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| Abby works on Cynthia’s (Redthreaded) hair while I photographs each step for “The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Beauty,” coming July 2019. |
Hi! I’ve been a pretty terrible blogger again this year, but I have a good excuse this time. We’ve been working on our second book, “The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Beauty,” for the entire year thus far.
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| Behind the scenes with Nicole (Diary of a Mantua Maker) for the 1781-83 hairstyle and accessories photos. |
While we’ve been sharing parts of our journey on Instagram stories, I realize we haven’t really shared much about our explorations and projects on our regular IG and FB feeds or here on the blog. So…without further ado…
A quick description of what you can expect in the new book…
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| We’re including original 18th century recipes and how-to’s in the book, so you can make your own natural beauty products. |
…original recipes for pomatum, powder, rouge, and lip salve, and the tools of your toilette…
…various methods of curling and for various types of hair, including Asian and African hair…
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| We’ve worked with as many hair types as possible in the book – here Jasmine is being coiffed a la 1780. |
…full how-to’s of hair styles from the 1750s to the 1790s and all the cushions and stuff you need to create them…
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| We’re including patterns and tutorials for making the necessary hair cushions to get those great heights in the 1770s – here Laurie Tavan reveals the secret, a giant “donut” hair cushion. |
…patterns and tutorials for accessories for every hairstyle, including caps, hats, a calash bonnet, lappets, and a pouf…
…plus lots of meaty essays about hygiene, styling, trends, and myths. Woo!
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| The infamous calash bonnet in progress – we give the pattern and a step-by-step guide for this tricky yet epic piece of head gear. |
We’re finishing up the manuscript now to meet our September 30th deadline, followed by all the photography, illustrations, and patterning a couple weeks later. Then the book will go into editing and layout, ready for release in July 2019. That seems like a long time from now but a lot of work goes in even after the manuscript is written. There will be a pre-order opening sometime in the next 6 months, darlings – we’ll let you know!
We’re very very excited for the second book. It’s meant as a companion to our first book, “The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking,” and we hope you find it useful and fun. <3
