineteenth century, I'm counting … Continue reading HSM 2016 Challenge #4: Gender Bender
Apart from certain stylistic keys, I've always had a harder time dating men's clothing. It's just not as interesting to me, so I haven't taken the time to really study dated extant pieces and images and improve my skills. But lately I've come across more undated waistcoats while cataloguing - it's become something that I … Continue reading Waistcoats: 19th and 20th Century
Just as John Redfern began as a mercer, the Doucet family's business began in fabric and lace. In 1841, La Mode described the Doucets (then at 17 rue de la Paix) has having a "numerous and noble clientele", highly stylish in late spring for "trousseaus and corbeilles" - the corbeille being the gift of material wealth given to … Continue reading The House of Doucet (1816-1928)
Redfern is relatively well known as an early couture and tailoring house, but the specific people involved, or their talents beyond women's suits and riding attire, are often overlooked when discussing the progress of fashion - which is usually distilled down into a few vibrant personalities and their innovations. Redfern's early years overlapped with Charles … Continue reading Redfern Ltd. (ca. 1855-1940)
Mimic of Modes 