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. Anne Sykes grew up in Lancashire, the daughter of a cloth merchant in a part of England focused at the time on the cloth industry. She married a cloth merchant from a family of fabric printers, so needless to say Anne understood the importance of fabric in daily life- both as fashion, gifts, and probably the basis for family economics. Anne and her husband Adam traveled to Singapore for his work and lived there (and briefly Shanghai) for nearly ten years before returning to England. Strasdin scoured records, newspapers, ship's logs and more for hints of the Sykes and other names that appear in Anne's diary, often with surprising success. While no letters have been found from Anne, Strasdin helps us discover what her life in Singapore might have been like through letters of other women who lived there at the time, and who knew Anne and donated fabric to her album. Strasdin has obviously dedicated a lot of time to researching her subject matter, but from a few scant clues and some canny historical detective work, she has pieced together a colourful collage of Victorian life. The diary doesn't take an entirely chronological approach, and Strasdin cleverly structures her chapters around characters, places and themes to build a cohesive narrative out of the clues she's been given.

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. A revealing and unique portrait of Victorian life as told through the discovery of one woman's textile scrapbook. Intriguing and engaging... A fascinating and creative unravelling of Anne's life and times Clare Hunter, author of THREADS OF LIFE Strasdin's knowledge is evident in her descriptions of the fabrics displayed in this diary . . . This is too good to miss Literary Review 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.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 The story of a singular woman... Kate Strasdin's forensic detective work has finally let Mrs Sykes - and her book - speak again' JUDITH FLANDERS In this engaging book, Strasdin proves triumphantly that the study of fashion is not a frothy sideshow but can provide a textured account of history... [a] compelling account of 19th-century life seen through women's eyes Daily Mirror Strasdin is a wonderful writer and the book delves into not only Anne's life but the world of the Victorians and the material they used to clothe themselves. We get insights into mourning clothes, poisonous dyes, Lancashire's cotton industry and the Empire that lay beyond etc. 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.

Basically, 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. This book will appeal to anyone with an interest in fashion, genealogy, the textile industry, the Victorian era or social history. It’s a very unusual book, focusing on an ordinary (though admittedly fairly wealthy) woman rather than an aristocrat, and one that really brings the past to life through the personal touch. Wedding dresses sit alongside cloaks, day dresses and mourning attire – the various items of clothing taking the wearer through every aspect of their daily life. Years before ready to wear became the norm, most richer ladies would plan their wardrobe well in advance according to the seasonal calendar of nature, heat meant cool cotton or muslin, and woollen garments for the winter, and the social events of Balls and exhibitions, various reading events and charity functions. Changing clothes two or three times a day, creates much work for a dressmaker, designs and fittings were planned well in advance, a good dressmaker was privy to delicate information about the body of her client and confidences about the state of a marriage and pregnancy for example, made her indispensable. Bolts of cloth were taken to a dressmaker, a pattern was decided upon and therefore there were cutoffs to be pasted into a dress diary. 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. The Dress Diary: Secrets From a Victorian Woman’s Wardrobe by Dr. Kate Strasdin is a wonderful nonfiction and history book that gives us a never before experience into the lives of Victorian women through one woman’s unique journalistic account.Strasdin's painstaking detective work has uncovered many of the fascinating insights behind the fabric swatches contained in this unusual collection Sunday Times 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!

For the imaginative reader, on closing the book, ' the silks still glisten from the paper' Mail Plus At times the author gets somewhat effusive in her descriptions and overly speculative about the could-have-beens. Readers don’t have to be reminded time and again that the historical record is sparse. And I wish that Anne’s actual (unreadable) captions had been replaced by a modern font. An evocative and often touching exercise in re-imagining these fragments of fabric into historical life... it is delightful Prospect 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. 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.

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I knew very little about the history of fashion or textiles outside of North and South, but I found this approach to the subject really engaging. The detail is cleverly contextualised so that it feels part of the fabric of every day life. I've been waiting for this book to come out ever since I learned about it from an interview with the author on the Dress: Fancy podcast. This is a fascinating and beyond amazing look into the life, culture, society, and everyday adventures of a woman in the Victorian era. Through this journey, through this seemingly “normal” scrapbook of materials, swatches, and samples, we learn so much more of the woman behind the artistry, Anne Sykes, and the lives of not only herself and her family, but her friends, acquaintances, neighbors, and society as a whole. A whole world pf women, their respective voices and lives are brought to life, a multitude of windows that allow us to gaze into the hopes, dreams, loves, losses, and souls of so many women that had been looked over and forgotten. An extraordinarily rich record of middle-class Victorian life, both at home and abroad... [a] fascinating book Guardian

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. 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 thoroughly enjoyed The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes - a unique take on history using the clothing of one ordinary Victorian woman as a gateway to explore her life and the world she lived in. This is a fascinating read if you - like me - are a lover of textiles, and textile history. As someone whose ancestors worked in the textile industry, I am always drawn to books that can bring their history to life.