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Title details for The Dress Diary by Kate Strasdin - Wait list

The Dress Diary

Secrets from a Victorian Woman's Wardrobe

by Kate Strasdin
Karen Cass
Audiobook
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In 1838, a young woman was given a diary on her wedding day. Collecting snippets of fabric from a range of garments—some her own, others donated by family and friends—she carefully annotated each one, creating a unique record of their lives. Her name was Mrs. Anne Sykes.
Nearly two hundred years later, the diary fell into the hands of Kate Strasdin, a fashion historian and museum curator. Using her expertise, Strasdin spent the next six years unraveling the secrets contained within the album's pages, and the lives of the people within. Her findings are remarkable. Piece by piece, she charts Anne's journey from the mills of Lancashire to the port of Singapore before tracing her return to England in later years. Fragments of cloth become windows into Victorian life: pirates in Borneo, the complicated etiquette of mourning, poisonous dyes, the British Empire in full swing, rioting over working conditions, and the terrible human cost of Britain's cotton industry. This is life writing that celebrates ordinary people: not the grandees of traditional written histories, but the hidden figures, the participants in everyday life. Through the evidence of waistcoats, ball gowns, and mourning outfits, Strasdin lays bare the whole of human experience in the most intimate of mediums: the clothes we choose to wear.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 15, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9798350853698
      • File size: 261150 KB
      • Duration: 09:04:03

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Karen Cass's mellow voice and brisk cadence enliven the background, travels, and experiences of the wife of a prosperous man of industry in Victorian England. Fashion historian and museum curator Kate Strasdin unfolds the captivating life of Mrs. Anne Sykes, which is told through pieces of fabric from various items of her clothing, which she kept in an annotated scrapbook. Through her skillful facility with pacing, Cass draws listeners into the story of how Strasdin was able to piece together this particular woman's life and, by extension, the lives of other women during the height of the British Empire. Not only does this work demonstrate the attitudes and customs of the times, it also lays bare the human costs of industrialization. A fascinating listening experience. S.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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