So ... I didn't actually do any sewing last week, and since I have my internship over the next couple of days I won't work on the corset sew-along until Thursday at the soonest. (Need to scrounge up some mock-up fabric ...) Last night, though, after some encouraging words of advice from Kelsey of Historically … Continue reading Stays ponderings
Category: 18th century
Fashion History Mythbusters: the Language of the Fan
In the vein of the Fashion Historian and the Undressing the Fashionable Myth Symposium (I was a little shocked that mine came up as the first hit, is it a personalized search result?), I'd like to take a look at the concept of "the language of fans". It's very easy to find websites talking about … Continue reading Fashion History Mythbusters: the Language of the Fan
Winifred Scawen Blunt's Gown
When I visited the Albany Institute on Friday to meet the curator, under whom I will be working as an intern, I went up and walked around the galleries - I think my main objective was a second look at the permanent exhibitions Sense of Place: 18th and 19th Century Paintings and Sculpture and Traders and … Continue reading Winifred Scawen Blunt's Gown
Thesis Update – Nearly There!
I probably would have been at this point several days ago, but I went with the Theory "batiste" from my swatches, and it proved to be more like a tightly-woven percale, and I was having the hardest time getting pins and needles into it. Let this be a lesson: always test a swatch by pleating … Continue reading Thesis Update – Nearly There!
The Place of Fabrics: Cotton
For the most part, descriptions of cotton clothing before the 1720s are in the context of travels to Asia and Africa. I was a little surprised to find that cotton was relatively common as a fine fabric from the 1720s, and something that poorer women could purchase second-hand. It became an affordable kerchief fabric by … Continue reading The Place of Fabrics: Cotton
Mimic of Modes 