18th century blog

Historical Portraits

Posted Mar 9, 2009 at 19:27 CET in Fashion, Links, and Paintings.

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!

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Kvinnligt mode under två sekel

Posted Mar 9, 2009 at 19:10 CET in Books, Fashion, and Swedish books.

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Kvinnligt mode under två sekel by Britta Hammar and Pernilla Rasmussen (the same people who wrote Underkläder: En kulturhistoria) is the best and most informative book on 18th century fashion that I’ve read. It only exists in Swedish as far as I know and it covers women’s fashion in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The first section is a general history of fashion, with many pictures and fashion plates. The second part has examples of garments (from the collection of Kulturen in Lund) presented in great detail with photos and thorough information on the construction of each garment. The final part of the book contains many examples of different sewing methods and stitches used in clothing from these two centuries, and finally there are patterns of every garment presented in the book!

The only bad thing about this book is that it seems impossible to buy. I borrowed it at the library but I can’t find it for sale anywhere. If anyone knows where you can find it please let me know!

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18th century trims

Posted Feb 25, 2009 at 18:29 CET in Fashion and Links.

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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.

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IMATEX

Posted Feb 23, 2009 at 16:30 CET in Fashion, Links, Museums, and Photos.

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.

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