A Very British Romance: Episode One Highlights

By | February 12th, 2020|Categories: Valentine's Day, Women's History|Tags: , , , , , |

There are few areas of modern life that our society obsesses over more than that of romantic love, but it wasn’t always that way. PBS’s A Very British Romance takes a whimsical and academic look at the evolution of coupling and the invention of romantic rituals and customs still in use today. Episode one aired [...]

Pioneer Clothing: What Women Wore in the Western Frontier

By | February 4th, 2020|Categories: American West, Fashion, Old West, Pioneer Dress, Victorian Era, Victorian Fashions, Women's History|Tags: , , |

As many of our readers, I enjoy spending my free time dreaming about owning Victorian gowns and wishing that I could spend more time in the layers, colors, ribbons, and elegance that come to mind when I think of the era. I am also a true woman of the Southwest - an Arizona native and [...]

Victorian Dress Reform: Who, What, When, and Why

By | January 31st, 2020|Categories: Underpinnings, Victorian culture, Victorian Era, Women's History|Tags: , , , , , , |

Many of us know about the women’s suffrage movement, abolition, and temperance societies, but what about the dress reform movement?  Many of the most radical and audacious women involved in progressive movements of the Victorian Era could see the way that women were physically prevented from fully participating in society. Such limitations, they argued, took [...]

The 1920s, the Decade that Changes Everything!

By | January 31st, 2020|Categories: 1920s fashion, Entertainment, Fashion, Roaring 20s|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

In part one of our look back on the 1920s we explored the top five events that kicked off the Decade of Change, the years we know as the Jazz Age and the Roaring ‘20s. Most are aware of how that decade exploded in 1929 with the crash of the stock market and the start [...]

Colleen Moore: The torch of Flaming Youth

By | January 16th, 2020|Categories: 1920s fashion, Recollections, Roaring 20s, Women's History|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

“I was the spark that lit up Flaming Youth, Colleen Moore was the torch. What little things we are to have caused all that trouble” F. Scott Fitzgerald in Motion Picture Magazine Flaming Youth was not only the title of a Colleen Moore silent film, but also the name bestowed upon those young people who [...]

5 facts about Margaret Tobin Brown (aka The Unsinkable Molly Brown)

By | January 14th, 2020|Categories: American West, Edwardian Era, Edwardian Fashion, Women's History|Tags: , , , , , |

I am a Denver transplant. Having always dreamt about becoming a docent at a house museum (yes, my goals are that specific), one of the first things I did when I moved to the city was to sign up to volunteer at the Molly Brown House Museum, located, luckily, a few blocks away from my [...]

Staying warm in the Victorian winter

By | January 14th, 2020|Categories: Victorian Era, Victorian Fashions|Tags: , , , , , |

A few weeks ago I bought my first pair of snow boots and cannot believe the difference that they have made in my overall comfort this winter. I have recently moved to snowy Denver after five years in Australia and had to accept that my Converse Allstars aren’t really the best for walking around icy [...]

5 history podcasts to help you get your fix now: Part 2

By | January 5th, 2020|Categories: Civil War, Old West, Pioneer Dress, Women's History|Tags: , , , |

Welcome back to another list of history podcasts! If you haven’t checked it out already, head over to my first list to see what I recommend for all of your listening needs. If you are even the slightest bit like me, you will soon find that you won’t have enough time to listen to all [...]

The rise and fall of the bustle: a short history

By | January 5th, 2020|Categories: Fashion, Underpinnings, Victorian Era, Victorian Fashions, Women's History|Tags: , , , |

A lot of interest has recently been given by clothing historians to the subject of women’s underclothes through time. It is, after all, something that we can all relate to, right? Maybe not. When one looks at the bustle, crinoline, and even whalebone corsets, for instance, we are truly looking at cultural artifacts from the [...]