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Halloween Comes to Downton Abbey
I predicted in this post from April that people would be hot to trot for Downton Abbey influenced costumes this Halloween. True to form, a lot of readers have been finding my blog by searching on...
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Eighteenth Century for the Weekend
RL Fifield, 2012. Last weekend, The Brigade of the American Revolution hosted an Authenticity Event at Don Carpentier’s Eastfield Village. A collection of two taverns, a store, a church, a doctor’s...
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From the British Museum: “A Chinese Lady” 18th century print
I was perusing the excellent online catalog at the British Museum (nice online image distribution system for educational use, by the way). I found this intriguing image of “A Chinese Lady,” printed...
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Costume Moment: Black Silk Bonnet at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Bonnet, 99.664.10. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Visit here to see the object record at the mfa.org site to see alternate photography. When I was a Collection Care Specialist at the MFA boston, I was...
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Garters
Garter. Banish that elasticized cheap lace piece of bridal tawdry from your brain. These are akin to the ones I made in white and red 10 years ago. From A Fractured Fairytale Blog. There’s a reason...
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Jef Pat Park: The Nickname for a Great Archaeological Concern
LInked buttons found at Saunders Point, c. 1700-90. Photo: Maryland Archaeological Conservation Lab. Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum/State Museum of Archaeology is a long official title, so the...
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Maiko-san – Block Print at LACMA
I love edgy 20th century block prints of traditional Japanese subjects, like this print Two Maiko by Sekino Jun’ichirō. He uses the regimented trappings of a maiko’s (apprentice geisha) appearance...
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A Squeal of Delight at the Indianapolis Museum of Art: Miniature Dresses
I attended the American Institute for Conservation’s Annual Meeting in Indianapolis at the end of May. The opening reception was on a steamy night at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA). While the...
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Transit Tuesday – Take the Underground to a Costume Exhibition, 1922
This 1922 exhibition at the London Museum combines some favs for me: dress and transit. During a transformative era of rapidly shifting hemlines, silhouettes, and haircuts, a look back to 1850s fashion...
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Set Your Shift Sleeves in the Wrong Way? A Runaway Advertisement
Ever get that lovely hand-stitched shift near completion, and then realize: “Crap. I put the shift sleeves in the wrong way.” Out comes the seam ripper and it feels like your best-looking stitches ever...
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Samuel Adams’s Mother Was a Fifield
RL Fifield vacuuming samplers with a dental vacuum in the old Textile Conservation Lab, MFA Boston, 2001. Back in the early aughts, I was a Collection Care Specialist in Textiles and Fashion Arts (TFA)...
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Following Eleanor Ferrell: A Runaway Indentured Servant
New: see the full article online here. If it doesn’t come up, go to the home page and search again. Abraham Emmit labeled her “an ill natured, scolding, cursing, swearing, thieving servant Woman. I’ve...
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What is Fashion? An Agreeable Tyrant
Continental Journal. October 23, 1783. Photo: Newsbank, American Antiquarian Society.
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Names of the Forgotten – Runaway Clothing Database Project
Maryland Gazette, August 9, 1787. Library of Congress. RL Fifield photo. The Runaway Clothing Database project uses newspaper runaway advertisements to catalog the garments of indentured and enslaved...
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Variety Among the 18th Century Lesser Sorts
Der Wöchentliche Pennsylvanische Staatsbote 9/17/1773. As part of my research on 18thcentury working class clothing, I have been studying indentured and enslaved female servants who immigrated to the...
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Stocking Washing
The summer is full of living history events, and moreso, the laundry that follows a hot sweaty weekend out in a field without a shower. While plenty of women I know want to get their stays (corset) off...
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Hold the Tulle: I’m Anti-Princess
Manhattan is a special place, no doubt. I live on the Upper East Side in Yorkville, a formerly German and Czech community. I jokingly refer to the far east neighborhood as the “suburbs of Manhattan.”...
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Nanny – A Servant Wager Cup
Online databases are incredible tools. While my museum career has mostly focused on textiles, dress, and ethnographic materials, I never know what is going to inspire me when I search mfa.org,...
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Halloween Comes to Downton Abbey
I predicted in this post from April that people would be hot to trot for Downton Abbey influenced costumes this Halloween. True to form, a lot of readers have been finding my blog by searching on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Squeal of Delight at the Indianapolis Museum of Art: Miniature Dresses
RL Fifield. I attended the American Institute for Conservation’s Annual Meeting in Indianapolis at the end of May. The opening reception was on a steamy night at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA)....
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