The “dress diary” of this book’s title is a bulging album of 2,134 small swatches of fabric: a compilation of snippets, fragments and pieces. Until Kate Strasdin got to work, it was merely a junk-shop curiosity, its creator long forgotten. The album was found in a Camden bric-a-brac stall in the 1960s and handed to Strasdin by a fellow student in a lacemaking class. These random stops in its afterlife are a pleasing reflection of its physical nature.
Each of the swatches has a handwritten caption featuring a name, and sometimes a date or an occasion. The album appeared to be a collection, added to for more than 30 years, of one woman’s wardrobe and those of her friends; a chronicle of mid- Victorian fashions in bits of textiles. But the identity of its creator was only revealed by Strasdin’s transcription of the caption attached to a slip of white muslin: “This is the dress my charming Anne was married in,” signed Adam Sykes. The book’s creator was a woman named Anne Sykes.
Lisez l'article complet et bien d'autres dans ce numéro de
Prospect Magazine
Options d'achat ci-dessous
Si le problème vous appartient,
Connexion pour lire l'article complet maintenant.
Numéro unique numérique
June 2023
Ce numéro et d'autres anciens numéros ne sont pas inclus dans une nouvelle version de l'article
abonnement. Les abonnements comprennent le dernier numéro régulier et les nouveaux numéros publiés pendant votre abonnement. Prospect Magazine