Last weekend I picked up the April copy of Real Simple. The theme for the issue is naturally, spring cleaning. It got me thinking about how this tradition has been around for so long and wondering how much I could find in Victorian household manuals on the topic. I am also striving to use more [...]
How many pieces of detachable neckwear do you own? Easy answer, right? Well, in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, both women and men may have owned as much neckwear as we own earrings or hats today. In an era where clothing was largely handmade and held onto for years, neckwear was a great way to [...]
We are in an era of “do what you want” when it comes to women’s hair. I think that it is just as common to see a woman wearing a full up-do or otherwise styled hair as it is to see one with a ponytail and no prep at all. But it certainly wasn’t always [...]
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 [...]
I somewhat randomly came across the curious Victorian trend of maps of human conditions and experiences, including marriage and being a woman. The Open Country of a Woman’s Heart is of particular interest to me. I thought it would be a wonderful post in the lead up to Valentine’s Day and research soon followed. The [...]
It has been such a fun year of writing for Recollections! About this time one year ago I did a lovely series on the delightful documentary A Very British Romance featuring one of my favorite historians, the fabulous Lucy Worsley. One of the things that I learned whilst watching the documentary is that at the [...]
I have a lot of favorite fashions from the past. Big hats, also known as the Merry Widow Hat, are one of them. I think I just get such a kick out of how extreme the fashions of the Victorian and Edwardian eras were. Many women were looking for as many ways to stand out [...]
I have always loved the stunning fashion plates from Godey's Lady's Book. I often go looking for them when researching different fashions from the past as they were considered to be the standard and the highest authority of fashion in print at the time. It was when I met with Nancy Jean Gray to discuss [...]
Many of our readers will be familiar with “the bicycle craze” of the late 1800s and the idea that the bicycle revolutionized the freedom women enjoyed from day to day and catapulted the Dress Reform Movement into the mainstream. This month I have had the privilege to work on an event for the Molly Brown [...]