The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes: Secrets from a Victorian Woman’s Wardrobe
£16.40£20.90 (-22%)
The hidden fabric of a Victorian woman’s life – from family and friends to industry and Empire – told through her unique textile scrapbook.
‘Irresistable’ The Times
‘The story of a singular woman… Kate Strasdin’s forensic detective work has finally let Mrs Sykes – and her book – speak again’ JUDITH FLANDERS
In 1838, a young woman was given a diary on her wedding day. Collecting snippets of fabric from a range of garments she carefully annotated each one, creating a unique record of her life and times. 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. Strasdin spent the next six years unravelling the secrets contained within the album’s pages.
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: 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.
‘An extraordinarily rich record of middle-class Victorian life.. [a] fascinating book’ Guardian
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Additional information
| Publisher | Chatto & Windus, 1st edition (23 Feb. 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Hardcover | 320 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 178474381X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1784743819 |
| Dimensions | 16.2 x 3.1 x 22.2 cm |
by Andrew B
Bought as a gift for a friend who loves classic historical fashion. Much appreciated, although a few more photos would have been good
by Mrs C Hathaway
Considering the source material for this book : literally pieces of material, there are only 16 pages of photos of the original ‘Dress Diary’, so quite disappointing. If the page size was larger, thus the photos of the materials larger it may have been more enjoyable, but the original handwriting with each piece of fabric is difficult to read. This means that the author’s text cannot be read while looking at the fabric she is talking about. The author is imagining the ‘story’ behind the elements of the dress diary and she does this well and with historical authenticity. The title is sensationalised as there are no ‘secrets’. The author has extensively researched the names of the people mentioned thus parts of the lives of the Victorians are explained. This book is to be enjoyed if one is interested in Victorian women. Kate Strasdin’s interest and passion for the original Dress Diary shines out and makes one wish we could also see it !
by georgina ward
Great read
by SUSAN PERRY
My mum asked for this for her birthday after seeing this book advertised. She was very pleased and loves the book.
by Kindle Customer
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.
by MaggieW
The discovery of a scrap book of snippets of dress and furnishing materials sent Kate Strasdin on a personal quest to research everything she could about the life of one Victorian lady through fabrics that she collected. We are taken on a journey with the scrap book’s owner to Singapore and Shanghai as well as back home in Lancashire. The insights into cloth production and technological developments I found fascinating (and actually would have welcomed more).
Kate’s research journey also comes through in a personal way as she struggled to discover who had compiled the collection, where she had spent time and who some of the fabric donors were; mostly during the pandemic lockdown. A personal insight and reflection on the recent as well as the more distant past.
by Bea Doubleday
A wonderful book, full of social and political history all based on fabric samples collected by one Victorian woman. The author has done so much research to find out about Anne Sykes, it is a delight
by Maeve D
Like another reviewer I was expecting more illustrations