CORSETS AND CODPIECES - CURRENTLY MY FAVOURITE BOOK

After a lifetime of designing, sewing, embroidering and wearing outfits that, looking back at the trends so fashionable at the time, one has to ponder (and laugh).  The twists and turns of fashion can change in a flash!   Are these jeans sartorially in? Out? Who knows - who cares! And, of course, through the centuries, it has always been so.

 

Happily, I had my thoughts confirmed, when last September, my author friend Karen Bowman arrived in Brentwood to give the monthly talk to the Writers Group. Karen's two earlier books ESSEX GIRLS and ESSEX BOYS are both fascinating reads and have been showcased at our Essex Book Festivals, but on this occasion, she was there to focus on her  latest title: CORSETS & CODPIECES - A Social History of Outrageous Fashion.

  

Karen delivered an excellent lecture (looking lovely in Tudor gear)) and even dressed her accompanying six mute mannequins to demonstrate some of the flamboyant fashions through the ages, as illustrated in her book.  Those corsets were weird, hugely uncomfortable, and must have done enormous damage to women's torsos (and men!) and the codpieces and false calves were indeed quirky. As strange as fashion is, maybe even they will make a comeback on the old catwalk. 

 

Karen is a valued member of our Society of Women Writers and  ournalists and her books is an entertaining and excellent read.

 

 

CORSETS & CODPIECES

A Social History of Outrageous Fashion

Published by Pen & Sword History

£16.99 ISBN 1781593398