Tales for the MS Morrell series at the Bodleian Libraries Oxford
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The best places to obtain Early Modern Images for use in Publications
Most people do not realise (until they must go through the process) that sourcing rights and permissions for images to use in publications can be a tedious and very expensive process. I am currently sourcing images for my book and other projects, and I recently had an email from my colleague asking where to get… Continue reading The best places to obtain Early Modern Images for use in Publications
Sittingbourne Bodies, c. 1630-1650 | Part One: Pattern and Materials
I recently announced that my first research monograph, Shaping Femininity, is now under contract with Bloomsbury Academic. Featured in the book will be the reconstructions of bodies (corsetry) that I did during my PhD (and began blogging about on this site in 2015!), as well as some newer reconstructions. My reconstructions, including farthingales, feature predominately… Continue reading Sittingbourne Bodies, c. 1630-1650 | Part One: Pattern and Materials
New Instagram Account
Happy New Year! My first post of 2020 is to announce that I have recently started a new instagram account for this blog. It will feature some of the images that long-term followers of the blog may have seen already, as well as some new images and instagram stories of my various research projects behind… Continue reading New Instagram Account
Isabella d’Este’s Chemises – Translations from the 1539 Inventory
I was recently asked to be an allied researcher on the ACIS project Textiles, Trade and Meaning in Italy: 1400-2018, particularly in relation to the clothing and textiles at the court of Mantua under Isabella d’Este. As part of this project I was asked to write a short piece on Isabella's underwear, as part of a… Continue reading Isabella d’Este’s Chemises – Translations from the 1539 Inventory
The Case of the “French Vardinggale”: A Methodological Approach to Reconstructing and Understanding Ephemeral Garments | New Research Article
New research article!
When “Medieval” Armour is not quite medieval… Plate Armour and the Renaissance.
Did you know that most of the full body plate armour that we think of as being medieval is in fact usually not really medieval at all?
Bodies or Stays? Underwear or Outerwear? Seventeenth-century Foundation Garments explained.
What should we call the torso-shaping female foundation garments of the seventeenth century? Were they pairs of bodies? Bodices? Stays? Moreover, how were they worn? Were they underwear or were the outer wear? This post clears the air about terminology!
The Farthingale, Gender and the Consumption of Space in Elizabethan and Jacobean England | New Research Article
Abstract: Farthingales were large stiffened structures placed beneath a woman’s skirts in order to push them out and enlarge the lower half of the body. During the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods in England criticisms of these garments increasingly focused on their spatial ramifications, decrying their monstrous size and inconvenience. Nonetheless farthingales served important social and… Continue reading The Farthingale, Gender and the Consumption of Space in Elizabethan and Jacobean England | New Research Article
Back to Basics: The Smock in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
As many of you know, during my PhD I decided to reconstruct four items of female structural dress from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. However, in order for the reconstructions to be worn during photoshoots the most basic female undergarment of the the early modern period was needed: the smock. The Smock – A Brief… Continue reading Back to Basics: The Smock in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries