The Dress Diary

Secrets from a Victorian Woman's Wardrobe

By: Kate Strasdin

Narrated by: Karen Cass

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

The marvelous researching used to find the information on the people written about in the diary.

The author used her knowledge of family research to change a diary full of cloth swatches unto a well written biographical story.

Literally the fabric of one woman’s life.

Kate Strasdin’s research is impeccable and fascinating. I felt as if I sat beside her as she parsed out Anne Sykes’ life and told a great deal of history about the textile industry ad 19 th century society at the same time. The only thing I disliked were some of the laconic and haughty voices the narrator gave some of the women whose letters were quoted.

Excellent!!

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

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.

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.