After adjusting my corset pattern this morning so that it would be an inch higher in the front (I realized I had had the whole corset mockup up too high before, and it was actually not as mid-bust as I'd thought), I hesitated. Do I really want to do it? I thought I'd look into … Continue reading Early Brassieres
Category: research
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
Boué Soeurs
Quite a change in subject matter, but I've started working on a story set in 1920 and my costume thoughts have been there lately. The Boué sisters, Madame Sylvie Montegut and Baronne Jeanne d’Etreillis, opened their Parisian fashion house in 1899. (It's speculated that Sylvie was more involved in design and Jeanne was more of … Continue reading Boué Soeurs
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 