Fashion History with American Duchess

In this episode we interview Michael Koropisz, an amazingly skilled portrait painter with a love of Victorian fashion. We wanted to get to know Michael a little better after he appeared in several online articles, so we had a nice long chat about art, aesthetics, his history, his love of Victorian clothing, costume vs. clothes, art for art's sake, and more. We hope you enjoy this casual chat.

You can find Michael here:

Website - https://www.michaelkoropisz.com/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mr.koropisz/

Instagram - @michael_koropisz_artist

Also, don't forget to check out another fabulously-dressed gentleman, Dandy Wellington, who provides the music for our podcast - https://www.dandywellington.com/

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Get social with us!

Instagram: www.instagram.com/americanduchess

Facebook: www.facebook.com/AmericanDuchess

Blog: blog.americanduchess

Patreon - www.patreon.com/americanduchess

Youtube - www.youtube.com/c/americanduchess1

Shop our Website:

www.americanduchess.com

Don't forget to subscribe! ❤

Designing historically-inspired footwear is trickier than you might think! Join Nicole Rudolph and Lauren Stowell as we have a behind the scenes chat about the process of designing and making American Duchess historical shoes.

From spec sheets and measurements to choosing leather and trying on samples, we go in depth with some of the process, challenges, and development of our old-fashioned footwear line.

Victorian women wore bustles to enlarge their hips, bum, and to give them the fashionable shape, but did you know that there was more than just one type of bustle? In fact, there were loads of different types!

In this episode, we sat down with Christina DeAngelo (our beloved Operations Manager and all-around cool chick) to discuss her research into several different types of bustles that she's recreated over the years - from the Phantom Bustle to the Lotta, and everything in between (just not a tapioca bustle, Abby...🤣)

So, if you're interested in exploring the 1870s or 1880s bustle-era fashions, but are intimidated by the "Lobster Tail" Tonure bustle, you're going to love this episode!

LACMA Bustles:

https://collections.lacma.org/node/214157

&

https://collections.lacma.org/node/206419

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Get social with us!

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/americanduchess

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AmericanDuchess

Blog: http://blog.americanduchess

Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/americanduchess

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/c/americanduchess1

Shop our Website:

http://www.americanduchess.com

Don't forget to subscribe! ❤

It's been almost 2 months since Covid-19 turned our world upside down. As small businesses, we've been struggling with what to do, how to move forward, pivoting, and trying to out-think a pandemic.

Featuring Cynthia of Redthreaded, this is a business-related episode, focused entirely on what we and Redthreaded have been doing to keep everything afloat while we isolate in our homes, and our costume-related events get canceled for 2020.

Quick thinking, acting fast, and pivoting are normal when you operate a small business, but none of us ever thought this would happen. After all, both American Duchess and Redthreaded were founded during the Recession. However, Lauren and Cynthia have been working tirelessly to keep everyone employed and their businesses operational during this time of crisis. Throughout this episode, we discuss the PPP loans, Paypal, other sources of funding, how we've changed our business operations, focusing on Youtube, the growth of Patreon (THANK YOU), and more. A little bit serious, a little bit lighthearted, if you want to know how some of your favorite small businesses are doing during the lock-down, sit back and have a listen.

Check out Redthreaded :

http://www.redthreaded.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoVgyEruqAMbaUixPGyI5HA

http://www.patreon.com/redthreaded

Get to know Dandy Wellington:

https://www.youtube.com/user/indiglonyc

&

http://www.patreon.com/DandyWellington

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Get social with us!

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/americanduchess

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AmericanDuchess

Blog: http://blog.americanduchess

Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/americanduchess

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/c/americanduchess1

Shop our Website:

http://www.americanduchess.com

Don't forget to subscribe! ❤

Want to study Fashion History for Free (!) - by joining FutureLearn's Course "A History of Royal Fashion" (https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/royal-fashion) you'll be able to learn about British Royal Fashion from the Tudor Era through the Windsors, with everything in between! This course is an excellent way to enjoy spending quality time at home, and learn some excellent dress history!

Dr. Tuckett sat down with Abby last week to tell her all about the course, what it offers, how to enroll in the FutureLearn course, and shares her favorite topics, as well as who she thinks is the best-dressed royal and the worst dressed royal. So whether, you're interested in Tudor fashion, 18th-century court dress, or what Queen Victoria liked to wear, there is literally something for everyone! One of the best features of this course is that it was in collaboration with Historic Royal Palaces, and so you get to see incredible pieces in their collection, that many people have never seen before!

This course is a great option for all of you out there who are thinking about going to school for costume history or if you just want to learn more about historic royal fashion!

Sign up for FREE (seriously, it's totally free!) Here: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/royal-fashion

🎶🎵 Get to know Dandy Wellington: 🎶🎵

Dandy's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/indiglonyc

Dandy's IG: https://www.instagram.com/dandywellington

&

http://www.dandywellington.com

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Get social with us! 🎉🎉

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/americanduchess

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AmericanDuchess

Blog: http://blog.americanduchess

Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/americanduchess

Podcast: Fashion History with American Duchess

Shop our Website:

http://www.americanduchess.com

Don't forget to subscribe! ❤

When we sat down to record our new season of podcasts, we realized we had made a terrible error - we had never, ever done a podcast about our second book, The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Beauty, which was released in JULY of 2019! (Oops.)

So, we put our booties in the chairs and made sure we talked about the book, the only thing was, was that we didn't want to talk about what was in the book...so we just kind of ended up talking about the experience of writing the second book, our favorite memories, projects, and our least favorite projects. It was definitely a good time (especially the part where Abby lost a fight with a chair!)

If you don't have our second book, you can buy it here: https://www.american-duchess.com/book/american-duchess-guide-to-beauty

And if you want our first book (which is all about 18th century dressmaking!) you can buy it here: https://www.american-duchess.com/book/american-duchess-guide

If you like what we do, and want to support us, consider becoming a Patron over on Patreon! We have tiers for all the things, including private facebook groups, patterns, coupons, and early release access to our podcast and more! https://www.patreon.com/americanduchess

Also, we want to give a special shout out to Dandy Wellington for allowing us to use his music for our podcast. You can support Dandy here: https://www.patreon.com/dandywellington and here https://www.dandywellington.com/ (Bonus: Dandy is now teaching Wardrobe and Styling online courses! YES!)

Welcome to a new season of the American Duchess Podcast! For our first episode of the season, we wanted to address some exciting changes that are underway at American Duchess. For years, we've been operating Royal Vintage Shoes as a wholly separate company from American Duchess (for a variety of reasons), but last year, we realized that it was time to merge the companies together, under the one name of American Duchess. So, as of early April 2020, American Duchess will be selling reproduction shoes from the 17th century all the way up through the 1940s. That's right, we've got almost all of history covered in shoes (and yes, more historical men's shoe styles are coming soon too!)

Because of this merger, we realized that there may be questions from our customers and fans, and so we just wanted to take a moment to sit down and talk about the merger, why it's happening, when, and what to expect over the next couple of months. You know, all that good, delicious historical costuming small business and entrepreneurial content. While we did our best to make all the details correct, this podcast was recorded earlier in 2020, and so our timeline has shifted just a bit regarding manufacturing and the merging of the brands onto one website.

For the latest information regarding the merger and our FAQs go here: https://www.royalvintageshoes.com/royal-vintage-merger-faq

Get Social with us!

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/americanduchess

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/americanduchess

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/americanduchess

Blog: http://blog.americanduchess.com

Shop for historical shoes, sewing patterns, and books here:

http://www.americanduchess.com

Become a Patron of Dandy Wellington: https://www.patreon.com/dandywellington

Check out his music here: https://www.dandywellington.com/

See you next time!

On this episode of "Fashion History with American Duchess" we welcome back our friend and fellow business lady, Cynthia Settje of Redthreaded Corsets (http://www.redthreaded.com) to discuss wages and charging what you're worth in the costuming and seamstressing world.

Charging what your labor and skills are worth is a tricky balancing act that so many of us play. How much do I charge for my sewing? Is it too much? Is it not enough? and most importantly - "Does my [accidental] undervaluing of my labor and skills negatively affect those in the same industry as me?"

Spoiler - it does.

Over the past 10 years, Cynthia has been able to turn a business idea that started in her college apartment into a thriving corset making and costume atelier for Broadway and private customers. She's seen and heard it all when it comes to wages in the costume making, tailoring, seamstress, and etsy businesses, and we are so happy she has shared her expertise and knowledge on the subject with us.

We hope that you enjoy this episode!

Redthreaded:

http://www.redthreaded.com

http://instagram.com/redthreaded

http://www.facebook.com/redthreaded

American Duchess:

http://www.AmericanDuchess.com

http://blog.americanduchess.com

http://www.instagram.com/americanduchess

http://www.facebook.com/americanduchess

https://www.youtube.com/americanduchess1

It's Part 2 of our interview with Jenny Tiramani from the School of Historical Dress (http://www.schoolofhistoricaldress.org.uk)! Continuing our conversation from last week, we go in to future book plans, more about Patterns of Fashion 5, and just general juicy costuming conversation.

So sit back, relax, and go by Patterns of Fashion 5 if you haven't already!

Blog: http://blog.americanduchess.com

Website: http://www.americanduchess.com

Instagram: @AmericanDuchess

Facebook: /AmericanDuchess

Woo! Are we excited to share with y'all Part 1 of our interview with Jenny Tiramani from the School of Historical Dress (http://schoolofhistoricaldress.org.uk). Jenny was kind enough to sit down and chat with us about her career, working at the Globe in London, how she met Janet Arnold, founding the School of Historical Dress, and best of all -- all the glorious details about their new book, "Patterns of Fashion 5: The content, cut, construction and context of bodies, stays, hoops and rumps c.1595-1795" which is available for pre-order now! (https://shop.theschoolofhistoricaldress.org.uk/?product=patterns-of-fashion-5-the-content-cut-construction-and-context-of-bodies-stays-hoops-and-rumps-c-1595-1795)

We had a such a great time with Jenny, that we ended up talking for over 2 hours --- which is why we broke this episode up into 2 parts. Part 2 will be released next week, hooray!

Don't forget you can find us at http://americanduchess.com; http://blog.americanduchess.com and we're on Instagram and Facebook (americanduchess for both) too!

See you next week!