Dress historian/NT & RAMM fashion/textiles curator/bookreviews ed @dresshistorians. Mum/cat staff/loves nature & dancing. Thinking out loud/Send me book news!
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Joined March 2011
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Sparkling fun to come at a 1920s garden party a week tomorrow 🥂
Book via QR or bit.ly/Killerton1920sParty
Shelley Tobin retweeted
Happy Saint David's Day 🏴
The traditional image of Welsh 'national' dress of a woman in a red cloak and tall black hat evolved from the everyday clothing worn by rural women, such as this dark blue and red striped wool bedgown. @StFagans_Museum #fashionhistory © Amgueddfa Cymru
Shelley Tobin retweeted
New exhibition! 📣 Opening at @SomersetRLM during #womenshistorymonth, Strength and Resilience: Somerset Women in the Second World War spotlights the work undertaken by 4 amazing women during the conflict and subsequent peace process - including photographer Lee Miller #exhibiton
Shelley Tobin retweeted
Coming Soon: Joséphine: A Woman of Taste and Fashion.
Opening 22 March at The Bowes Museum, this exhibition showcases historic textiles, Joséphine Bowes’ personal fashion, and couture from YSL, Schiaparelli & more.
Don’t miss this glimpse into the timeless world of fashion.
Shelley Tobin retweeted
Europe
Silk shoes, c.1830.
'Embroidered...a slightly rounded square toes and no heel. They are straights. That means there is no distinction between the shoes for the left or right foot.' ©@RAMMuseum
#FashionHistory
A portrait of 22 year old Norman Hartnell in 1923, he'd recently opened his Bruton Street salon. Languid drapery and elegantly handled, absolutely huge ostrich feather fans were the thing.
A very colourful fashion image by magazine illustrator Harold Hookway Cowles (1896-1987). The wardrobe neatly shows a variety of silhouettes to choose from, around the mid 1920s. Short, short 'Eton crop' hairstyles and straight Cuban heels on shoes arrived c. 1926 too.
Well, we're open. A bit of a Pepper's ghost scenario going on here...the linen dress is hand-painted, a canvas to wear, the silk dress a version of a Liberty smocked day dress. Are you team linen or team silk? #1920s #Unflappable #Fashion #fashionhistory
See more in #Unflappable, fashioning the 1920s at #Killerton #NationalTrust until 2 November 2025. Plenty of time to get down to Devon to join the party!
Shelley Tobin retweeted
For this week's #SaturdayLBD is this 1927 dress made of silk gelatin sequins, and glass and plastic beads. The tear-shaped sequins are on a ribbon that is applied to the dress with one string so it would flap and swing as a woman danced. Gorgeous. #Fashionhistory #ootd
6 days to go!
Coming soon...detail of 1920s evening coat, woven metal threads lined with silk, embroidered with sequins. Only 15 days to opening! See #Unflappable Fashioning the 1920s at #Killerton #NationalTrust from Saturday February 15.
ALT A Chines building depicted in shining pink sequins stitched onto a gold background, detail of an evening coat, 1920s
'Wear wool and be well'...it's been so cold and dark lately, I'd be quite happy with one of these fairisle sports knits. The pattern published by Patons and Baldwins in the #1920s is part of the @RAMMuseum collection. The strapline about wool conducting UV rays caught my eye
Actress Gertrude Lawrence (1898-1952) in a sketch by Norman Hartnell (1901-1979), a design for some novel sleeves on a low backed dress signed 1929. We look forward to sharing more with you when our new exhibition #Unflappable, fashioning the 1920s opens in 10 days! #Killerton
ALT A sketch in pencil and watercolour on paper, showing the back view of an elegant woman in a black dress, holding a large green ostrich feather fan in front of her, with her head turned to the left. The dress plunges to a deep V down to her hips, baring much of her back. The dress has tight fitting sleeves with puffs at the shoulders. The woman wears her reddish brown hair in a short waved bob and has two rings on long fingers with pointed finger-nails, one set with a large pearl and the other probably a baguette cut sapphire and diamonds. The sketch is dated 1929.
Shelley Tobin retweeted
Because a shoe’s not a shoe unless it’s a pineapple. #frockingFabulous Spitalfields shoes, 1735, via the V&A. #fashionhistory
Shelley Tobin retweeted
Indigenous Australian artist Alma Nungurrayi Granites paints the great Warlpiri story of the Seven Sisters Dreaming, about the ancestral Napaljarri sisters who are found in the night sky in the star cluster known as the Pleiades #WomensArt
