A crowd scene in Regency dress.

A Most Beguiling Accomplishment

Latest Posts


  • Museu do Traje, Part I (Nineteenth Century)

    Last summer, I traveled to Portugal with my family.  One of the last things that we did was to go to the Museu do Traje – the National Fashion Museum.  I took pictures of pretty much everything, but I’ve never… Continue reading

  • Fashion and Textiles Studies: History, Theory, and Museum Practice

    When it comes to fashion history graduate programs, the pickings are slim.  I think a lot of people aren’t even aware that these programs exist, to be honest, and since I also think FIT’s is the best, I’d like to… Continue reading

  • Candace Wheeler: the Mother of American Interior Design

    Candace Thurber Wheeler was born in 1827 in rural Delhi, New York.  She and her siblings grew up as “not only traditional, but actual Puritans, repeating in 1828 the lives of our pioneer New England forefathers a hundred years before”… Continue reading

  • Corsets 1790-1810

    Throughout the eighteenth century, the female body was compressed by whalebone corsets into conical shapes, but within the next few decades, as the silhouette became more high-waisted, corsetry changed drastically. The extant corsets of the early nineteenth century are slim… Continue reading