Can Regency paper dolls encourage children to behave?

By | September 5th, 2021|Categories: Entertainment, Regency Era, Women's History|Tags: , |

I have been looking forward to doing a post on the history of paper dolls for a while. And wow - talk about biting off more than I could chew! As soon as I started prepping a couple of weeks back I realized it was WAY too huge of a topic to tackle in one [...]

Tina Fiorda: Hannah Swensen Mysteries costume designer

By | August 22nd, 2021|Categories: Customer's Fashions, Entertainment, Fashion, Recollections, Regency Era|

The Hannah Swensen Mysteries is a Hallmark film series about a baker who solves mysteries when she isn’t mixing up sweets. With the help of her detective fiance, the two fight for justice in their small town, with a few messes along the way. The series is a Hallmark fan favorite, and it has just [...]

Bonnets through history: can you tell them apart?

By | July 25th, 2021|Categories: Accessories, American West, Edwardian Era, Edwardian Fashion, Fashion, Hats, Old West, Pioneer Dress, Regency Era, Victorian Era, Victorian Fashions, Women's History|Tags: , , , , |

Last summer I had quite a fun time exploring how the straw hat went from an accessory used mostly by laborers to a shabby chic accessory still enjoyed today. I discovered that bonnets have a similar history, although they started out being used to protect hair while working, were extremely chic for a century or [...]

Before fashion magazines there were fashion dolls

By | May 27th, 2021|Categories: Fashion, Regency Era, Victorian Fashions, Women's History|

How useful is a painting for deciding whether or not to buy a dress? Or to describe today’s fashion trends? I’d say, it probably wouldn’t be all that effective. For many centuries women have favored multi-dimensional images over flat paintings or drawings for viewing clothing. From the 1300s to the 1800s the elite throughout Europe [...]

How straw hats became shabby chic

By | March 5th, 2021|Categories: Edwardian Era, Edwardian Fashion, Fashion, Hats, Regency Era, Victorian Fashions|Tags: , , |

Does anyone else feel that it has been a long winter? It really is great to have the sun shining and to know that warmer days are ahead. It has me thinking about afternoons in the sun and relaxing under wide-brimmed hats with Aperol spritzes without a care in the world. All of this daydreaming [...]

Are Bridgerton costumes Regency? Fashion historians weigh in

By | February 20th, 2021|Categories: Entertainment, Fashion, Regency Era|Tags: , |

Last week we started to unveil our new Regency fashion pieces. I started to explore the basics of what constitutes “Regency dress” and why we love it. This conversation very easily gives way to the hot topic in costuming and historical fashion right now: the Netflix series Bridgerton and how it got the clothing right [...]

Let's talk about Regency fashion!

By | February 15th, 2021|Categories: Accessories, Fashion, Regency Era|Tags: , , , |

We love Regency fashions and are so excited about releasing an entirely new line of styles from the early 1800s for you this week. This, and the fact that we know how much our fans love Bridgerton helped me to decide to do a short series on Regency fashion fun. In today’s first post, I [...]

The Many Adaptations of Jane Austen's Emma

By | March 13th, 2020|Categories: 19th Century Literature, Regency Era, Women's History|Tags: , , , , , , |

Jane Austen wrote stories and poems to amuse herself and her family from a young age and eventually compiled 29 of them into three bound notebooks. These volumes provide a little glimpse into the author she would become. The “stories are full of anarchic fantasies of female power, licence, illicit behaviour, and general high spirits,” [...]

Visiting Mission San Xavier del Bac

By | April 14th, 2019|Categories: Civil War, Recollections, Regency Era, Revolutionary War era, Victorian Era|Tags: , , , , , |

As a company that designs and manufactures history-inspired fashions, we and our customers are inspired by history! Here is another story from Recollections' recent trip to Tucson, Arizona. San Xavier: a step back in time just outside of Tucson The day dawned bright and sunny. It was a definite (and welcome) change from the cold [...]