Aug
26
2009
Eighteenth Century Costume Connections
I was reading Eloisa James’ new release, A Duke of Her Own (so fun to be reading Villiers’ long-awaited story!) and was all excitement when I came across these lines:
“Now I know why women wear such large panniers,” she said.“To repel their admirers?”“Precisely . . . .”
You see, a dear friend Kimberly from college once wrote a paper on the rise of the hoop petticoat in the 18th century, one of the premises of which (grossly generalized by me) was that this garment served a proto-feminist purpose by affording women a safety zone around thier bodies. You can read a much better synopsis of the paper here:
I often regret that I write in the Victorian period and am therefore unable to mine Kimberly’s incredible knowledge of 18th c. dress, particularly of the French revolutionary period.
I likewise see Eloisa is having a paper doll contest as part of this book’s release Eloisa. Kudos to Eloisa for such a well-executed bit of PR. I’ve printed these out for Miss P and I to play with tonight:
I’ve always loved paper dolls, ever since owning many of Tom Tierney’s collections as a kid. Did anyone else ever play with these? I was so excited to see they are still in print. I need to file these away as a Christmas idea for Miss P . . . .
UPDATE: Eloisa later Tweeted a link to these fantastic 18th c.-inspired paper wigs. I wish I had one for my office . . .