When I was about 17, I was strolling through an outdoor flea market in upstate New York when I was stopped in my tracks by a stunning black velvet dress on display. There was not any information about it, but I could tell it was an original gown from the early 20th century and I just had to have it. I don’t recall exactly what I paid for it, but being a poor student I think it couldn’t have been more than about 20 dollars. From that day, I was hooked on period clothing and how I could make my own reproductions.

One of my first jobs was working as a historic interpreter at what was then called Sleepy Hollow Restorations (now Historic Hudson Valley), which at the time consisted of three sites from three different centuries. So I got to dress in clothing from the 18th and 19th centuries every day. It was the best job I ever had.

After working there for a couple of years I was hired to work in their costume shop, where I got to create these period clothes for the staff myself! Everything was well researched, and I was lucky enough to be able to see and handle original pieces in the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, from which we could take patterns for the reproductions the staff would be wearing.

About 40 years have passed since those days, and I am once again lucky enough to indulge my passion for period clothing, the Edwardian age still being my favorite. Through researching and reviving patterns from the Edwardian era, I’m hoping to inspire others with the same joy I felt that day in my teens when I was captured by the beauty of a lost era.