My Favorite Movies for their Costumes

Sometimes when I watch a movie, I'm just in the mood to look at pretty costumes. Aside from the fact that I'm a costumer, I'm a highly visual person in general. Character development is definitely important to me, and I like a good plot as much as anyone else, but having a beautiful set, good …

How to Research Historical Fashion

Hi everyone! I know it's been forever since I last wrote on this blog. Between college and my personal projects, I've had no time for blogging. But college is finally starting to wrap up for me, the entire world is shut down from the coronavirus, and I have no job due to the economy being …

How to Write About Corsets in Historical Fiction

Are you a writer of historical fiction? Do you have characters who wear corsets? Are you someone who pays attention to detail and wants your writing to feel real? If so, then this post is for you! I am a writer, amateur historical costumer and corset maker/wearer, so I'm here to offer my advice on …

3 Ways to Develop Your Personal Style

Have you ever thought about your personal style as it regards to your clothing choices? Maybe you know exactly what your style is- what you like, what makes you feel the most like yourself. Or maybe you have no idea. Either way, developing your personal style doesn't just happen by itself. It takes experimentation and …

Tiny Corseted Waists of the Edwardian Era

If you research Edwardian fashion online for two minutes, you'll immediately find hysteria about the poor fainting women, oppressed by their corsets and struggling to breathe. This is due partly to all the photographs we have of women with exaggerated hourglass figures that many people today find unnerving. Then we tend to assume that the …

The Underrated Awesomeness of 1930s Fashion

The 20th Century is an era that most people know something about, regarding the fashion. A large percentage of the population today (myself included) was born in the 20th century, and we have a lot of popular media portrayals of the various decades. People often have a vague idea of the flapper fashion of the …

How to Teach Yourself to Sew

People often tell me, "Wow, I could never sew the way you do!" Or, "I wish I had that kind of talent!" Hearing comments like that makes me kind of sad, because I think there are lots of people out there with unused potential. They think they can't sew and that they wouldn't be able …

Movie Costume Review: Wonder Woman

Let me be perfectly honest- when Wonder Woman first came out a couple weeks ago, I assumed that it was not the type of movie I would be interested in seeing. I assumed it would just be a postmodern feminist rant with lots of thoughtless blowing things up. But I heard such good things about …

Lessons from the Past on Making Ballgowns

It occurred to me the other day that we really don't make ballgowns like we used to. And I'm not talking about my nostalgic feelings of the Edwardian days and earlier, where I think the style was so much more elegant and tasteful than it is today-- nope, I'm talking about the raw practicality here. …

In Defense of Corsets

Our society in general has a widespread fear of corsets. Ironically enough, the negative perception of corsets we see today has been spread around by people who have never made, worn or touched a corset. Meanwhile, the main proponents of corset use are people who wear and/or have made corsets. If corsets were a bad …