Description: Explores the elite fashion cultures of the Stuart courts and London streets by examining the lives, work and skills of the women who made, sold, managed and cared for the clothing of five Stuart queens between the years 1603 and 1714.
Brief description: Sarah A. Bendall is Senior Lecturer at the Gender and Women's History Research Centre, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University. She is the author of Shaping Femininity (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2021), which was shortlisted for the UK Society for Renaissance Studies biannual book prize in 2022, and co-editor of Embodied Experiences of Making in Early Modern Europe: Bodies, Gender, and Material Culture (2024).
Review Quotes:
"A beautifully written, lively, and compelling exploration of the army of female workers from stylists and budget managers to milliners, seamstresses, and laundresses who were behind the fabulous clothing of seventeenth-century queens." --Julie Hardwick, the University of Texas, USA
"Carefully researched, deftly analysed, and a pleasure to read, Sarah's book makes a much needed and very valuable addition to work on Stuart queenship. It sheds a bright light on the previously unexplored lives of the numerous women who feature in the queens' accounts thereby revealing their skill, ingenuity and business acumen." --Maria Hayward, University of Southampton, UK "A wonderfully illuminating view of the women behind the Stuart throne. Dr Bendall's archival research into the tirewomen, milliners and mantua-makers who created the queenly wardrobe reveals a hidden world of female artisanal skills, fashion expertise and impressive economic competence." --Laura Gowing, King's College London, UK "A monumental shift in the foundations of studying royal dress. Queens and tradeswomen speak to one another, discussing silhouettes and silks, romance and revolution. The creative and labouring hands meticulously stitching, sourcing, and caring for queens' clothes are as worthy of our attention as the powerful bodies their work adorned." --Susannah Lyon-Whaley, University of York, UK