A Most Beguiling Accomplishment

The latest episode of the A Most Beguiling Accomplishment  podcast is out! As promised, it discusses the methodologies of fashion history and #PocketGate . Corset, 1860-1870; Philadelphia Museum of Art 1947-53-17 What does a corset have to do with the history of pockets? You'll have to listen to find out! Remember, patrons of my Patreon  get to suggest and vote on future topics of the blog and podcast!

Castle of Love, from the Pseudo-Heloise Poems, 1475-1483; BL Royal MS 16 F II f.188 I mentioned the other day that I'm really interested in the very early Tudor period - and lately I've been laying the groundwork for potential sewing/experimental archaeology in that era. This is difficult, because I'm used to doing rigorous research in the Early Modern Era forward, where you have access to: - extant garments of all kinds to look at online - extant garments fairly easily found for individual, in-person study (after about 1750) - patterns taken by other researchers of pieces chosen to be either representative or unique - lush, detailed portraits and genre prints - works of fiction that describe clothing or show which aspects of it are important to society - manuals for tailoring and dressmaking - magazines intended to disseminate fashions and/or sell commercial patterns If I want to make a gown for 1874, I can be very sure of what was fashionable, what was comm...

Visual Source I love  fashion plates. As I'll be discussing in the next episode of my podcast, problems can arise in interpreting them to get at the actual clothing worn at the time, but they can be extraordinary sources for understanding the sequences of high fashion - how and when changes happened. For the detailed timeline of fashion (and my dating of the garments themselves) in  Regency Women's Dress , I pored over three decades of fashion plates in La Belle Assemblée , the Journal des Dames et des Modes , and Ackermann's Repository . Lady in a robe à la turque , Cabinet des Modes , November 1, 1786 Anyway, in the course of my researches, I've translated a lot of fashion plate captions and accompanying texts on this blog. You can view them through the tags: Galerie des Modes Magasin des Modes / Cabinet des Modes   (same magazine, different titles) You might have noticed that I've stopped doing these - it just seemed like there wasn't very much ...

Yep, it's happened! I was serious about starting a podcast, and I followed through, thanks to my excellent Patreon patrons . This first episode jumps right in as a verbal version of the Before Victoria  series of posts. The Marriage of Queen Victoria, 10 February 1840 , Sir George Hayter, 1840-42;  RCIN 407165 I would love it if you could give it a listen and throw me some feedback! The Podcast Source ( Android , Apple ) is an app that will allow you to subscribe and listen directly from Libsyn, where A Most Beguiling Accomplishment  is hosted; you can also subscribe through Google Play  or iTunes , or listen right from the Libsyn webpage. The second episode will be a discussion of what fashion history is , a much more theoretical topic, although I won't be handling it in a dry manner! I'll be chatting about the history of the field, the differences between fashion and dress, how different ways of studying dress come together to produce the best research,...

Unlike many members of the fashion history, reenactment, and costuming worlds, I have no favorite era - and lately I'm hard-pressed to find eras that I even dislike . But there is one period that I'm really interested in yet never seem to get the chance to explore. Portrait of Catherine of Aragon , Michael Sittow, ca. 1503; Kunsthistorisches GG_5612 The overall theme of the periods I like is that they're just before more popular eras - here, the years before Henry VIII's reign. In most cases, the popular era features more exaggerated sleeves, necklines, skirt shapes, etc. than the earlier one, and this period is no exception! I've thought from time to time about joining the SCA, and this is at the top of my list for eras I might focus on. (Others include the High Middle Ages (11th-13th centuries) for the bliaut, and the early 14th century for the high-waisted houppelande.)

Costume Blog Writing Month, that is! I've been doing so much long-form writing lately that I thought it would be fun to loosen up a little. There is a  semi-official list of prompts , so let me get the ones I've missed in here on the third day of the month. Day One: Introductions Hello! I'm sure you have a general idea of who I am if you're following my blog, but if you're not: I'm Cassidy. By trade, I'm a museum professional; by vocation, I'm a fashion historian. I don't tend to write much here about myself personally because I'm active on a bunch of social media platforms, though to be honest, I tend to write about fashion history there as well rather than anything personal. I suppose I just do it in a more personal way? You can find me on Twitter ( @mimicofmodes ), Tumblr ( @mimic-of-modes ), and Instagram ( @mimicofmodes ) - and I'm active at Ask Historians as a moderator and an answerer of fashion history questions. You can read...

( Part I of this series and part II , if you're not coming to this from one or the other.) Royal weddings need to be dealt with on their own, because their dress traditions differed from those of ordinary and even aristocratic women. These differences are key to understanding the context of the gown that Queen Victoria chose for her own wedding, and what exactly was the tradition she was setting with it. I know that many of you are aware that royal weddings employed silver fabrics, but I think you might be surprised at the amount of white incorporated as well. "The Ceremony of the Marriage of the Princess Royal with the Prince of Orange," 1734; British Museum Mm,3.5 Anne, Princess Royal, was married to William, Prince of Orange, in 1734. The bride and her eight bridesmaids were all in the "stiff-bodied gown" – a two-piece gown made with a boned, back-lacing bodice. This style of dress had been fashionable in the 17th century and had held on as English c...