Godey's Lady's Book, January 1835

December 25, 2017February 28, 2024 ~ Cassidy Percoco ~ 1 Comment

Recently I spent some time in St. Albans, Vermont, a town up near the Canadian border. There you will find a small bookstore called The Eloquent Page, which has an entire bookcase full of Godeys, Petersons, and the like, and two or three more with books on fashion history written in the 20th and 21st centuries. … Continue reading Godey's Lady's Book, January 1835

AMBA: The Recent History of Mourning

November 6, 2017February 28, 2024 ~ Cassidy Percoco ~ 4 Comments

This episode took me forever to write. I was originally going to start with a blog post I wrote a few years ago, relying on primary sources on mourning from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. Then, as I started to go through it, I started to reinterpret a number of the primary sources, … Continue reading AMBA: The Recent History of Mourning

Before Victoria: White Wedding Dress (Part II)

July 10, 2017February 28, 2024 ~ Cassidy Percoco ~ Leave a comment

So, previously I showed you a lot of examples of actual white or white-ish gowns worn for weddings, including fashion plates (as they are intended to be prescriptive of real clothing - they exist to tell you what you can/should wear); these prove at least that white was worn. Now I'm going to follow that up … Continue reading Before Victoria: White Wedding Dress (Part II)

Before Victoria: the White Wedding Dress in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries (Part I)

June 23, 2017February 28, 2024 ~ Cassidy Percoco ~ 1 Comment

The history of white wedding dresses is a popular topic, and a few related narratives have built up in both popular and academic writing: Queen Victoria was the first to wear a white gown for her wedding in 1840, and women began to copy her, creating a tradition. Queen Victoria was not the first to … Continue reading Before Victoria: the White Wedding Dress in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries (Part I)

The Clarissa Dress (Part III)

June 15, 2017February 28, 2024 ~ Cassidy Percoco ~ 4 Comments

This one has a lot of progress images! When I cut out the sleeves, I figured that because the pattern (Regency Women's Dress, p.98) appeared to fit me at the wrist, I could just cut out the sleeve exactly as drawn. Not so! I sewed the seam on one and it was far too tight … Continue reading The Clarissa Dress (Part III)