For the imaginative reader, on closing the book, ' the silks still glisten from the paper' Mail Plus In May 1848 merchant’s wife Anne Sykes rustled on to the dancefloor in a dress made of pink and purple silk taffeta. Her husband, Adam, was quite possibly in the cream velvet pile waistcoat that he had got for his birthday. Or perhaps he had opted for the bright silk tartan one. Either way, the young couple must have shimmered as they waltzed, giving the lie to the idea that the early Victorians mostly preferred to look as if they were off to a funeral. I would have loved to have seen photos of the glorious fabrics described throughout, but perhaps that will be present in other versions of the book… for now, I will rely on the delightful descriptions, and would recommend this book to anyone interested in this period of history, or the history of fashion. Anne’s identity radiated out in myriad hues and materials, connecting her to her world and allowing us to join her. Discovering that Anne Sykes was the hitherto unknown creator of the book that I had been meticulously transcribing was at once both exciting and perplexing. I felt certain that she had to be a dressmaker, a woman whose role in life was to clothe her clients, taking a keen interest in shape and style, keeping the secrets of bodies. In that moment I could never have anticipated just how much I would be able to uncover. In 1838, a young woman was given a diary on her wedding day. Collecting snippets of fabric from a range of garments she carefully annotated each one, creating a unique record of her life and times. Her name was Mrs Anne Sykes.

Strasdin has obviously dedicated a lot of time to researching her subject matter, but from a few scant clues and some canny historical detective work, she has pieced together a colourful collage of Victorian life. The diary doesn't take an entirely chronological approach, and Strasdin cleverly structures her chapters around characters, places and themes to build a cohesive narrative out of the clues she's been given. The story of a singular woman... Kate Strasdin's forensic detective work has finally let Mrs Sykes - and her book - speak again Judith Flanders, author of THE INVENTION OF MURDER Snippets of fabric, snippets of biographical detail, snippets of historical evidence - this is a book entirely made up of snippets and I found it irresistible Ysenda Maxtone Graham, The TimesIn the C18th and C19th, clothes were made for the wearer; there were almost no “off-the-peg” dresses, suits, etc.. One would buy a length of material and make it (or have it made by someone else) into clothing, upholstery or curtains. Anne Sykes obtained small fragments of the leftover material from friends and relations for her book. A typical inscription might state “Adam’s vest new on his birthday July 12th 1843.” The material is from outfits belong to Sykes and to family and friends - and I can only admire Strasdin's long hours of research through census records, newspaper archives etc to tell her story. Despite all the knowledge we have gained as a result of Anne’s diary finding itself in Strasdin’s hands, there is also so much we can never know. Throughout the book, alongside the concrete findings, are queries about the intricacies of their thoughts, emotions, and activities. How close the relationships between Anne and those mentioned in her diary, whether they genuinely liked or politely accepted the fabrics and garments gifted to them, all these personal thoughts and more that are just beyond our reach, not recorded in marriage records or newspaper cuttings. In many ways, thisadds to the intrigue maintained throughout the book. We know Anne so well, having been able to trace her life (and wardrobe) from these fragments of cloth, and yet we also come out knowing so little about her personality. Ultimately though, this remains a value, not a disappointment – these questions that are raised providing a constant reminder of the individual people, with all their thoughts and feelings, mundanehabits and routines, excitements and tragedies, attached to every historical artefact. This appears to me as a fascination, more than a frustration, at least as I read it. ‘The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes’ may start with snippets of fabric collected by just one Lancashire woman, but it certainly does not end there. This is a journey Kate Strasdin takes us on with her; the precision, openness, and curiousity, with which she does so filling me with positive affirmation of my fascination with history (and love of prints!). The author captures it best herself: ‘Anne’s story is both remarkable and ordinary’.

Dr. Kate Strasdin is a fashion historian, museum curator and lecturer at Falmouth University, where she teaches the history of fashion design, marketing, and photography.

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Anne Sykes grew up in Lancashire, the daughter of a cloth merchant in a part of England focused at the time on the cloth industry. She married a cloth merchant from a family of fabric printers, so needless to say Anne understood the importance of fabric in daily life- both as fashion, gifts, and probably the basis for family economics. Anne and her husband Adam traveled to Singapore for his work and lived there (and briefly Shanghai) for nearly ten years before returning to England. Strasdin scoured records, newspapers, ship's logs and more for hints of the Sykes and other names that appear in Anne's diary, often with surprising success. While no letters have been found from Anne, Strasdin helps us discover what her life in Singapore might have been like through letters of other women who lived there at the time, and who knew Anne and donated fabric to her album.