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

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Despite all the knowledge we have gained as a result of Anne’s diary finding itself in Strasdin’s hands, there is also so much we can never know. Throughout the book, alongside the concrete findings, are queries about the intricacies of their thoughts, emotions, and activities. How close the relationships between Anne and those mentioned in her diary, whether they genuinely liked or politely accepted the fabrics and garments gifted to them, all these personal thoughts and more that are just beyond our reach, not recorded in marriage records or newspaper cuttings. In many ways, thisadds to the intrigue maintained throughout the book. We know Anne so well, having been able to trace her life (and wardrobe) from these fragments of cloth, and yet we also come out knowing so little about her personality. Ultimately though, this remains a value, not a disappointment – these questions that are raised providing a constant reminder of the individual people, with all their thoughts and feelings, mundanehabits and routines, excitements and tragedies, attached to every historical artefact. This appears to me as a fascination, more than a frustration, at least as I read it. ‘The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes’ may start with snippets of fabric collected by just one Lancashire woman, but it certainly does not end there. This is a journey Kate Strasdin takes us on with her; the precision, openness, and curiousity, with which she does so filling me with positive affirmation of my fascination with history (and love of prints!). The author captures it best herself: ‘Anne’s story is both remarkable and ordinary’. 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. The section on laundering and caring for clothes was a reminder that in the days before washing machines & tumble driers, laundry was a lengthy & laborious process. People had far fewer clothes than we have today, with fabric bought in bolts and made to measure by a tailor/seamstress. Outer clothes were spot cleaned but washed infrequently, with detachable collars & cuffs, petticoat flounces & shifts used to catch as much dirt as possible to reduce the need for everything to be laundered after each wear – I think Anne and her circle of friends would be both fascinated and horrified by our modern approach to clothing, both in terms of the concept of ready-to-wear items and our obsession with washing fabric so often! Intriguing and engaging... A fascinating and creative unravelling of Anne's life and times Clare Hunter, author of THREADS OF LIFE

A revealing and unique portrait of Victorian life as told through the discovery of one woman's textile scrapbook. 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. I saw a social media post by the author of this book, and really wanted to read this. It took a while until my turn came up at the library, but it was worth the wait! 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. Nearly two hundred years later, the diary fell into the hands of Kate Strasdin, a fashion historian and museum curator. The story of a singular woman... Kate Strasdin's forensic detective work has finally let Mrs Sykes - and her book - speak again' JUDITH FLANDERSBasically, the author was given an old scrapbook of textile swatches, kept and collected by a random ordinary merchant-class British woman throughout her life, that was ultimately found in a stall in Camden Market. I suppose it's actually a book about material culture and what this artifact of a 19th century life can illuminate and obfuscate. In May 1848 merchant’s wife Anne Sykes rustled on to the dancefloor in a dress made of pink and purple silk taffeta. Her husband, Adam, was quite possibly in the cream velvet pile waistcoat that he had got for his birthday. Or perhaps he had opted for the bright silk tartan one. Either way, the young couple must have shimmered as they waltzed, giving the lie to the idea that the early Victorians mostly preferred to look as if they were off to a funeral. 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.

An acquaintance of the author gave her a book that had been found in a thrift shop, knowing her interest in textile and fashion history. A homemade journal of types, but filled with fabric swatches from the Victorian Era in England, rather than written entries. The fabrics have caption like "Mary's dress for Helen's wedding" and a date, but not much else. 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. 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. 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. It was just beyond fabulous to learn about such a unique journal and book, and to have the privilege to have the talented author draw us this picture through her writings. I greatly enjoyed and appreciate this experience.

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There are many "unsolved" mysteries, as there is only so much research one can do into an "ordinary" person - but with more historical archives becoming available all the time, perhaps some of these will be unravelled. 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. This results in a book that gathers so much information about the textile industry & clothing in one place – the history of cotton, wool and silk, the changes and developments in dyeing and printing techniques as well as glimpses into the trade of the time. For instance we have a whole chapter devoted to lace, which explains how the traditional handmade bobbin lace of Honiton & the surrounding Devon villages became virtually obsolete due to the invention of machine made net that was so much cheaper to produce, but then saved by Queen Victoria who used handmade Honiton lace on her wedding dress. Honiton lace is now a luxury product, still made in the traditional way by hand. In fact, in the whole of the UK, I failed to find another album like either Barbara Johnson’s or the one that had fallen into my own hands. That is not to say they do not exist, or were not created in greater numbers in decades past. My mystery diarist could not have been the only one in the nineteenth century to choose to record an aspect of her life in this way, and the very tactility of cloth lends itself to this form of remembrance. There may well be volumes of fabric scraps languishing in trunks in attics, or wrapped in the bottom drawer of an elderly chest. There may even be examples that were once catalogued and then forgotten in an archive or a museum, their value yet to be identified.

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. Strasdin's knowledge is evident in her descriptions of the fabrics displayed in this diary . . . This is too good to miss Literary Review This was a fascinating story, or groups of stories, giving insights into time, place, and lives of mostly the industrialist class as it develops in England. What the author was able to learn about Anne, her family, and their social milieu was fascinating. The book is written in a very readable way, though it is a research project report. 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 MagazineThe material is from outfits belong to Sykes and to family and friends - and I can only admire Strasdin's long hours of research through census records, newspaper archives etc to tell her story.