The Age of the Mantua Maker -- or, why the 18th century?
Channel: Timesmith Dress History
Date: 2020-06-03

Hello! I am delighted you have joined me on this new YouTube Channel, all about real clothing, made by real women and worn by real women during the “Age of the Mantua-Maker”!

I absolutely love this era – not only for its innovative fashions but for the commitment, skills and pragmatism of the women who learned, mastered and practised this trade. 
 
Join me here as we research original surviving garments from the late 17th century and 18th century, examine how they were made, have a go at reconstructing them and learn a lot along the way about how women experienced their clothing, followed and adapted changing fashions (or not), while hopefully shining a light on the skilled women making those clothes – the long overlooked and almost forgotten mantua-makers. 

I hope you enjoy the discussions, tutorials and research-based experiments to come. 

Images in this video:

• The Pretty Mantua Maker, 1772, Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University, Folio 72 771 D37 v.2 plate 6
• Marie-Therese rein de France, c.1660, by Jean Nocret
• La Couturière, 1695, by Nicolas de Larmessin
• Lady at the Tailor, c.1760, by Pietro Longhi
• Mantua, British, c.1690, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession No. 33.54a–c h
• Robe Volante, c.1730, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession No. 2010.148 
• Nightgown, c.1725, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession No. C.I.64.14
• Nightgown, 1750-1765, Colonial Williamsburg, Accession No. 1988-223
• Robe à la française retroussé, c.1775, Los Angeles County Art Museum, Accession No. M.2007.211.720a-b
• Italian gown, c.1780, from the collection of Doris Langley Moore, sold at auction 2012
• Redingote, c.1790, Los Angeles County Art Museum, Accession No. M.2009.120
• La Bonne couturière, late 17th c by Nicolas Arnoult
• Trade Card of M Giles, Mantua Maker, 1770s, London, British Museum 
• Trade Card of M. Hammond, Saqua & Mantua Maker, 1784, British Museum
• At Sandpit Gate, circa 1752, by Paul Sandby, Royal Collection Trust RCIN 914328
• The Seamstress, 1765, by Philip Mercier, Yale University
• Marquise de Pompadour, 1759, by François Boucher (1759), Wallace Collection, London
• Miss Eleanor Frances Dixie, 1759, by Henry Pickering, Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery
• Mrs Charles Willing, 1746, by Robert Feke
• Madame Charles Pierre Pécoul, née Potain, belle-mère de l'artiste, 1784, by Jacques Louis David, Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre) 
• L'Atelier de couture a Arles (Sewing Workshop in Arles), c.1760, by Antoine Raspal

Further photos from the live demonstration of re-creating the Isabella MacTavish Fraser wedding gown, June 2019. A Timesmith Dressmaking production in partnership with National Museums of Scotland.
Model: Georgia Gough 
Lead Mantua Maker: Abby Cox
Photos: Simon Lees, edited by Lauren Stowell. 
All rights reserved.

Further reading:

• Birt, Sarah - PhD candidate Birkbeck College (Department of History, Classics and Archaeology) researching 'A Fashionable Business: Mantua-makers, Milliners and Seamstresses in London c. 1670-1770’. (https://afashionablebusiness.wordpress.com/) 
• Crowston, Clare Haru 'Fabricating Women: The Seamstresses of Old Regime France, 1675-1791' (Duke University Press, 2001)
• Davidson, Hilary (2019) The Embodied Turn: Making and Remaking Dress as an Academic Practice, Fashion Theory, 23:3, 329-362 
• Dowdell, Carolyn Anne (2010) The Fruits of Nimble Fingers: Garment Construction and the Working Lives of Eighteenth-Century English Needlewomen. MA thesis, University of Alberta
• Erickson, Dr Amy (2019) “City Women in the 18th Century: An outdoor exhibition of women traders in Cheapside, London” (http://citywomen.hist.cam.ac.uk/)
• Sanderson, Elizabeth (2001) The 'New Dresses': A Look at How Mantuamaking Became Established in Scotland, Costume, 35:1 14-23
• Sanderson, Elizabeth C. 'Women and Work in Eighteenth-Century Edinburgh' (Palgrave Macmillan, 1996)
• Simonton, Deborah ‘Sister to the tailor: guilds, gender and the needle trades in eighteenth-century Europe’ In: Ilmakunnas, J., Rahikainen, M. and Vainio-Korhonen (eds.) ‘Early Professional Women in Northern Europe, c. 1650-1850’ (Routledge, 2018)
• Styles, John 'The Dress of the People' (Yale University Press, 2007)
• Vickery, Amanda ‘The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England’ (New Haven and London, 1998)

#history #historicaldress #mantuamaker

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Music: “Highland Hymn” by Bonnie Grace (Epidemic Sound)
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ABOUT TIMESMITH DRESS HISTORY: 

I am Rebecca Olds, an independent scholar in the field of Dress History, specialising in original practice reconstruction of extant garments of the eighteenth century. 

Maker | Teacher | Researcher | Consultant 
https://www.timesmith.co.uk 
Business enquiries: rebecca@timesmith.co.uk 

Copyright Rebecca Olds 2020