Preview
  • The Dress Diary

  • Secrets from a Victorian Woman's Wardrobe
  • By: Kate Strasdin
  • Narrated by: Karen Cass
  • Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (15 ratings)

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The Dress Diary

By: Kate Strasdin
Narrated by: Karen Cass
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Publisher's summary

In 1838, a young woman was given a diary on her wedding day. Collecting snippets of fabric from a range of garments—some her own, others donated by family and friends—she carefully annotated each one, creating a unique record of their lives. 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. Using her expertise, Strasdin spent the next six years unraveling the secrets contained within the album's pages, and the lives of the people within. Her findings are remarkable. 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: not the grandees of traditional written histories, but 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.

©2023 Kate Strasdin (P)2023 Tantor
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What listeners say about The Dress Diary

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Excellent!!

This book was phenomenal! I loved everything about it and will definitely be listening to it again!

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Fascinating History

A very interesting diary, about women thru fabric and fashion. Enjoyed and would recommend it takes us away from our daily life and the life of another era of women’s lives.

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Interesting and well-written!

Anyone that works with fabric, or has an interest in fabric, should read this book.
I loved how the personal life of the woman was intertwined with bits of history.

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1 person found this helpful