Resource for costumers, milliners, reenactors...heck, any student of history!



From: Art in costume design: practical suggestions for those interested in art, sewing, history and literature(1920)

Recently I stumbled across a site containing scans of lots and lots of old dressmaking and millinery books from the early part of the last century and older. Wow. They also have antique and vintage magazines and cookbooks scanned and saved to the site. Double Wow. Grab a cup of tea, wine, or (insert your beverage of choice here), and enjoy cruising through the site for a while, it's well worth it!

Check out all of these little gems here by The Human Ecology Collection at the University of Wisconsin. Thank you, University of Wisconsin, for bringing all of these wonderful historical resources to interwebs. :)

I love reading vintage books on how to dress, and there are a few on this site. The one I'm currently flipping through is called Clothes That Count and How To Make Them (1923). How could you not love advice like, "Clothes properly managed will transform a plain nonentity into a character to be reckoned with"? Those poor, plain nonentities were obviously in need of this book....

The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street

Recently I was on a business trip that required a LOT of driving--about 300 miles each way from the airport to the destination and back again. How do I keep from dying of boredom since I can't sew, read, or work on my laptop like I would if I were flying? I run to the library (I'm a big library groupie) and grab a book on CD. For me, novels can be a little hard to follow while driving on unfamiliar roads so I prefer something non-fiction. For my last trip, I picked up: The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street

What a fun book!

The book is full of all of the characters who made up Shakespeare's circle during his time living on Silver Street in London. I LOVE social history so the descriptions of people, their occupations, and daily lives meshing with the theater and writers of the day made for some pretty fun listening.  For example, one of the main figures of the book, Christopher Mountjoy is a "tyre maker," a maker of ladies headpieces, so there is a lot of fascinating description of that industry and the status (or appearance of status) of having such "tyre." Yay for unexpected costuming information!

There is also quite a bit about prostitutes at all levels of society and how they lived and worked which always makes for colorful reading. According to Nicholl, prostitutes were such regular figures at the various theaters that they could be seen mouthing the words of the play while looking for customers. If that hasn't been made into a scene in a movie about Shakespearean theater, someone totally needs to jump on that.

I admit that since I wasn't "reading" and sometimes had to turn my attention away from listening that there are some things that I missed. This certainly isn't the most analytical of reviews, but if you are looking for a little Shakespearean London for a long-car-trip or summer reading, it's definitely worth a listen. I might grab it again for my next trip!