The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes: Secrets from a Victorian Woman’s Wardrobe

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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. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose doctoral work focused on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Listen to more episodes on: There is just so much information gathered together in one place. The history of cotton, calico, silk, the development of dyeing techniques, as well as descriptions of trading and the politics of the time. I have spent a lot of time myself looking up the beginnings of retail as we know it today. The development of off the peg clothes as opposed to having everything made. How shops such as Kendals in Manchester first began. I didn't know where the term 'mad as a hatter' came from, but I do now. Lace is where Anne's story and my own became entwined. Were it not for that desire to learn a traditional technique...I would never have joined the lace group amongst whose members was the custodian of Anne's diary. In the years since, and along the path of discovering Anne's life, I realize that while our experiences of the world inevitably differ, there is that which connects us: female friendship and an appreciation for the threads of textiles women into our lives." p. 73 In the C18th and C19th, clothes were made for the wearer; there were almost no “off-the-peg” dresses, suits, etc.. One would buy a length of material and make it (or have it made by someone else) into clothing, upholstery or curtains. Anne Sykes obtained small fragments of the leftover material from friends and relations for her book. A typical inscription might state “Adam’s vest new on his birthday July 12th 1843.”

There's a chapter on Victorian mourning customs (as there are several swatches in the diary captioned for the mourning attire of various people Anne Sykes knew), with fascinating information about how the sartorial expectations of "proper" mourning were codified, marketed, and observed by people at varying levels depending on gender, class, geographic location, etc. I gather from the introduction that these books were perhaps not as commonly kept as a written diary but were at least enough of a phenomenon that other clothing textile scrapbooks exist in the collections of other museums. It's wild to think that even if these things were frequently assembled by lots and lots of women, they would have probably been something discarded into the trash by heirs after the deaths of their makers, as not worth keeping. And yet it's clear from this book analyzing the contents of just one extant swatch diary, they indicate so much about the lives of people otherwise invisible in the history as recorded by Western colonialism. In 1838, a young woman was given a diary on her wedding day. Collecting snippets of fabric from a range of garments she carefully annotated each one, creating a unique record of her life and times. Her name was Mrs Anne Sykes. I loved this book!! I have already planned to buy a copy for a dressmaking friend for her birthday later this year, I can’t wait to see all the fashion plates in colour something my reading device wouldn’t let me do. I think this would be a very welcome addition to any centres that teach Arts and Crafts, and for Social historians.Dr. Kate Strasdin is a fashion historian, museum curator and lecturer at Falmouth University, where she teaches the history of fashion design, marketing, and photography. Finally, into the book, the author discovers that it belonged to Anne Sykes, which allows her to not only trace her life through the fabrics, but some of the others mentioned throughout. The author received a book that held many samples of fabric, annoted with the names and dates of those who wore those fabrics. Eventually the creator of the sample book was revealed as a "Mrs Ann Sykes" - by a single mention of her name. The author has researched extensively into the life and times of Mrs Sykes, and discovered many interesting facts, which she has woven into a fascinating picture. Only seventy fragments were associated with male garments, and only seventeen of the names recorded were those of men. It seemed that at a time when so much of literature and the arts was focused on the endeavors of men, this was a book dedicated to the world of women. I decided to try to piece together the lives of some of these women through the clues that were left behind, scant though they often were. Using what felt like a forensic approach in its detail, I focused on fragments of cloth to illuminate the world these women inhabited, enabling a wider context to emerge. What began to appear were the tales of an era, placing these lives into the industrial maelstrom of the nineteenth century, with all its noise, color, and innovation.

My thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK/ Vintage publishers for my advance digital copy given in exchange for my honest review. It has been an absolute delight and pleasure to read this novel.Thanks to Strasdin's forensic research...this book opens into a vivid history of expansion and empire. And all wrapped up in 2,184 pieces of cloth BBC History Magazine The colour plates of the material fragments are a revelation - over a century and a half later their gleaming colours and patterns shine out like jewels. It's so easy to think of the Victorians as drab and grey, or, worse still, sepia. These bright and often beautiful materials make me realise that they loved fashionable colours and patterns every bit as much as we do now.

Anne’s identity radiated out in myriad hues and materials, connecting her to her world and allowing us to join her. Discovering that Anne Sykes was the hitherto unknown creator of the book that I had been meticulously transcribing was at once both exciting and perplexing. I felt certain that she had to be a dressmaker, a woman whose role in life was to clothe her clients, taking a keen interest in shape and style, keeping the secrets of bodies. In that moment I could never have anticipated just how much I would be able to uncover. I would have loved to have seen photos of the glorious fabrics described throughout, but perhaps that will be present in other versions of the book… for now, I will rely on the delightful descriptions, and would recommend this book to anyone interested in this period of history, or the history of fashion. Snippets of fabric, snippets of biographical detail, snippets of historical evidence - this is a book entirely made up of snippets and I found it irresistible Ysenda Maxtone Graham, The Times This week, the Costume Society hosted an exclusive book launch event for members, in which Kate Strasdin spoke about 'The Dress Diary of Anne Sykes'. Become a membertogain access to future events. Despite, as the title makes evident, the book focusing on one Victorian character – Mrs Anne Sykes, in a sense while reading you follow the stories of two main women; Anne Sykesherself, and the story of Kate Strasdin’s research process as she uncovers Anne’s story. Both of these stories converge around one key item, Anne’s diary, in which swatches of textiles are documented, starting after her marriage in her early 20s. Using these textiles and captions, Strasdin follows Anne, tracing her movements and her acquaintances, with the help of historical records and knowledge of the lives of women of Anne’s standing. Fantastically; what starts as a collection of fragments of textiles – not even whole garments – becomes a full life.

This is a wonderful book! The life of a woman, a time and an industry, woven, like cloth, into something unique and beguiling. A treat for the curious reader Pip Williams, author of The Dictionary of Lost Words The fabric swatches in Mrs. Sykes' diary were not all from her own clothing. Friends, family, and others gave her little pieces of fabric that they'd used to have their own clothes made. Anne carefully placed all the swatches in her book and wrote captions, indicating whose fabric it was and sometimes the occasion on which the resulting clothing was worn. The author used this information to look into various aspects of life during the time span of the diary. For example, Anne and her merchant husband, Adam, spent 7 years in Singapore living in a British community there. Through the fabric swatches and captions, followed by the author's research, we learn about what life was like in such communities, what people felt about being so far from home, the relationships that developed, and the kinds of material goods that were a part of everyday life. When they returned to England, styles had changed and we learn about the kinds of events and occasions that people of a certain class would have attended, how mourning fashions evolved and became big business, and more.