I recently sat down with Bernadette Banner to chat about maternity corsetry. Check out our video below! https://youtu.be/VCuWQ8t3dUI?si=g22uTvvBvzKRtArm
Category: 17th century
Top 5 Books for Making 17th-Century Dress – New YouTube Video!
I've decided to launch a YouTube Channel where I will be talking about all things early modern dress, fashion and material culture. I've just released my first video on my top 5 books for those wanting to make 17th-century dress. https://youtu.be/_ubdtSEiXVg?si=8uwFzwoJHdLsILIs Please like and subscribe!
Making a 1650s Bodice and Gown
Sew with me! 1650s English bodice and gown reconstruction tutorial and notes.
Did Seventeenth-Century English Women Wear Drawers?
A question I see pop up often, and one that continues to spark much debate in online costuming communities and between historians of dress is: Did early modern women wear anything under their skirts? If so, did they wear drawers? Susan North's recently published book, Sweet and Clean?, is one recent scholarly text that has… Continue reading Did Seventeenth-Century English Women Wear Drawers?
Quilted Petticoats in the Seventeenth Century
Quilted petticoats in England and America are usually attributed to and discussed in the context of the eighteenth century. This is likely due to the fact that all the earliest surviving quilted petticoats (to my knowledge) date from this period. Quilted Petticoat, c. 1740-60 (made), 1870-1910 (altered), British. Victoria and Albert Museum, T.430-1967. I am… Continue reading Quilted Petticoats in the Seventeenth Century
Shaping Femininity Book Launch Recording
Shaping Femininity's book launch was held online on 4 November 2021. Chair: Rebecca Unsworth (Birmingham Museums Trust) Discussants: Hilary Davidson (University of Sydney / La Trobe) and Erin Griffey (University of Auckland) To watch the whole launch see the video below: https://youtu.be/JE5Z0BLKHnU
Sittingbourne Bodies Pattern, c. 1630-50
To celebrate the upcoming release of Shaping Femininity I've decided the post the pattern that I made of the garment when I examined it in 2017. A pattern for this garment has since been published by the School of Historical Dress in 2018's Patterns of Fashion 5. The School's pattern is much more detailed than… Continue reading Sittingbourne Bodies Pattern, c. 1630-50
Seventeenth-Century Waistcoats for Women: Jacobean Fashions
The waistcoat is by far one of the most common pieces of clothing I have come across in the records of seventeenth-century women. While women did wear gowns during this period, if we look across the social spectrum we can see that waistcoats and petticoats were by far the most common garments that were worn… Continue reading Seventeenth-Century Waistcoats for Women: Jacobean Fashions
The Life and Times of Theophilus Riley: Citizen, Civil War Conspirator and Body-maker.
In 2018 I spent two months in the UK going through records relating to tailors, body-makers, and farthingale-makers at the Bodleian Library in Oxford and the Drapers' and Clothworker' Companies in London. While doing my archival research at the Drapers' Company hall, I mentioned to the archivist Penny that the unusual name of a… Continue reading The Life and Times of Theophilus Riley: Citizen, Civil War Conspirator and Body-maker.
Shaping Femininity Book Cover and Pre-order!
Very excited to announce that my book Shaping Femininity has a cover image and pre-order links! See below for details! About Shaping Femininity In sixteenth and seventeenth-century England, the female silhouette underwent a dramatic change. This very structured form, created using garments called bodies and farthingales, existed in various extremes in Western Europe and beyond,… Continue reading Shaping Femininity Book Cover and Pre-order!