Author Biography
Frances Grimble is the author of
After a Fashion: How to Reproduce, Restore, and Wear Vintage Styles,
Reconstruction Era Fashions: 350 Sewing, Needlework, and Millinery Patterns 1867–1868,
Fashions of the Gilded Age, Volume 1: Undergarments,
Bodices, Skirts, Overskirts, Polonaises, and Day Dresses 1877–1882,
Fashions of the Gilded Age, Volume 2: Evening,
Bridal, Sports, Outerwear, Accessories, and Dressmaking 1877–1882,
Bustle Fashions 1885–1887: 41 Patterns with Fashion Plates and
Suggestions for Adaptation,
Directoire Revival Fashions 1888–1889: 57 Patterns with Fashion Plates
and Suggestions for Adaptation,
The Voice of Fashion: 79 Turn-of-the-Century
Patterns with Instructions and Fashion Plates, and
The Edwardian Modiste: 85 Authentic Patterns with Instructions, Fashion Plates,
and Period Sewing Techniques.
Frances Grimble has substantial formal education in researching social
history and in clothing design. In 1974 she began making historical reproductions
for periods from the Renaissance into the 1920s; she tries to schedule
regular sewing time in addition to that required by her writing projects.
Since 1972, she has collected vintage clothing and accessories from the
late 18th century into the mid 20th.
Publication Data
8 1/2” x 11” quality paperback
755 pages
98 line drawings, 36 halftones
Glossary, bibliography, and index
ISBN: 978-0-9636517-7-8
LCCN: 2008920010
Cover price: $75 (California purchasers must add sales tax)
Shipping: $5 (for media mail within the US)
Reviews
“Drawn largely from French domestic and etiquette manuals
of the 1820s, The Lady’s Stratagem offers advice, diagrams,
and precise instructions on fashion, needlework, millinery,
health, and beauty—including how to make your own cosmetics
and corsets—physical deportment, and the correct behavior
to be adopted by the middle-class women and girls at whom the
manuals were originally aimed. Guided by those, their aim in
life was ‘to be agreeable.’
Backed up by research in similar
contemporary British and American works, Frances Grimble has
translated, edited, and linked different sources, rendering
them in the English of their period. The result is both comprehensive
and charming. Nothing is left out. Excess hair? With a warning
in the original manual that the preparation is highly caustic
and therefore should be applied with ‘the greatest circumspection,’
the recommendation is for oriental rusma, which is apparently
‘so much used in harems.’ Take two ounces of quicklime,
half an ounce of sulphur of arsenic, and a pound of ‘sufficiently
strong alkaline washing powder,’ and boil them all up
together. It is ready when a feather dipped into the potion
loses all of its barbs. Don’t try this at home, then.
The well-illustrated section on
clothing of all kinds is wonderfully detailed. Provincial ladies
should beware of the charlatans in Paris who will fool them
into exchanging a good-quality cashmere shawl for a poor one.
Ladies who wish to make their own stays, hats, or gowns are
given detailed instructions on how to go about it. Embroidery
and knitting patterns are also included, from the finest beaded
purses through gentlemen’s waistcoats to knitted pantaloons.
There is strongly worded advice too for the ‘lower orders,’
who should encourage their children from an early age to knit
worsted stockings, both to earn some money and to stop them
from being idle in the evenings. It was obviously unthinkable
that the working classes should ever not be working.
Ladies socializing at assemblies,
balls, and dinners are told exactly how to dress for each occasion.
Ladies of a certain age are shown how to fashion a turban out
of a scarf or shawl made of ‘silk, cashmere, merino, barège,
muslin, gauze, &c.’ It is essential, of course, that the
right side of a turban should always be higher than the left.
Fichus, flounces, fringes, and the trimming of bonnets—it
is all in this beautifully produced book, the index of which
is complemented by a very clean and clear table of contents.
Frances Grimble writes in her
introduction that The Lady’s Stratagem is aimed at researchers,
history reenactors, film and theatrical costumers, and romance
and historical novelists. The abundance of detail is certainly
stunning and should prove hugely useful to anyone who wishes
to reproduce authentic period costume. For the novelist, there
is much inspiration as well as information to be found here.
Take, for example, the advice that while young married ladies
may run their errands and visit their friends by themselves,
young unmarried ladies must have at least a maid as a chaperone
when they go out. Only once she turns thirty is it proper for
an unmarried woman to go out unaccompanied. Neither a married
nor an unmarried lady may ‘present herself alone in a
library, or a museum, unless she goes there to study or work
as an artist.’ If another young woman should lose her
reputation, and even if the allegations made against her are
false, the advice is not to allow your heart to rule your head.
If you choose to remain friendly with such an unfortunate person
you risk losing your reputation too, coming down with a bad
case of ‘moral contagion.’ It is easy to imagine
a fiery and independent-minded heroine rebelling against these
rules, deciding perhaps there must be more to life than simply
being agreeable. Meticulously researched, beautifully translated
and written, threaded throughout with Frances Grimble’s passion
for her subject, The Lady’s Stratagem offers a treasure
chest of information and a cornucopia of delights.” |
| ——Maggie Craig for Costume (Journal of the Costume Society, United Kingdom) |
| |
| “A delightful collection of sewing and embroidery patterns,
mending instructions, step-by-step knitting directions, guides
to proper behavior and dress, and beauty recipes. . . . The
Lady’s Stratagem is sure to please reenactors, living-history
interpreters, historians, and costume designers, as well as casual
readers.” |
| ——PieceWork |
| |
| “A collection of early
19th-century instructions on appearance, manners, and social
events. . . . Of most interest to costumers is the detailed
information on choosing clothing that’s appropriate to
each time of day and the wearer’s appearance, age, and
social position, as well as step-by-step directions for making
garments, trimmings, and accessories, and for mending and alterations.”
|
| ——Stage Directions |
| |
| “A solid primary source,
especially recommended to anyone seeking to study or depict the
lives of women nearly two hundred years ago.” |
| ——Midwest Book Review |
| |
| “The Lady’s Stratagem
is a tome of historic proportions, not just because of its
historic nature, but breadth of information.” |
| ——Lorina Stephens, owner of Five Rivers
Chapmanry |
| |
| “If you’re interested
in the Regency period and want to get beyond secondary retellings
of the details of ladies’ lives in the era, this is a terrific
book to have. The title might have been ‘The Lady’s
Compendium,’ so detailed are the contents. Just about anything
touching modes and manners is covered here. . . . Many of the
manuals the author translated from French (in period-style language)
and so will be new to the vast majority of readers: This isn’t
a rehash of content we’ve seen before. . . . It reveals
some of what the original publishers expected would be different
practices among French, British, and American readers. . . . The
text frequently talks about what is in fashion, or considered
good taste, by making comparisons to fashions and practices of
past years. This is valuable too, because it helps readers who
are interested in early Regency styles and manners. . . . You
get the delicious experience of stepping into an era long past.
. . . I believe that readers wanting to understand the underpinnings
of looking and acting well in Regency times will value this book
as I do, and make it a close companion to their volumes of Jane
Austen, their histories of life under Napoleon, or their copies
of Janet Arnold’s costuming manuals.” |
| ——Natalie Ferguson, author of “Zip-Zip’s
Vintage Sewing Blog” |
| |
| “It’s huge and
just full of information. I still haven’t gone through
it all but it’s well worth the money.” “You’ve done an
outstanding job of producing this book.” “I would say good deal
of what’s written, although published a decade later than
1812 and also intended for a French reader, is relevant information
for 1812 re-enactors.” |
| —— Reader comments |
Press Release, Which You May Reprint
The Whole Art of Pleasing as Laid Down by a Frenchwoman
“The most estimable women would be vexed to be disesteemed by
their husbands; therefore, they must strive to excite and nourish more
pleasant sentiments. The neglect and infidelity so much deplored in
husbands is often owing to wives’ neglect of themselves.”
Politically incorrect? Not in the early
19th century. The Lady’s Stratagem: A Repository of 1820s Directions
for the Toilet, Mantua-Making, Stay-Making, Millinery & Etiquette
is a comprehensive guide to averting such marital disasters. Modern
readers are warned not to try the recipes for homemade cosmetics (such
as the Oriental Rusma depilatory, composed of quicklime, arsenic, and
washing powder). However, film and theater costumers will welcome the
directions and diagrams for making 13 styles of corsets; for making
and trimming dresses, pelisses, riding habits, and other garments; for
every kind of millinery, including 52 trimmings and both wound and mounted
turbans; and unusually early directions for knitting stockings, undergarments,
and accessories. There is no comparable English-language needlework
reference for the 1820s—period or modern. Reenactors and living
history interpreters will put to use the information on wardrobe planning;
mending and alterations; the concoction of eight hairstyles; choosing
perfumes; how to walk and gesture; and the etiquette for all social
occasions, from morning visits to balls. Historical and romance novelists
will find fascinating details in the instructions for cleaning the teeth,
caring for the hair, bathing, getting dressed, putting away the toilet
articles, doing the laundry, the art of conversation, writing letters,
and much more.
For example, the directions for gaining
weight include, “Every day, immediately before the meal, take
a bath, during which you should not move about at all. After a quarter
of an hour, you may comfort yourself with a consommé. Quit the bath
after another quarter of an hour, arrange yourself on a sopha, and take
a cup of chocolate. Then sleep until the moment you sit down at table.”
Much of this material is drawn from six
important French manuals of the 1820s, five here translated into English
for the first time—that is, into 1820s English, not excluding
spelling and punctuation. A running commentary is provided by the “diversions,”
containing information from 23 additional English, American, and French
sources, furnishing an international viewpoint. And in places, one that
diverges from the middle-class outlook of the core sources, such as
the patterns for slaves’ clothing. The “diversions”
are something Lawrence Sterne might have thought up if he had been familiar
with the Internet: They are unclickable links to material ranging from
one sentence to as long as 27 pages.
Editor and translator Frances Grimble
is the author of six previous books: After a Fashion, Reconstruction
Era Fashions, Fashions of the Gilded Age Volumes 1 and 2, The Voice
of Fashion, and The Edwardian Modiste. Over 60 of her articles
have appeared in national magazines, such as Threads, Sew News,
and Antique Trader Weekly.
The Lady’s Stratagem can
be purchased for $75 in bookstores, or ordered from Lavolta Press at
20 Meadowbrook Drive, San Francisco, CA 94132; http://www.lavoltapress.com.
The Lady’s Stratagem: A Repository of 1820s Directions for
the Toilet, Mantua-Making, Stay-Making, Millinery & Etiquette
Edited, translated, and with additional material by Frances Grimble
8 1/2” x 11” quality paperback
755 pages
98 line drawings, 36 halftones
Glossary, bibliography, and index
ISBN: 978-0-9636517-7-8
LCCN: 2008920010
Cover price: $75 (California purchasers must add sales tax)
Shipping: $5 (for media mail within the US)
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