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1. An Eighteenth-Century Waistcoat
By Zara Kesterton (@ZaraKesterton) This eighteenth-century man’s waistcoat would look appropriately festive at a Christmas party, with its cream silk and rich embroidery glimmering under candlelight. It was likely made initially for use at the British court between c.1770 and c.1795. The waistcoat features a floral design with an innovative machine-made net applied over dark…
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16. The Tupinumbá Sacred Mantle
By Amelia Hutchinson (@ameliagraceh_) ‘In my opinion I have never seen anything which for beauty could more delight the human eye’ – Peter Martyr (1519) upon seeing the first feather-works to arrive in Europe.[1] Feather-work items formed an integral part of early modern Mesoamerican and Andean visual and material culture. Using carefully selected colours and…
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Florals for spring? Why artificial flowers can be ground-breaking
By Zara Kesterton (@ZaraKesterton) If you followed the Met Gala this year, you will have noticed a blossoming of flowers on the red carpet. These were not your typical chintzy floral-print dresses, though: the flowers were big, bold, and often avant-garde. Whatever your position on the Met Costume Institute’s celebration of controversial designer Karl Lagerfeld,…
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‘Turning Botches into Beauty’: The Early Modern Origins of the Pimple Patch
by Marlo Avidon (@MarloAvidon) Today, it’s not uncommon to see someone walking down the street with a hydrocolloid patch stuck to their cheek, chin, or forehead to cover and treat a pimple. While many of these acne patches are designed to remain unseen, a scroll through the websites of popular beauty suppliers reveal a diverse…
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Zara Kesterton – Historian Highlight
Zara Kesterton, interviewed by Jake Bransgrove Historian Highlight is an ongoing series sharing the research experiences of historians in the History Faculty in Cambridge and beyond. For our latest instalment, we sat down with Zara Kesterton, a second-year PhD candidate at Jesus College and former DHP editor-in-chief. We discuss artificial flowers, French fashion merchants, and…
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