18th century blog

I just came across a new 18th century blog, Helt rococo. It’s in Norwegian but if you don’t know the language you can always check it out for the photos.

I was just in London and among other things I visited the Victoria and Albert Museum. There are plenty of 18th century clothes on display at the museum, scattered into many different exhibitions, and I took photos of most.

Read more »

I just finished this polonaise and I’m so happy with it! I have to do one small alteration to improve the fit of the “bodice” but otherwise it’s done.

Edit: The photos are taken in my bedroom.

Read more »

From Tidsfördrifvet, the blog of 18th century society Gustafs skål, comes this great list of 18th century clothing items from Göteborgs stadsmuseum. Click the picture to go there.

A couple of days ago I visited the new exhibition at Nordiska museet, Modemakt or Power of fashion. There wasn’t a huge amount of 18th century clothes but the ones they did show were really wonderful.

The exhibition has it’s own website complete with a database containing pictures and information about most of the garments on show. Continue reading to see my own photos from the exhibition.

Read more »

Meg Andrews sells antique clothing and there are some great photos of 18th century garments on the site.

Modemakt - 300 år av kläder is a new exhibition opening at Nordiska museet in Stockholm on February 26. It will show clothing from the 1780s, 1860s and 1960s, “times when economy, new ideas and new technology strongly influenced fashion”.

On February 6 there will be a lecture, Siden och kattun, about 18th century clothes and fashion at Stadsarkivet. The lecture starts at 12 am.

Pockets of History is a great site with pictures of and information about tie-on pockets, many of them from the 1700s.

Thanks to Abbyelyn on the Historical Sewing forum I just found out that Colonial Williamsburg are putting their collection online! There are lots of clothes but also portraits, prints, furniture and so on. Everything is accompanied by a very informative text about the item. Unfortunately the pictures are rather small, and I can’t find a way of browsing everything in categories (except the “highlights” selection) rather than having to search (I can’t be sure I haven’t missed something!).

Click the picture to go the collection!

EDIT: I found a way to browse categories. In “Advanced search” choose “classification is” and you’ll be able to choose a category.

Self portrait, 1785.

Gilbert Stuart was an American portrait painter who lived between 1755 and 1828.

Gilbert Stuart on Wikipedia.

Gilbert Stuart (Metropolitan Museum of Art Series) at Amazon.

Read more »

1780.

17th and 18th-Century Costume in Detail by Avril Hart and Susan North contains big detail photos of garments from the Victoria and Albert Museum. There are no photos of the entire garments, instead there are detailed drawings. While these are great for understanding the construction, a small photo of the entire garment besides the drawings would have made it even better. We now only get to see a small part of the fabric and colours used. Most drawings show both front and back of the garment but a few show only one side, which I thought was a bit strange.

Each picture is accompanied by a short but informative text about the garment depicted. I wouldn’t have minded longer texts, but it’s a great book as is. This book is excellent for closeups on different trimmings and other decorations like embroidery, both for costumers and people who just like to look at pretty pictures.