The Daily Mail History Festival

The Daily Mail History

Festival

Come and find us - we have a stall in one of the largest all-out History Celebration Festivals in the U.K - And it's a Two Week Countdown!

We're going to have on display a new Silk Robe a la Francais which has been based on an original stored at the V&A  - we've taken a mutlitude of notes, photo's, drawings and patterns to be able recreate this stunning dress (apart from the fly trim - fly trim along with Small Pox has disappeared off the planet!!!)

We've also been working on 2 new pairs of Stays which will be having their debut appearance in our collection especially for the market, a short but stunning little Sack with Echelle fronts and a brand new Yellow Robed Anglais based on a Paul Sandby Drawing. We will also be displaying a new Cotton 1780's Anglais based on one of Janet Arnold's dresses along with a Silk/Linen Quilted Petticoat. All of these items we hope will be appearing in our shop probably a stone's throw beyond the market (lets get that out of the way first!) and we hope you like them.

Take a look at this amazing festival - there are speakers such as Dan Snow, Antonia Fraser, Ian Hislop (ahh we love this guy), Kate Mosse, The institutional David Starkey, Jon Snow and Neil Oliver to name but a few. Here is a link to the website  http://cvhf.org.uk/about-chalke-valley-history-festival/

We'd love you to come and try a pair of Stays on, flick through our research and man-handle all the costumes you like. We'd be delighted to see you! Exclusively for the markets we attend we have built a range of Stays in virtually every size (and it will just keep on growing!) so that they are able to be tried on and experienced. For the Daily Mail History Festival we hope also to bring in a new 'Shift Corner' with our reproduction Shifts hanging on display for all to see along with their photos of the originals, examples of shifts visible in paintings and a choice of the variations of Linens we have for their making. We also hope to be bringing in the Accessorize of the 18th Century with Neckercheifs, Ruffles and Pockets along with our small range of fabrics that we have for sale.

LACMA and the Stomacher-Style Stays

Caraco and Petticoat:

At The

Los Angeles Count Museum of Art

(LACMA)

We were just having a quick click through our 1770's folder, doing some research on a dress to study at the V&A when we whizzed passed this little beauty.

Dated c.1770's, this light and simple looking Caraco and matching Petticoat took us a little by surprise. LACMA has obviously dressed a mannequin for a photo shoot of this neat little ensemble - but look! they've dressed it with a finely laced (or stringed) CF detail pair of Stays. We've seen one exactly like this at the Edinburgh Collections Centre and have a few other versions in our Stays image file.

C.1770 - LACMA

This is obviously not conclusive proof that this type of decorated stays were meant (nor always meant) to be seen but it is another weight on the side of Purposeful Visibility - what a great little phrase.

I'm sure we've used this image before but there is the lovely 'Sleeping Maid' who, though it could be argued, could be wearing her stays visible out of necessity or for practical purposes, is also proudly displaying her pair of Stays.

Anyway, this is not supposed to be a long post - we're in the middle of preparing for The Daily Mail History Festival and we're busy sewing ribbons onto our new McCord Stays especially for the event. Lotsa lv, XXX