The internet is a great resource for those of us who cannot physically access original garments for study. Here are some of my favorite links - if you have favorite links that are not listed here please leave them in the comment section so I can add them. I'd like to see this list grow and grow to encompass a wide historical era and a wide variety of originals!(at left, detail from a printed cotton day dress c. 1830 from Vintage Textile: www.vintagetextile.com.)
Museum Collections
Museum collections are wonderful resources for study. Many museum websites are easily searchable for specific garments and include interesting details about the garments. But do be aware that sometimes museums do not date their items correctly. Compare the information a museum gives you with information from other sources about that specific garment/specific time period. This is especially true with items that can be "multi era" (like sunbonnets, and baby gowns and some forms of undergarments) which are hard to date to a specific year. Often, the best one can do is date it to a range of years and even then there is some fluctuation.
Antique and Vintage Textile Dealers
The online catalogs of antique and vintage textile auction houses and dealers are also wonderful resources for studying original garments. These sites often have much more detail about their garments, including measurements, close up photographs of details and descriptions of materials and trims. I love these sites!
Fashion Plates, Paintings and Photographs
Merely studying original garments, no matter in how much detail, will never give one the big picture of how the clothing was worn, how it fitted the wearer and how something may have been accessorized. To get a big picture of the overall look of a period, looking at photographs, paintings and fashion plates is very helpful. Be aware the often fashion plates depict wealthier people and do not very often give a good idea of the dress of a more common, lower-class person. Paintings could be (and were often!) romanticized and artistic license taken. Photographs are possibly the best clue we have as to how clothing was worn but even those were often taken in an artificial environment and the subjects posed by the photographer. Even so, these are very valuable resources for those of us seeking to get the right "look".
Fashion Plate Collection from the University of Washington
Fashion Plate Collection from the University of Washington
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