| Research (Links) |
| Research (Books) |
| Suppliers (UK shops) |
| Suppliers (Online shops) |
| Costumes by Lynn McMasters | A fantastic site with annotated
photos of beautiful
gowns by a costumier to look up to! |
| Elizabethan Costuming Page | Drea Leed's brilliant site with patterns, research, info - everything! |
| Kiss the Frog | This beautiful site is by a professional historical costumier in the UK who supplies costumes for museums and stately homes. |
| Lara Eakin's Tudor History Site | Just about everything you ever wanted to know about the Tudors. |
| Renaissance, The Elizabethan World | A wonderful resource full of information concerning the Elizabethan era, including the language, pastimes and much more. |
| Sewing the Seeds of Rebellion | An extremely useful site including full 'post-mortems' of many of the owners gowns. |
| 16th
& 17th Century Clothing:
The Renaissance Tailor |
This site includes step-by-step demonstrations of the Tudor construction of clothing and is extremely useful. |
| Tudor Dress: A Portfolio of Images | A large number of portraits along with discussion of them. This site also includes a section on how to make Gable Hoods. |
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| Arnold,
J (1985)
Patterns of Fashion, c1560-1620 |
This lady has studied real clothing from this era and has worked out the cut and construction of each item. Her work from this time is detailed in this book. Very useful for evidence based design of later Tudor clothing. |
| Arnold,
J (1988)
Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd |
I was lucky enough to get this for only £18 and every penny was well spent. It is a lavish and beautiful look at Elizabeth's clothes drawn from her wardrobe accounts and related to portraits of her. |
| Ashelford,
J (1993)
The Sixteenth Century - A Visual History of Costume |
A chronological study of sixteenth century costume by looking at portraits of the time and analysing them. This is a lovely book and is one of a series of books on the history of costume by Jane Ashelford. |
| Ashelford,
J (1996)
The Art of Dress, Clothes and Society 1500-1914 |
This is a National Trust book and it was the first costume book I bought, on a visit to Berrington Hall in Herefordshire. It is well researched and has beautiful photographs of some of England's costume collections. |
| Black,
J & Garland, M (1975)
A History of Fashion |
This large book covers the fashion from ancient times right up to the 1970's and is a good resource for those wishing to understand the evolution of costume. |
| Fraser,
A (1992)
The Six Wives of Henry VIII Illustrated edition |
Illustrated history books can be an excellent source of portraits, so as well as learning about the costumes, you can learn about the era itself! If the books include colour pictures, as this one does, then all the better. |
| Green,
R (1966)
The Wearing of Costume |
A very interesting and useful book, describing exactly how historical costumes ought to be worn. |
| Hunnisett,
J ()
Period Costume for Stage and Screen 1500-1800 |
Written by the lady who made the beautiful costumes for the BBC series, 'Elizabeth R', this book is almost indispensable, if a little expensive, which is why I keep borrowing it from the library! |
| Norris,
H (1997)
Tudor Costume and Fashion |
My fiancé calls this book my 'costuming Bible'! And I have to agree with him. If you only buy one book for serious research, get this one. |
| Watkins,
S (1998)
In Public and in Private, Elizabeth I and Her World |
Beautiful photography and a lovely insight into Elizabeth's England. It is important to remember how the political climate and the fashionable pastimes of an era can influence the fashions of the time. |
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| Doughty Fabrics, Hereford | My parents live in Hereford, so I get to visit this fantastic fabric shop whenever I go home. Very affordable, good quality fabrics here and lots of helpful assistants. Doughty's also has a haberdashery in Hereford. |
| Berwick Street, London | A whole load of inexpensive fabric shops - well worth a visit if you're in London! |
| Pandora, Guildford | A small haberdashery-type shop
in Guildford. Very helpful
assistants, but the items are a little pricey due to the location - everything in Guildford is expensive! |
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| Fred Aldous | A UK company selling craft equipment
etc. over the internet. I bought my willow canes from here and found
them very helpful, efficient and
affordable. |
| Grannd Garb | An American online store selling lots of things for historical costumiers. I bought my aiglets from here and found the company to be very helpful, efficient and affordable. |
| Hedgehog Handworks | another American online store selling sewing equipment and accessories for historical costumiers. I bought my corset bones from here and found them extremely helpful when I was enquiring about what size bones I would need. Efficient and affordable too. |
| Past Times | A chain of shops and an online store selling many different items all inspired by the past. Especially good for period-style jewellery and historical videos. |