18th century blog

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”.

The Private Realm of Marie Antoinette by Marie-France Boyer is a wonderful book about the more or less private spaces of Marie Antoinette, at Versailles, Rambouillet and Fontainebleau. It’s filled with interesting information and the pictures are beautiful and plentiful. It’s very easy to read and I think even someone with just a a casual interest in the 18th century will find this book entertaining.

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.

Two Nerdy History Girls is a fun history blog with a lot of posts about the 18th century. They also write a lot about Colonial Williamsburg.

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

November 20-22 Dances of Vice hold a spectacular nautical themed party in New York called The Grand Shipwreck Ball. It’s not strictly 18th century but from what I understand many people dress up in (among other historical eras) 18th century clothes to go to these events.

The festival program features live music ranging from classical opera to rock ballads, international guests, historical costume fashion shows, dance, puppetry, fencing, performance art, vendors, and ballroom dancing, among other chimerical amusements.

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.

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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.

Mrs. Alexander Hamilton, 1787.

I discovered American portrait painter Ralph Earl through the great blog 18th century American women which I’ve featured here earlier. I love his slightly naive paintings with great attention to costume and detail, and depicting one of my favourite fashion periods, the late 1780s and early 1790s.

Ralph Earl on Wikipedia.

A short Ralph Earl article at Bolton Community News.

An extensive biography of Ralph Earl at Worcester Art Museum.

Ralph Earl: The Face of the Young Republic on Amazon.

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Here’s a link to a Canadian society that reenacts the 1750s, the Société d’Histoire In Memoriam. The costumes are very accurate and beautiful and there are tons of wonderful photos on the site!