(no subject)

[chocolatepot]

I don't know if you remember my wild searching a year or two ago for an 1840s gown with a stamped dressmaker's label on the bodice lining? Well, I either found it or I found one from the same period in the Fenimore collections. My joy is unbounded and now I have to choose between my Sahlin Perfect Form project for the 2020 CSA symposium or writing this up ...

Pro-Sahlin: nice visual, clear narrative (here's the pattern, here's how I made it, here's how it affects a body and looks under a dress)
Con-Sahlin: not really much substance there, no discovery, not a garment I can use personally
Pro-stamp: take that, Worth!!!
Con-stamp: how do I turn a cool discovery into a whole paper?

I've already tried looking into the dressmaker (a Miss Warnock of Cedar St in New York) and have found nothing. Maybe I should try contacting the MCNY or N-YHS before I give up on it, though.

Comments

[danabren]

You turn a cool discovery into a whole paper by TAKE THAT, WORTH!

[mala_14]

The stamp one sounds interesting! I would think you'd need to do a whole bunch of historical contextualization, like the fact that there weren't stamps before or whatever and maybe a little bit about the social reasons as to why, as well as all the background on the Worth stuff (it's that people claim he's the first to use labels, right?) and whatever you are able to find on the dressmaker and maybe where the labels and stamps go afterward. (Sorry if that is a bunch of unsolicited thoughts for your paper. I feel you on trying to get from "here's a cool idea" to "here's a 20 min presentation.")