Recreating Historic Dress: Clothing Gems from the Hereford Museum Clothing Collection, with Patterns

Recreating Historic Dress: Clothing Gems from the Hereford Museum Clothing Collection, with Patterns compiles patterns and information for 25 never-before-published garments from the historic clothing collection at the Hereford Museum and Art Gallery Resource Centre, Hereford, UK.

An accurate study of dress is dependent on the very close and careful examination of existing garments. Nancy Hills has conducted a detailed analysis of a range of garments, spanning the years 1755 through to 1954, carefully exploring what they can tell us and translating them into paper patterns. Each featured garment contains a detailed description, the pattern, historical context, and images of the full article of clothing and construction details from inside the garment. This book features an eclectic selection of clothing, including a comfortable 18th-century cotton caraco often worn for work, leisure, travel, or pregnancy, a simple cotton print dress worn in 1834 as a wedding dress, and two dresses, one from 1936 and one from 1954, that show a more elite pedigree, with their labels of popular London designers.

This book will be of interest to experienced costume designers and technicians, cutters and drapers, intermediate students of theatrical costume design, and historical reenactors.

Nancy E. Hills is a Full Professor at Utah State University, where she is head of the Theatre Costume Design program. Her designs featuring period pieces include Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pride and Prejudice, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Miser, Enchanted April, Our Country’s Good, Emma, Much Ado About Nothing, Anna Karenina, A Christmas Carol, The Moors, Pericles, and Misalliance. In 2013, Nancy gave a TEDxTalk on the impact of WWII on clothing called Make Do and Mend and was the recipient of the Janet Arnold Award from the Society of Antiquaries in London.

Scott Nicklas is a graphic designer at Sports Training Systems in Portland, Oregon, where he specializes in developing educational materials for international gymnastics judges around the world. An Oregon State University graduate with a BFA in Graphic Design, in 2014 Scott designed graphic displays for Nancy’s exhibits at the Society of Antiquaries, including Symphony in White, Shades of White, and More Shades of White.