It’s way past time for some updates – it’s been a wild ride of a year! In this post I’ll recap some highlight of my trip to the UK and Denmark in March/April. Then coming up will be posts about my 1884 dress reconstruction for my Master of History degree, and the exciting news about my next amazing historical dress-making opportunities!

My trip to the UK and Denmark in March and April was wonderful, with great experiences and plenty of inspiration. I attended two workshops at the School of Historical Dress in London – a one-day workshop on lacing bodies, stays and corsets, and a two-day workshop on the development of the mantua from a flat-cut gown to a more complex draped and shaped dress. It was fantastic to meet the legendary Jenny Tiramani, who shared her vast knowledge freely, and the other students were all interesting, with varied careers and backgrounds but a shared love for historical dress.

The one-day conference in Leicester with the Making Historical Dress Network, on Learning from Making, was also a highlight, with interesting and informative presentations. Sadly one of the keynote speakers, Abby Cox, who I’d been so looking forward to meeting, was struck down with Covid and could only attend virtually. However, her presentation gave a deep insight into her journey in dress history and was definitely thought-provoking. Huge thanks to Abby for sharing her experiences and reflections with us.

Other dress history-related parts of the trip included a day at the Calderdale Archives in Halifax, studying the Hill pattern book that I first studied for my Honours thesis, back in 2000. It is full of wool textile samples from the mid-18th century, woollens and worsteds of various types. I didn’t have a digital camera back in 2000, but this time I could photograph every page in detail for further research. Unfortunately I don’t have permission (yet) to share the photos.

I also visited my niece in Aarhus, Denmark for almost 2 weeks – my first trip to Denmark. We had a couple of days around the Copenhagen area, and visited the National Museet, which has quite a few historic costumes on display.

As well as conferences, workshops and sight-seeing, there was shopping! I visited the Spitalfields markets on their antiques days twice, and brought home a few treasures. I was thrilled to find a number of original fabric sample pages from Ackermann’s Repository – samples were published in each issue and they’re a fantatsic resource, as fabrics have changed so very much since the early 1800s. On my first visit to the market, I bought three pages; on my second visit I bought the three remaining ones that the dealer had.

I also couldn’t resist this lovely pair of net lace undersleeves, which date from about the 1850s.

At the markets I also bought a lovely black silk Edwardian bodice, two white lace collars, and some lengths of cotton lace. Alas I still haven’t sorted all my photos from the trip as life turned upside down when I returned home, but rest assured they are lovely!