Resources

Dear Readers,
   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.
• Colonial Williamsburg – Reproduction fabrics from the Colonial Williamsburg collections.
• A Fashionable Frolick – 18th century textiles.
• Dharma Trading Company – an excellent source of all kinds of fabrics to be dyed
• Indian Stores – Indian printed cottons and textiles on Etsy.
• Farmhouse Fabrics – a great source of heirloom fabrics like voiles, batistes, dotted swiss, etc.
• 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.
• 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.
• FabricGuru.com – another superstore full of many fine things.
• MacCulloch & Wallace – haberdasher – fabrics, trims, notions
• Utsav- Inian Sarees
• Puresilks – excellent selection of all kinds of silk, especially silk taffeta
• NY Fashion Center
• Tinsel Trading – vintage trims, appliques, beads, etc.
• American Duchess Buyer’s Guide to 18th Century Cotton Floral Prints

Wigs

• The Custom Wig Company – top-quality, hand-made hairgoods.
• 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.
• Mallatt Pharmacy & Costume – theater makeup, wigs, hats
  
• Maskenzauber – huge and fantastical carnevale wigs
  
• Antoinette’s Atelier – Etsy shop featuring fantastic handmade 18th c. wigs.
• Ebonyline.com – excellent source for affordable lace-front wigs and hairpieces
  
• Beauty of New York – lace-front wigs
  
• Arda Wigs – Cosplay wigs made for styling, in a wide range wacky (and normal) colors

• Topsy Turvy Design – amazing, hand-crafted hats
• 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.
• Timely Tresses – Hats and supplies, 1800-1870
• CR’s Crafts – this in an online shop for doll’s clothes, but they have a selection of tiny top hats!

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!
• Burnley & Trowbridge – buckles, books, fabric, patterns, etc.  Great store!
• Amazon Drygoods – all kinds of everything – patterns, shoes, collars, etc.

18th c. Shoes & Accessories

• American Duchess Historical Footwear – Historical shoes 18th century through 1930, plus buckles, stockings, and shoe painting materials.
• Dames a la Mode – historic jewelry of all periods.
• Sign of the Gray Horse – 18th century jewelry and shoe buckles
• Queen and Cavendish – 18th century jewelry and garters
• Virgil’s Hats and Fine Goods – 18th century caps, gauze accessories, hats.
• Fashions Revisited – Georgian and Regency hats, patterns, accessories

Books on Costume

• The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking
• 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
• How to Make a Tudor Kirtle and a Gown (Prior Attire Historical Costuming Articles)
• 18th Century Embroidery Techniques
• Costume Close-Up: Clothing Construction and Pattern, 1750-1790
• Eighteenth-Century Clothing at Williamsburg (Williamsburg Decorative Arts Series)

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!