18th century blog

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.

Pimpernel Clothing makes men’s clothing in 18th century styles, but meant for modern people. I think it’s a great idea. So far they only have waistcoats, but coats are on their way as well.

We set up Pimpernel Clothing to design and create clothing and accessories inspired by the beauty and quality of craftsmanship of period garments.

They also sell wonderful replicas of 18th century (and earlier) card decks.

Historical Sewing is a brand new 18th century fashion forum started by Madame Berg. I hope it takes off!

John Guilford Russell, 1790

Check out the Louvre databases! Not exactly tons of 18th century stuff and not very big pictures, but still a lot of great stuff.

A new swedish 18th century blog, My 18th century!

Rockin’ the Rococo is the blog of a girl who’s doing a big project on 18th century clothing. She has reproduced the wardrobe of an 18th century middle class Englishwoman using only period accurate materials and techniques, even doing the sewing while dressed in 18th century clothes and only by daylight or candlelight. Be sure to check out the exhibition page to see the presentation of the finished project. The process of each garment is covered in detail as well which is very helpful for other costumers!

Mrs. Alexander Hamilton by Ralph Earl, 1787.

Here’s a great blog I just came across, History of American Women – 18th Century. Lots of portraits of and information about women in 18th century America.

Via Costumes, Cats and the 18th Century, a great online shoe museum called Shoe Icons. Go directly to the 18th century section here.

I was just contacted by this new site, Creative Spaces, which is like a museum community, and it looks like it could be really fun. You can search the collections of nine British museums and add things to your favourites, start groups and so on. I have started exploring it but haven’t tried all the features yet. The site isn’t completely finished yet and it doesn’t work perfectly, but I think it’s very promising!

You can see my profile here, and of course I started an 18th century fashion group.

Madame Pauli is a new Swedish blog with long and informative entries about different aspects of 18th century fashion.

Portrait of Mrs James Denham by Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1789.

Here’s a great resource for 18th century portraits. Historical Portraits is a database of British historical portraiture and there are some wonderful 18th century examples among them. There’s not a huge amount but the photos are generally great and there was a surprisingly large amount of portraits I hadn’t even seen before!

Vivien of Fancy Girl has reinvented some forgotten 18th century trim making methods with beautiful results. Visit her website for great tutorials on knotting and fly fringe.

Yet another great museum database, IMATEX is the database of the Textile Museum and Documentation Centre in Terrassa. Lots of amazing 18th century clothes, especially jackets.