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The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes
Secrets from a Victorian Woman’s Wardrobe
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Check link for latest rating. ( 980 ratings, 200 reviews)
Brief Description
The hidden fabric of a Victorian woman's life - from family and friends to industry and Empire - told through her unique textile scrapbook. In 1838, Anne Sykes was given a diary on her wedding day. Using it to collect snippets of fabric, she created a...
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The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes
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Description
The hidden fabric of a Victorian woman's life - from family and friends to industry and Empire - told through her unique textile scrapbook.
In 1838, Anne Sykes was given a diary on her wedding day. Using it to collect snippets of fabric, she created a record of her life and times. Nearly two hundred years later, the diary fell into the hands of fashion historian Kate Strasdin, who spent the next six years unravelling the secrets contained within its pages.
Piece by piece, she charts Anne's life and times. Fragments of cloth become windows into Victorian life—pirates in Borneo, the complicated etiquette of mourning, poisonous dyes, the British Empire in full swing, rioting over working conditions, and the terrible human cost of Britain's cotton industry. Through the evidence of waistcoats, ball gowns, and mourning outfits, Strasdin lays bare the whole of human experience in the most intimate of mediums—the clothes we choose to wear.
The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes is described as 'Flawless' by Amber Butchart, 'Fascinating' by Clare Hunter, and 'Irresistible' by The Times.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781529920819
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 22 February 2024
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Vintage
Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 20.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 280g
Pages: 320
About the Author
Kate Strasdin is a dress historian who has been fascinated by old clothes since she was a child. She is a lecturer in Cultural Studies at Falmouth University and is a freelance consultant for dress and textile exhibitions. She has appeared on The Great British Sewing Bee as an expert. In 2016 she was given an anonymous album full of annotated dress swatches that had been kept in a trunk for over fifty years, its original keeper unknown. She spent the next six years unlocking its secrets. She lives in Devon with her husband and two children.
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