American Duchess Historic Shoes Blog
V96: The 1780s/1910s Double-Period Hat
A few posts ago I staked lampshade style bonnets of the 1780s against similar chapeaus of the 1910s. My idea was to see if one hat could be used for...
V94: The Significance of Color in Revolutionary France
KCI - jacket, 1790 - revolutionary or royalist? These days, many costumers, me included, look to the fashions of the past and select items to make based on, well, their...
V93: Finding Inspiration Anew
I still really love this 1785 polonaise jacket and matching skirt. 1785 is a bit late for the event we'll be attending in CW ...but maybe I don't really care?...
V89: Fashion Face-Off - Hats of the 1780s and 1910s
As we all know, history repeats itself, and fashion especially. Nothing is ever "new" on the runway (well, maybe if it's a suit made out of bubble wrap, etc.), and...
V86: Marie Antoinette in Prison
Being sick is like feeling close to death, sometimes. That is me, today, and I'm in a morbid mood, hence my blog post. These are depictions of Marie Antoinette in...
V82: How To Decorate Pemberley Regency Shoes Like It's 1789
As of late I've been inspired by that interesting transitional period in women's dress, around the end of the 1780s and into the 1790s. Many things changed - the waistline...
V68: Operations Petticoat: Two Finished 18th Century Petties
I finally finished two Georgian petticoats that seem to have taken me forever to do. Petticoats are supposed to be easy, right? Celadon green silk petticoat with pinked ruffle, sheer...
V67: The Red Shoes, The Pretty Red Shoes
On Facebook, Pamela charged me with finding portraits, fashion plates, and extant examples of red 18th century shoes, and I went a little bonkers and hunted down all sorts of...
V63: Georgian Miniature Portraits
Mrs Oakeley, by John Smart, 1780s Happy Saturday! Here are a few 18th century miniatures, a lovely little (literally) art form that began life in the 16th century, and was...
V62: The Hairstylings of Madame de Pompadour, by Legros de Rumigny
Lovely reader Ceselha, of the blog "My Stubby Fingers..." pointed me to two books on ladies' hairstyling, from 1768, entitled " L'Art de la Coeffure des Dames Francoises," and a...
V61: Favorite 18th Century Shoe Buckles
If you own pair of latchet shoes, eventually you will own a pair of shoe buckles to close them. Shoe buckles were the standard way of fastening one's footwear in...
V60: 1770s Hair Notes
Today's post is a page out of my dress journal. I went through a great many images, a lot of them fashion plates, and broke down the various parts of...