Rebecca Olds

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Two new 18th century gownmaking workshops this autumn:

* Sept 19-21: making a sackback gown, aka robe a la francaise. 🥰

* Oct 3-5: making an English gown aka nightgown aka robe a l'Anglaise. 😍

Full details & to book:
www.timesmith.co.uk/shop/in-pers...

Dutch enamelled gilt metal Needle-case,c. 1700.

In the form of a book, the covers with enamelled birds &foliage , set with amethyst cabochons.

#Bijoux
@ Christies

The chintz short sack gown is finished! 🙂

The original is held by Dordrecht Museum. All I had to work from were @monalunasimone.bsky.social 's photos on IG (www.instagram.com/p/B8zVRL_FPjD).

Can't wait to wear mine to an event this year.

#FashionHistory #18thCentury #Mantuamaker #HistoricalDress

Thank you!

It's gorgeous fabric! 🥰

The back is pleated.
Oh, the joys of working with a symmetrical pattern!
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#18thcenturyfashion #EnglishNightgown #silk #floral #damask #fashion #fashionhistory #dresshistory #textilehistory #everyinchhandstitched #mantuamaker #mantuamaking

Robert Feke, Anne Shippen Willing, 1746, oil on canas. Winterthur Museum, 1969.0134 A.

I'm building the sleeves for "Mrs Willing's gown", using the sleeve pattern & construction techniques from a silk fitted back gown owned by The School of Historical Dress, published in 'Patterns of Fashion 6'. I really love this shape!

#fashionhistory #dresshistory #materialculture

A coloured drawing featuring a young couple seated on chairs slightly turned away from each other. They are shyly looking at each other. The title of the drawing is 'Symptoms of Love sketch the 6th' and it is dated July, 5th, 1785. The text underneath reads 'The Bashful Lovers. My love he was a bashful boy | And I a simple girl to see | Yet I was Jemmy's only joy | And Jemmy was the lad for me. (Comic Opera of Fontainebleu).

As the February theme for Explore Your Archive is Love, we'll take a look at various ways the late 18th century caricaturist George Woodward put love in his work. To begin with, here is his sweet sketch of 'The Bashful Lovers'.

#EYALove #18thcentury #19thcentury #art #ExploreYourArchive

Anna Ioannovna, Empress of Russia, was born #OnThisDay in 1693. For her coronation in 1730, she wore a brocade and silk gown embellished with silver-gilt lace and braid. The train could be raised via a system of cords. Kremlin Museums collection. #fashionhistory #royalfashion

A tiny mary-jane style leather shoe with a flat sole.

We made it to Footwear Friday! This toddler's shoe is broadly dated by the V&A to 1450-1550 - an unlikely survivor from the Middle Ages. collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O107715... 🗃️🪡

Stomachers were really the focus of decoration in the 1750s and into the 1760s. I suppose in a sense, the compère stomacher was the last successful innovation and there was nowhere really to go after that!

2/2 Sometimes the buttons were purely decorative (like mine). And sometimes, but not always, one side or both sides of the stomacher were secured to the edges of the gown more or less permanently. But this usually did not happen til the garments were adapted for fancy dress in late 19th c.

Yes, the original's stomacher has functional buttons down the centre. This look was a particular fashion in France and England in the 1760s - I don't know precisely when the Dutch followed suit. 1/2

Progress on my chintz short sack: making and attaching pleated strips of self fabric as trim.

Photo on the right is the extant gown held by Dordrecht Museum, taken by @monalunasimone.bsky.social.

#18thC #18thCentury #DressHistory #FashionHistory #chintz #TextileHistory #Mantuamaker

Please do!

Correct. Can you give me an idea when the gaps between terms typically fall for your university, and which city it's in? Thanks!

It's too challenging for newbies to make a gown in just one weekend or only evenings. I ran two in Scotland last year and found it's definitely more effective to run it over the course of 1 work week. Of course that runs up against work/school/childcare demands, but the demand is there.

I'm thinking 4-5 days, Central Belt or Borders, October-November.

The completed gown was modelled by Cait Burk, who is not only a professional costume maker for stage and screen but has some modelling experience as well!

I'm planning a gown making workshop in Scotland later this year. Need to find a classroom to hire! #ThrowbackThursday to making this long #sackgown at Paxton House nearly 2 years ago - fantastic place for a photoshoot afterwards!
#dresshistory #fashionhistory #18thcentury #mantuamaking #TBT

Jane Austen's Pelisse, 1814 Pelisse, said to have been owned by Jane Austen dating from around 1814 Pelisse, said to have been owned by Jane Austen, woven in silk on a brown gold ground with all over pattern of oak leaf motif in...

Good questions! You're right about the pelisse being a longer garment, at least during the Regency period. I've no idea if it encompassed shorter garments like the one in Carolyn's post. Regency is outside my wheelhouse, though I really ought to learn more about it!

Exquisite work by Sarah Thursfield -- as usual! 😍

Wonderful bobbles (? tassles?) on this early 19th c. pelisse. Lovely colour, too.

Oh you know how I love chintz! When I move to NL, we've got to meet up in real life. 🥰

Yes, she was! I've handled one of her mourning ensembles and was just blown away by how short she was, even if not so tiny in later life.

Oh my goodness, thanks so much for that link! I'm familiar with Modemuze.nl but didn't know there's an aggregate digital site for Frisian museums. I've been to a few of them and now definitely want to visit the others!

I did not know that the short version is called a 'kassekijntje' - clearly a Dutch adaptation of the French 'casaquin'! Thank you!

What a fabulous example of 1720s bizarre silk! Not too many of them still about, I don't think.... here's one that was in the Crown & Couture exhibition at Kensington Palace in 2023.

Such a sumptuous dress. It's really interesting how the colours are fading differently in the velvet vs the taffeta ribbons. Here's a photo I took at the 2019 "Wild and Majestic: Romantic Visions of Scotland" at the National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh.