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THE DRESS DIARY of Mrs Anne Sykes
Secrets From a Victorian Woman’s Wardrobe
Author: Kate Strasdin
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Published 23rd February 2023
Chatto & Windus is part of Vintage £20.00 | Hardback | eBook | Paperback
The hidden fabric of a Victorian woman’s life - from family and friends to industry and Empiretold through her unique textile scrapbook.
In 1838, a young woman is given a diary on her wedding day. Collecting snippets of fabric from a range of garments - some her own, others donated by family and friends - she carefully annotated each one, creating a unique record of their lives.
Her name was Mrs Anne Sykes. Nearly two hundred years later, the diary fell into the hands of Kate Strasdin, a fashion historian and museum curator.
Using her expertise, Strasdin spent the next six years unravelling the secrets contained within the album’s pages.
Her findings are remarkable. Piece by piece, she charts Anne’s journey from the mills of Lancashire to the port of Singapore before tracing her return to England in later years. Through the evidence of waistcoats, ball gowns and mourning outfits, Strasdin lays bare the whole of human experience in the most intimate of mediums: the clothes we choose to wear.
Kate Strasdin is a dress and lecturer in Cultural Studies at Falmouth University and is a freelance consultant for dress and textile exhibitions. In 2016 she was given an anonymous album full of annotated dress swatches that had been kept in a trunk for over fifty years, its original keeper unknown. Kate spent the next six years unravelling the secrets of this album, and the lives of the people within.
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