American Duchess’ Monster List of Resources

Dear Readers,
   I’ve decided to move all my resource links off my sidebars, and onto this one page.  To get to this page in the future, just click the “RESOURCES” label to the left.  Here you will find everything I’ve found useful – links to wig websites, online costume collections, how-to sites, fabric stores, must-have books, and favourite movies.  I will add to this list again and again as I find new sites online that I find useful for us wacky 18th c. costumers!  Links in bold are those I have particularly useful.  Have at it!…

Fabric & Trim

• American Duchess 18th c. Collection on Spoonflower – this is my collection of historical fabrics.
• Reproduction Fabrics – historical prints from the 18th through the 20th centuries.  Cottons.
• Renaissance Fabrics – silks, brocades, cottons, linens, more! great resources for historical fabrics.
• Dharma Trading Company – an excellent source of voiles and lightweight fabrics
• Farmhouse Fabrics – a great source of heirloom fabrics like voiles, batistes, dotted swiss, etc.
• Glacierwear Fine Furs – pelts of everything – rabbits, foxes, martens, you name it.
• Lamplight Feather – great resource for ostrich and other kinds of feather for hats, hair, various projects.
• Fashion Fabrics Club – huge selection of every kind of fabric known to man. Excellent prices.
• Fabric.com – another huge selection of, well, everything, at very good prices.
• B.R. Exports – big selection of silks, BIG
• MJ Trim – huge selection of various kinds of trimmings, from lace to silk ribbon.  Other notions too.
• Mood Fabrics – yep, the very same from “Project Runway.”  Huge selection, but $$
• Delectable Mountain Cloth – silk, wool, velvets, linens.
• The Original Chamois Company – chamois leather for breeches, stays binding, various uses.
• Time Travel Textiles – fabrics by era.
• FabricGuru.com – another superstore full of many fine things.
• MacCulloch & Wallace – haberdasher – fabrics, trims, notions

Wigs & Hats

• Wigs.com – large selection of wigs, pretty reasonable prices.
• Wilshire Wigs – a bit higher end in headwear.
• VogueWigs – my go-to source for costume wigs.  Great selection; great pricing.

• Hats in the Belfry – huge selection of myriad variety of hats. Mid-range pricing.
• TopHats.com – my go-to source for costume hats; top hats, tricorns, ladies straw bonnets, very affordable.
• CR’s Crafts – this in an online shop for doll’s clothes, but they have a selection of tiny top hats!
• Mallatt Pharmacy & Costume – theater makeup, wigs, hats
• Maskenzauber – huge and fantastical carnevale wigs
• Antoinette’s Atelier – Etsy shop featuring fantastic handmade 18th c. wigs.

18th c. General Stores, Costumiers, & Suttlers

• Smiling Fox Forge – large assortment of 18th c. goodies, from full costumes to tabletop supplies.
• Just Two Tailors – custom made costume pieces.  Hats and accessories too.
• Jas Townsend and Son, Inc. – large assortment of everything 18th c.  I do mean everything!
• The Silly Sisters – custom made ladies’ clothing, very high quality.
• Burnley & Trowbridge – buckles, books, fabric, patterns, etc.  Great store!

18th c. Shoes & Accessories

• American Duchess Historical Footwear – affordable 18th c. latchet shoes in dyable silk.
• Harr Shoes – large selection of period styles, handmade, gorgeous.
• Fugawee – men and women’s 18th c. shoes and buckles.
• Sarah Juniper – custom made 18th c. shoes.  Works of ART, $$$.
• Ageless Artifice – 18th c. makeup products.

Research

• Tidens Toj “Tomorrow Clothing” – excellent collection of children’s clothing, including some gridded patterns.
• 18th c. Fashion on Flickr – a collection of photos from around the world; paintings, reproductions, extant.
• The Costumer’s Manifesto, 18th c. Links – a huge jump page full of 18th c. information.
• The Costumer’s Guide to Movie Costumes – excellent screen shots from various 18th c. movies, and then some.
• Reine des Centfeuilles (translated) – splendig 18th c. reproductions of 18th c. costume.
• The Met – general collection, including many delicious 18th c. pieces.
• Jenny La Fleur – I’m listing this as a resource because Jenny has made an extraordinary number of 18th c. costumes, all of them well-researched.
• The 18th Century Notebook – a large database of 18th c. clothing for men, women, and children.
• The Period Movie Review – large selection of images from costume films.
• The V&A 3D Fashion – Extant 18th c. men and women’s clothes, 360 degrees.
• Introduction to 18th c. Clothing – Colonial Williamsburg
• The Bata Shoe Museum
• Shoe Icons – huge collection of period footwear.
• Dames a la Mode – fashion plates from the 18th c. and Regency

Books on 18th c. Costume

• Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution
• Fashion: The Collection of the Kyoto Costume Institute
• Cut of Women’s Clothes, The, 1600-1930
• Patterns of Fashion 1: 1660-1860
• The Art of Dress: Fashion in England and France, 1750-1820
• Dress in France in the Eighteenth Century
• Dress in Eighteenth-Century Europe 1715-1789
• Eighteenth-Century French Fashions in Full Color
• Everyday Dress of Rural America, 1783-1800: With Instructions and Patterns
• English Costume of the Eighteenth Century
• Embroidered with White: The 18th Century Fashion for Dresden Lace and Other Whiteworked Accessories
• The Eighteenth Century (History of Costume and Fashion)
• Historical Fashion in Detail: The 17th and 18th Centuries
• Men’s Seventeenth & Eighteenth Century Costume: Cut and Fashion
• Handbook of English costume in the eighteenth century,
• Shoes and Slippers: From Snowshill, One of the World’s Leading Collections of Costume and Accessories of the 18th and 19th Centuries
• Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700 – 1915
• Vintage Hats & Bonnets 1770-1970 Second Edition

Movies Set in the 18th c.

• Marie Antoinette – a fantastic production starring Kirsten Dunst.  Uber-costume-win.
• The Duchess – Kiera Knightly, Ralph Fiennes, beautiful costumes, heavy plot.
• Dangerous Liaisons – the go-to costume movie of the 1980s, with John Malkovich, Glenn Close, Uma Thurman, Keanu Reeves (lol?), Michelle Pfeiffer.  A film about seduction.
• Jefferson in Paris – interesting movie with some beautiful costumes, following Thomas Jefferson’s ambassadorship in France at the end of the 18th c.
• The Affair of the Necklace – bad plot, great late 18th c. costumes!