Author(s): Kate Strasdin

Fashion & Design

A fascinating diary of Victorian dresses, as worn by Mrs Anne Sykes, the daughter of a Lancashire mill-owner whose life took her to Malta and Singapore, recently unearthed by a textile historian. The entries include actual textile samples as well as intriguing entries that the author will unpack to create a picture of British Empire industrial life.

A gift on her marriage to Adam Sykes in 1838, Anne started her diary with a swatch from her wedding dress. She kept snippets of fabric from a range of garments that were carefully folded within her diary, and these snippets - which will be beautifully reproduced in full colour throughout - remain an amazingly fresh and bright record of the lives of Anne, her friends and family.

Kate will use her knowledge of history and fashion to unravel some of the stories that are contained in the album's pages. This is life writing that encounters ordinary people, not the grandees of traditional written histories, but the bystanders, the participants in everyday life, their loves and losses, joys and sorrows. Through the evidence of christening robes, ball gowns and mourning outfits, it lays bare the whole of human experience in that most intimate of mediums: the clothes we choose to wear.