Material Culture, Dress and Fashion History
I'm delighted to let you all know that PI Dr Serena Dyer and I (Co-I Sarah Bendall) have just launched the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded 🪡 Making Historical Dress Network 🪡 today! We are so excited to be putting together a series of workshops, online talks, and a festival of remaking over… Continue reading Making Historical Dress Network
New research article!
Wool was a commonly used natural material in early modern Europe. My construction of a French farthingale roll and French wheel farthingale, made as part of my PhD research, required the use of wool as stuffing.
The structural fashions of the early modern period in Europe reached a peak at the turn of the seventeenth century. Whilst the ruff, a gathered and starched linen frill that was worn around the neck, was still widely worn, at the beginning of the seventeenth century a new type of standing linen collar became fashionable.
The second 'bodies' reconstruction that I'm undertaking for my PhD research is of the Dame Filmer Bodies at the Gallery of Costume, Platt Hall, Manchester Art Gallery.
After blogging about the process of reconstructing the earliest pair of surviving English bodies that were found on the 1603 effigy of Queen Elizabeth I at Westminster Abbey, one of the most frequent questions that I received was: do you think these bodies actually belong to the Queen? My answer: no… and yes, maybe. Funerary records… Continue reading Effigy Bodies: did they really belong to Elizabeth I? | Speculating about the appearance of Gloriana through Dress Reconstruction
Effigy Bodies Part One: The Pattern & Materials Effigy Bodies Part Two: Cutting & Sewing Effigy Bodies Part Three: Boning & Binding Effigy Bodies Part Four: Eyelets & Lacing Effigy Bodies Part Five: The Finished Product The first reconstruction that I will be making is the effigy bodies of Queen Elizabeth I that are now… Continue reading Elizabeth I Effigy Bodies Reconstruction | Part One: The Pattern & Materials
Reconstruction has until recently not been seen as a concern of the serious academic, relegated to the domain of television, re-enactors or living history museums. Yet reconstruction has been used by archaeologists, curators and conservators for many years, standing in for objects that are too frail to be put on permanent display or adding a… Continue reading Reconstructing “deform’d” fashions – My Journey into Historical Reconstruction