Resources - Historical Clothing and Trims

We thought it might be useful to collate a list of useful resources for anyone looking to discover more about trims throughout history and how they were used. We'll keep adding to this list, so keep checking back with each project! 

You can also view our Pinterest boards here, for lots of inspiration. We have many sections both broad and very specific, from 18th Century shoes to Edwardian Ribbon Corsets.

Historical Clothing

General information

Fashion History Timeline - Incredible resource for a whole host of information, broken down into eras, as well as some really interesting essays: https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/

The Costume Institute (Met Museum) Collection - Beautifully photographed items, which can be filtered by era: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?showOnly=withImage&department=8%7C62

V&A Collections - much like the previous resource, but you can also book to go and view some of the items up close! : https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections

The American Duchess Blog - a maker of historically-accurate shoes and accessories that has some fantastic blog posts on fashion history : https://blog.americanduchess.com/

 

Specific findings

Entire sample book of french trims from France in the 1800's : https://archive.org/details/MAB.31962000742936Images_20130626/page/n3/mode/2up

and one published in 1842: https://archive.org/details/MAB.31962000742977Images/page/n1/mode/2up 

a really interesting article on sequins throughout history on the American Duchess blog: https://blog.americanduchess.com/2012/04/v119-are-sequins-period-accurate.html

 

Instagram accounts to follow: 

@thehistoryofdress Sharing museum-documented garments and ensembles as well as fashion plates mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries.

@dressing.history Run by Dr Serena Dyer, fashion historian. Offers interesting facts and myth debunking when it comes to fashion history. 

@fitfashionhistory Interesting facts about fashion, both historical and more modern era. A great, varied account. 

@stoutstylehistory Photographs and portraits showing the fashions worn by people with larger bodies from 1500-1930. Great for seeing real photos of trims in action!