Chatto & Windus The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes: Secrets from a Victorian Woman?s Wardrobe

Fabric is so often dismissed as trivial by our over-supplied culture— but thoughtful consideration pays off. The author uses this astounding scrapbook loaded with 19th century fabric swatches bearing simple annotations, to reveal a normally unconsidered world of social networks and material considerations. This rich view into the past was reached with a remarkable amount of sleuthing and delving. Out of all this comes a surprisingly expanded view of history with moving parts, begun with asking questions of the textile clues left for the right person to interpret. While as the author admits, much of the personal aspects she offers is speculative, but it is plausible. In the end, sensing the personal in history is the ultimate reward. Well done! Apart from that, I agree that I would have been thrilled to see a larger format with more pages shared— with captions rather than notes in back.

Modegeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts. 5 Sterne

I liked the book and it did have a lot of details about Victorian clothing and fabric. It is about things that usually are never mentioned in a history book. The research process of the author is documented and interesting. I would like to know more about the illustrations and have better photos. The scrapbook, like many artifacts, leaves us wanting to know more and understanding why we can't have more.

If you’re interested at all in historical fashions this is a must for your shelf!! Wonderful information about how the cotton industry literally exploded with many of the inventions developing in the same district!! I work in a large living historical museum that focuses on the 18 th century and was surprised to find out that there were dress diary’s even then. A very good read!!

Fascinating content based on a collection of fabric samples from over a hundred years ago. I would like to have seen descriptions of the fabrics on the pages with the photos, it would save having to flick back and forth trying to identify and match text with picture, but the history of Mrs Sykes is fascinating.