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A.C. Robinson’s path to publishing her debut novel Hardly Strangers mimics the plot of her own book—serendipitous and unexpected with a healthy dose of fate. After years of intellectual self-doubt stemming from trying experiences in high school, Robinson found her way to writing through poetry, self-publishing a collection of verse titled “The Artists Are Frightened.” (Available on Amazon)

“I started with poetry due to a lot of intellectual insecurity,” she explains. “It was a way for me to write and essentially say if you don’t get it…it’s just subjective.” Without a college degree and struggling against the belief that she “wasn’t smart enough,” Robinson spent years in an uphill battle with the traditional publisher submission process—a narrative that would dramatically shift in 2023.

The night that changed it all

Hardly Strangers follows Shera Benoit through one transformative February evening—a night beginning with anticipation for a date with Michael, the “Babe of the Canyon,” and ending somewhere entirely unexpected. When Michael’s interest proves lukewarm at best, Shera finds herself drawn instead to Max King, the enigmatic Irish musician whose band, Dog from Hell, with a budding following.

What unfolds over the course of those hours is an exploration of intimacy, honesty and healing. Through extended conversations, helped on by strong drink, Shera and Max excavate their pasts and confront their demons to discover an unexpected connection that feels new yet familiar.

“I really tried to write characters that were flawed,” Robinson explains. “Not your typical ‘I care too much. I’m a perfectionist.’ I wrote flaws that were a bit uglier and harder to swallow.”

This commitment to imperfection sets Hardly Strangers apart from typical romance fare. Shera is still healing from a devastating betrayal by ex-boyfriend Elliot. Max carries the weight of his own past mistakes, including infidelity that decimated his engagement. Neither character arrives at their meeting with a blank slate—they’re wounded, wary, and working through trauma. They offer an honest relatability.

Writing Hardly Strangers

Impressively, the novel came to life in just 59 days—written after Robinson received a fateful email from romance publishing innovators , while sitting at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, having just begged the universe for a sign about her writing career.

“I love a deadline,” she says with a laugh. “There’s nothing more gratifying than going insane with writing on a deadline.” The story, loosely based on something that happened to her in her early twenties, became a deeply personal exploration—perhaps more than she initially intended.

The challenge of writing romance, she discovered, was the expectation of making readers feel good. “If I had my way I would leave everybody in a horrible state,” she admits laughingly. Her natural inclination is toward darker narratives—she’s now focused on thriller and horror—but Hardly Strangers required her to find balance between the messy reality of human relationships and the emotional satisfaction contemporary readers have been groomed to expect from romance.

“You’re trying to make people feel good…To take them on a ride that is ultimately enjoyable,” she reflects. “That was the biggest learning experience [in writing Hardly Strangers] for me.”

Embracing what Actually inspires you

One of the most striking aspects of Robinson’s creative philosophy is her deliberate choice to embrace genuine inspiration, even when it seems pedestrian or uncool. Throughout Hardly Strangers, she included references and influences some might consider clichés, but represent her authentic creative journey.

“For a long time [I’ve thought] if I were ever to teach a class around writing, I would say it’s important to like what you like and be inspired by whatever inspires you,” she explains. Too often, she observes, people adjust their influences to represent how they want to be seen rather than what genuinely moves them.

Her inspirations? She watches reality TV to improve her dialogue “it’s made me better at writing because it’s often more real than the conversations I might be having around Silverlake,” loves films like iRobot and White Chicks and finds Leonard Cohen’s raspy poetry as inspiring as any literary giant.

This philosophy extends to her broader creative ethos, including her deliberate choice to write with what she calls “masculine bravado.” Observing how male authors write with the confidence of “I say it therefore it is,” she decided: “I wanted to write with arrogance.”

“What would happen if I set out the gate with this androgynous name and just wrote this way?” The result is prose that doesn’t make excuses for its boldness while maintaining deep emotional resonance.

What does A.C. Robinson have up her sleeve?

Since publishing Hardly Strangers, Robinson has signed with literary agent Emma Kapson at Verve and is now focused on writing short stories—a format that allows her to test ideas more quickly while pursuing both book and film opportunities. With dozens of story ideas on a running list, she’s found her stride. Spoiler: one of her shorts is currently being adapted for film by Searchlight1.

“Everything moved very quickly once I got out of my own way,” she reflects. For aspiring writers without traditional credentials or connections, her story offers something rare: proof that discovery can happen, even when you’ve stopped waiting for it.

Hardly Strangers is available now—it’s the perfect gift for the romance lover in your life or as your next monthly book club read.

A.C. Robinson is a writer from Los Angeles, CA. Her short story Grand Rising is set up for feature adaptation at Searchlight Pictures, with Lena Waithe set to adapt and Steven Caple, Jr. set to direct. Alana published her first novel, Hardly Strangers, with 831 Stories, after attracting the publisher’s attention via a Byline Magazine article about the woes of digital dating. Since her foray into romance, she has become primarily focused on creating raw, confessional work that seeks to bind author and reader with a strong adhesive of shared thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Her subject matter ranges from mental health trials and relationship tribulations to social discourse and personal soothsaying about the future of humankind. Alana was raised on English Romanticism, Greek mythology, Beat poetry, and the slapstick comedic stylings of The Three Stooges.

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Polo: Sport or style?

Polo is a bit of an enigma. 

It is a sport almost everyone in the world knows exists, but most people have never played or even spectated, live or digitally.

An ancient sport, historians have cited polo as dating back to Persia, or modern day Iran, between 600 BCE - 100 ACE. Today polo seems to be the aesthetic of quiet American luxury driven by the one and only: Uncle Ralph. Yes, I’m referring to Ralph Lauren, the global American powerhouse responsible for buttoning billions of people into uppers embroidered with a polo player emblem on the chest. 

For those of us who are frequent polo shirt flyers, whether it be from Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, USPA, Rowing Blazers, the fruit of tech work swag etc, are not saying to the world, ‘How do you do? I am a 10 goal polo player,’ rather the polo shirt is a covert, perhaps even unknowing, acknowledgement that the wearer appreciates the finer things in life, the universe’s simple luxuries, one of which is freedom from slaving over your appearance.

The Evolution of the Polo Shirt

The polo shirt as we know it today, was created and named for the sport and the polo players who wore it in India in the 1850s and later in England in the 1920s. 

Given how ancient the sport of polo is, the practice of sporting an actual polo shirt as a jersey during a match is a relatively green practice.

Originally, polo players wore long sleeve, heavy shirts with collars during play, a fact which seems particularly absurd when one considers the other paraphernalia polo players are cloaked in riding a horse at full tilt (about 40 mph) ramming into opponents: a helmet, boots, gloves, leather knee and perhaps elbow pads, glasses and, don’t forget, you’re carrying a 52 inch mallet.

There’s dirt and grass flying into your face all mixed in with beads of sweat. Sometimes blood.

Would you top all of this off with a long sleeve, wool shirt? Heck no!

Skimming for facts? In 1896, John Brooks, early President of Brooks Brothers noticed that polo player’s collars would flap up and down as they galloped back and forth on the pitch during matches. In a moment of genius he decided to produce a long sleeve oxford cloth polo shirt with button down collar points - they still produce this style shirt today (as does almost every other men’s and women’s shirt maker).

Out of necessity, polo clothing evolved to the polo shirt as we know it today. The polo’s design considers the polo player at each turn: they are typically made of cotton or a breathable fabric such as silk or wool, the sleeves are made short for further breathability and the inclusion of a collar, in an easily formal way, recalls polo’s great and long history.

@lolynchwemple’s Recommends:

• Ralph Lauren Men’s Iconic Mesh Polo Shirt ($118) *I always buy a men’s Medium and buy during the Ralph Lauren Black Friday sale OR the colors that are discounted to $79. For example, Heather and Desert Rose would be at home in anyone’s wardrobe.

• Calvin Klein Women’s Tech Knit Polo Dress (On sale for $69) *I’ve lived in this dress in black and size Medium throughout my pregnancy, so easy to dress up, down and layer for weather.

• Rowing Blazers x Babar Men’s Babar Piqué Polo ($108)

• Other honorable mentions: Buying polos from your alma mater (especially if you attended university in the Northeast) and blank uniform polos made for teenage boys (this sounds weird but I basically only wear Ralph Lauren polo shirts and those made by French Toast, the off brand kids and adult uniform manufacturer, their polos are cotton, under $20 and have no logos or branding - bingo).

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An Unexpectedly Ancient History

Dating back to 600 BCE and the Persian empire, polo is said to be the oldest team sport in the world. Originally played by the noble classes, first Persian kings, princes and queens. Its name is thought to have evolved from the Tibetan word, “pholo” meaning “ball” or “ballgame”.

During the Middle Ages, the sport continued in popularity and took up use as a military training exercise for cavalrymen. Over the centuries the sport spread as civilizations evolved, were conquered and did the conquering: the Middle East, Asia, Africa. India was bit by the polo bug when Muslim conquerors introduced it circa 1200 and later British tea planters encountered the sport while working in Manipur in Northeast India.

In 1869 England recorded its first polo tournament on Hounslow Heath - the players consisted of military officers, one of which had read about the game in a magazine.

A handful of years later in 1876, James Gordon Bennett, a Scottish American newspaper publisher who founded the New York Herald, had watched a polo match abroad and decided to introduce it to his wealthy and connected peers in the United States. That same year informal polo matches were played in New York City and by 1878 the Westchester Polo Club1 was founded, followed by the Meadowbrook Club in 1881.

Skimming for facts? Meadowbrook Polo Club remains the oldest operating polo club in the USA, and today there are about 230 official polo clubs operating across the United States. I play at Bonsall Polo Club. 

As polo’s popularity grew around the world, rules and regulations were required. In 1888 American players adopted the rules used at Hurlingham Polo Club in England, until 1890 when the United States Polo Association was created to lead the sport nationally as its governing body. The USPA sculpted the game as we know it today.

Skimming for facts? Today the United States Polo Association or USPA remains the sport’s governing body and the nucleus of American polo based in Florida. The USPA is a polo player’s bible for rules, handicaps and safety regulations.

Today polo is played indoor, in an arena, or more recognizably outdoor on a grass field 300 yards long and 160 yards wide. At either end of the pitch are goal posts spaced 8 yards apart. The game is played with two teams of four players whose objective is to score as many goals as possible during the 7 ½ minute chukkers that make up a match. In the US 6 chukkers are common in a professional match. During each match are two mounted umpires who maintain and enforce rules and sportsmanship throughout play. 

Like any global sport, polo is made up of communities, large and small, novices, amateurs and professionals alike all litter the global polo stage.

What I find fascinating is how somehow, polo, amongst other difficult, elite and physically taxing sports, has become a vehicle for show - charities, royals, aristocrats, marketing for champagne maison and a brand status symbol.

Despite the glamorization of this ancient sport, polo’s roots are in intrepid, prehistoric times and training exercises for military men.

It’s a sport that was created and designed to challenge the mind and body of players and test the sacred connection between horse and rider.

Does knowing any of this change how you think about the polo shirt folded in your drawer? If not, at least you’ve some decidedly pedantic cocktail chat for your next dinner party.

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In the classic way of the world and its rabbit warren of social orbitals I connected with Meg Eddings Feely (@meg_eddy_).

She happened to be the founder of a women’s apparel concept, living in San Francisco and married with two young children. I happened to have recently moved back to the city by the Bay full time and am expecting my first baby while also building a home textiles and apparel business.

The universe works in mysterious ways, doesn’t it? If you’re open to it, always leading you, urging you in new directions and toward people you were meant to discover.

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A Childhood Origin Story

In a sun-drenched San Francisco showroom at the corner of Hyde and Green, Meg Eddings Feely sips a cup of warm caffeine amongst racks of vibrant dresses and separates. Meg has the confidence of someone who has found her calling.

After an impressive career with fashion heavyweights Ralph Lauren and Tory Burch which led to scaling Marine Layer from seven stores to fifty, Meg is finally building something entirely her own: Eddy (@eddy_aesthetic), a women’s apparel concept embodying what she’s coined “consciously curated whimsy.”

The name Eddy references her childhood nickname—a tomboy moniker born of her soccer days when multiple Megans populated every team. “I loved the tomboy-girly name,” she explains. “Eddy encompasses those tomboy elements which I hope resonate in my designs. [Eddy pieces] can be loud and girly, but also have an edge.”

A Fashion Industry Education

Eddings Feely’s path to entrepreneurship wasn’t linear. Starting at Ralph Lauren paved a foundation in aspirational lifestyle branding, while Tory Burch taught her about scaling during a company’s explosive growth phase. “[Looking back] I was slowly moving to an earlier stage in every company I went to,” she reflects. Each move brought her closer to the scrappy, hands-on environment in which she’d eventually thrive.

Her near decade at Marine Layer proved particularly formative. “I was there for eight years while they scaled from seven stores to about fifty…which set me up for going out on my own afterwards.” The experience gave her operational know-how which many fashion entrepreneurs lack—from building supplier relationships to navigating scaling speed bumps to understanding what truly drives customer loyalty.

“From all of the brands that I worked with before starting Eddy, I learned how strong their brands were, their point of view and position [in the market],” she says. Whether it was Ralph Lauren’s aspirational American equestrian dream or Tory Burch’s seamless integration between personal style and brand aesthetic, her experience at each company reinforced the importance of authentic brand identity.

A Business Idea Born of her Bridal Party

The genesis of Eddy traces back to Eddings Feely’s own wedding preparations. “I always wanted to start my own company, but I didn’t know what it would be…Eddy is [maybe] the fifth idea I almost ran with. [It’s] the only one I actually quit my job for.” The catalyst came when she designed her own wedding dress and those of her bridesmaids’, sourcing textiles from India and lace trims from England.

“My wedding gown was an incredible linen with block print. Florals with lace from London. It was a combination of cool natural materials with elevated details.” The response was overwhelmingly positive—people hadn’t seen traditional elements combined in quite such a way before.

When COVID derailed her original plan to have the wedding party travel to Vietnam for dress fittings, she pivoted to working with a local San Francisco atelier. The experience of bringing her vision to life, combined with years of industry knowledge, crystallized her business concept. “[Initially] dresses intimidated me because I didn’t go to fashion design school,” she admits. “But I understand style, fit and concept.”

Defining the Eddy Aesthetic

Eddings Feely describes her target customer with precision: “[She’s] on the center of a dance floor. She’s never on the sidelines watching life happen. She’s chic, but a loud dresser.”

Talking with Meg, feeling her product, being in her showroom, I get it. The Eddy woman is unafraid of color, pattern or making a statement.

The brand philosophy centers on what she calls “elevated bohemian”—pieces special enough for events but practical enough for real life. “I want [our clothes] to be playful. You have to be able to move and have fun.”

Her approach to photography reinforces this duality. Rather than sterile shoots, Eddy campaigns feature models barefoot in tall grass or navigating urban landscapes with ice cream cones in hand. “I very intentionally want the shoots to have edge because how you portray the garment really matters, especially when we’re starting online only, that’s the only way that the customer sees us.”

Planned and Accessible Quality

One of Eddy’s key differentiators is its pricing strategy. “[At] Eddy we’re offering elevated products at a more attainable price point,” Eddings Feely explains. “I don’t want you to have to spend $1,000 on an exciting, emotional piece.” Most Eddy pieces retail between $300-600.

This requires a strategic approach to product development, specifically materials and construction. You might notice Eddy product combines classic, hardworking materials such as organic cottons and linens with layered embroidery, beading and fringe. This is where Eddings Feely’s industry experience comes in to deliver on customer value.

Sustainability also runs through every aspect of the business, though Eddings Feely approaches it pragmatically. “[Thoughtful production] should be a part of every brand’s DNA.” Eddy recently applied for B-Corp certification and will launch the “scrap jacket ($448)” made from factory fabric cuttings—a quilted piece where every jacket is unique, incorporating remnants from previous collections.

It’s about Relationships not just Product

Eddings Feely’s commitment to ethical, quality manufacturing led her to spend a month in India when launching the brand, building relationships with suppliers rather than just placing orders. This approach to building Eddy internally extends to her new San Francisco retail presence.

Three years in, Eddy has opened a showroom just blocks from Eddings Feely’s home and near her children’s school. The space embodies the community ethos she’s cultivating. “Community and localness is so important and having this shop three blocks from my house, near where my kids go to school, being friends with all the neighbors…it’s meaningful.”

The Entrepreneur’s Reality

Despite Eddy’s success, our conversation is a candid one about the challenges of being a fashion entrepreneur. Eddings Feely remembers, “I got this advice early on and it’s been so relevant for me: The hardest first step is quitting. And then, it’s not quitting.”

When I asked about her effervescent attitude in the face of life and business’ inevitable trials, she cited her athletic background—years of soccer—which prepared her for the resilience starting a business has required. “I persevere. I like constructive criticism. I’ve got thick skin. I can take it and keep going.”

As Eddy crests into its fourth year of business, Meg’s vision for the Eddy woman is clear, “When you wear Eddy, I want you to feel good because [what you’re wearing] was made sustainably by a company who cares about people and the environment, but also because you look incredible in [our garments].” It’s a goal that captures both her business acumen and genuine desire to create something meaningful and different—clothes to make women feel confident enough to claim their place at the center of the dance floor.

Eddy’s autumn 2025 collection launched earlier this month and is available to shop online at shopeddy.com.

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In personal news, I’m with child. Pregnant. Have a bun in the oven. Knocked up. However you’d like to phrase it, I’m having a baby.

As we’re preparing for the arrival of our little lady, Wee Wemple she’s been knighted, I’ve just begun organizing her will- be room. Which means selecting decor and art for her walls.

The first piece of art I knew I had to hang in Wee Wemple’s chambre? A self portrait of the French painter Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun1 (b. 1755 - d. 1842).

Who was Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun?

Born Élisabeth Louise Vigée in Paris, France on April 16, 1755, our heroine was shepherded into the light by two parents: Louis Vigée, an artistic father who excelled in pastels, and a mother, Jeanne Maissin, a hair stylist. From a young age Élisabeth demonstrated impressive artistic abilities and her father indulged such happily providing her with access to his studio and sharing his professional experience.

At the age of twelve years, our gal lost her father, an occasion which marked both great sadness and change in her young life as shortly after her mother remarried - a jeweler named Jacques François Le Sèvre - and it became very clear that Élisabeth was expected to contribute to the family finances if she wished to stay living at home.

Given so, the young artist began painting professionally in her early teens quickly amassing a circle of paying patrons. By the age of twenty, she became a member of the Académie de St. Luc and had established herself at court which provided her access to earning higher paying and classed commissions as well as works of art, for the purpose of study, held within the collections of France’s royal family.

Despite her early success and obvious potential, Élisabeth’s mother encouraged her to marry to confirm her status in society and secure her financial future. With this pressure from her mother, Élisabeth married Jean-Baptiste Pierre Le Brun, an art dealer, a match that made sense (in theory), in 1776 when she was twenty-two.

While the marriage produced a daughter, Julie, it was a disaster. Le Brun was a gambler and relied on his wife’s talent and rising social star to buoy his life and pay his debts. The only honorable, rather useful, addition to ELVLB’s life by her husband was her eventual acceptance into the Académie Royale in 1783 (they had rejected her prior on the basis of her sex), which was said to have been brought to fruition because of her connections to a well known art dealer.

Why do we remember her today?

Her artistic talent but really, her proximity to Marie Antoinette, France’s most famous and fabulous queen. Marie Antoinette’s preference for Vigée Le Brun resulted in 30 portraits commissioned by the queen, and countless other commissions throughout her life by other European aristocrats and rulers.

ELVLB’s first commission of Marie Antoinette was in 1778 and the result was a larger than life portrait fossilizing how we think about France’s final queen.

Marie Antoinette commissioned Vigée Le Brun to paint the above portrait as a gift for her mother, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Marie Antoinette had married Louis XVI eight years prior. Spy her ode to King Louis XVI in the painting’s top right corner, he’s depicted in bust form, all knowing and ever-present in the Queen’s life.

The painting itself is quite breathtaking - I remember the first time I saw it in Vienna (I was with my sister, wearing a purple and pink plaid tailored dress and thought I had perhaps peaked in life) the scale is impressive of course, but it is the artist’s skill manipulating paint, color and perspective which deliver the tidal wave of impression on the viewer.

Seeing this painting in-person just makes you want to curtsy. Why is that?

Very simply, it’s due to Vigée Le Brun’s skill.

First, Vigée Le Brun’s prowess in imbuing a painting with sumptuousness aka wealth.

Looking at this painting, in-person or embedded digitally in this newsletter, you immediately understand this fabric and gown worn by Marie Antoinette are luxurious.

But why?

Through Vigée Le Brun’s use of lighting and in creating dimensionality, via flounces, layers and crumbles in the fabric, one can hear how this heavy, yet soft silken skirt, made for a queen, might move. It would swish. Even if it were still, it would stand on its own. This fabric has body and depth. It is the epitome of quality.

Below is another great example of Vigée Le Brun’s dexterity with color, light and perspective.

She’s brought a tablecloth to life for goodness sake!

As you’re looking closer, note: the changes in color based on natural shadows, how the fabric covering the table drapes in the corner v. when it collides with the floor, the illusion of movement in the cloth’s gold fringe and tassels.

Here, we focus on light.

How does one go about depicting natural light, and how it falls across a person’s form and clothing while standing inside? If you’ve ever attended one of those wine and painting evenings or can recall middle school art class, you’ll know it’s incredibly difficult.

Creating this type of hyper realistic representation of light in a portrait with oil paint, can only be done by the highly talented and best trained painters.

Look closely. Notice how the pale fabric appears beige in some places while almost pastel green in others? Note how certain portions of Marie Antoinette’s gold trim are darker or lighter, depending on how they’re sewn and hung. Notice how her skirts cast a shade on the carpet and the box of her shoe.

Glorious.

What are some of her most notable works of art?

I’ve gathered a handful of Vigée Le Brun’s portraits below.

As ELVLB is my muse for a hardworking, fabulous woman who refuses to quit, I selected only portraits of women (save for the second to last which features Marie Antoinette’s son, the Dauphin of France).

If you’re jonesing for more Vigée Le Brun, I recommend this article and this book.

What else I’m currently obsessed with…

• Stellar Eats Fudge Brownie in a Cup mix. No refined sugar, GF and 7g of protein - she’s perfect. (an 8 pack is $22)

• This dress from Eddy (currently on sale for $348)

• Using my white porcelain tea set. It’s simplicity and elegance perfectly paired.

• Hudson Grace’s Tart Kumquat Kitchen Candle (currently on sale for $25)

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Newport, Rhode Island's legendary mansions stand as monuments to America's Gilded Age, the cluster of years between 1870 and the early 1900s when industrialization and social and political change took hold of the USA, but behind their opulent facades is a complex world of social networks, artistic expression and untold stories. Leslie B. Jones, Director of Museum Affairs and Chief Curator for The Preservation Society of Newport County, is working to unveil these deeper narratives while preserving eleven historic properties that continue to captivate visitors from around the world.

A couple of years ago, I sat down with Jones in Newport to learn more about her work and the Mansions. Read the full interview with Leslie here.

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More than Big White Houses

"Even as a young graduate student, I remember going down Bellevue Avenue1 and I couldn't tell the difference between Marble House2, Rosecliff3 and The Elms4 - they're all big white houses," Jones admits. "Who lived there? And why should we care?"

This challenge of creating distinct identities for each mansion drives Jones and her 14 person team as they work to evolve how visitors experience these historic properties. Rather than viewing each house as an isolated monument, Jones emphasizes understanding them as an interconnected community.

"It is not a house on an island unto itself…it is a network," she explains. "From the patron of the house, from a collection and social perspective, but also the networks of servants, designers, purveyors, local businesses [required to maintain them]… It's what Julian Fellowes5 likes to call, 'a village of palaces.'"

Fittingly, Fellowes makes an entrance early in our conversation as he and his team spend months each year in Newport filming for his hit series ‘The Gilded Age’ - which just wrapped season 3 on HBO. The series has been a boon for visitor-ship across the Newport Mansions family.

The Art of Contextual Storytelling

The Preservation Society has evolved beyond traditional mansion tours to offer multiple perspectives on the same spaces. Visitors can explore different aspects of Gilded Age life as Jones and her team treat each house as “a prism.” For more context, when one visits The Breakers6, the grandest of all the mansions, you’re offered options for a self guided tour or to approach the house’s history from a new perspective, perhaps that of a servant, in guide led tours specific to the below stairs staff that powered The Breakers when the Vanderbilts were in residence. Leslie is working to ensure a visit to one of the Newport Mansions includes something for everyone.

This approach extends to challenging exhibitions that provide crucial historical context. Leslie highlighted her team’s work with Hunter House7 where they address Newport's role in the slave trade during the Colonial period, and The Elms, which tells the complex story of coal's role in both progress and environmental impact.

"We owe it to, and it is our utmost responsibility to convey truth and fact, to the public," Jones shared. "We take that responsibility very seriously. We are not in the business of opining on history."

The Enigma who was Jules Allard

The depth of research taking place at the Preservation Society and their commitment to activating history is perhaps best exemplified in recent projects, such as their exploration of Jules Allard8, the French interior designer who created the interiors for Rosecliff, The Elms, and Marble House.

"Honestly. It's Jules Allard. He visits me in my dreams," Jones confesses when asked what currently captivates her. The Preservation Society has dedicated years to understanding Allard's work, even placing an intern in Paris for five months to comb through archives.

What they're discovering challenges assumptions about Gilded Age collecting. "These people were not great collectors, they were acquirers, and they hired someone to finish a house, completely," Jones explains. In the case of The Breakers, Allard created fully furnished, historically-based interiors within just two years, "to give the appearance of generations of collecting."

"Allard revolutionized the way we understand the Gilded Age," Jones notes, describing him as "this enterprising, entrepreneurial, artistic genius who everyone… has overlooked for too long."

This type of research and curatorial work reminds us how many ways there are into history, and in the case of the Newport Mansions, each home represents a rabbit-warren of opportunities for exploration.

Balancing Escapism & Education

The popularity of HBO's ‘The Gilded Age’ has brought new attention to Newport, presenting both opportunity and challenge. Jones recognizes that visitors often come seeking escapism or to become ‘acquainted’ with the life of their favorite on-screen characters, but her team works to provide factual understanding of a period that shaped modern America.

"Capitalism was manifested during this time period," she explains. "The world we live in now was formulated then. That was a major shift in how our society, economy, politics, journalism, globalism - it all began during that period."

An IRL Laboratory

Under Jones's leadership, the Preservation Society is growing its reputation as a world-class museum while maintaining its role as steward of these historic properties. The organization supports four research fellows who dive deep into specific aspects of the collection and period, from conservation techniques to furniture cataloging.

"Working in a museum is not a solo profession," Jones emphasizes. "You're not able to sift through the library stacks all day to research for an exhibition, you're multitasking, constantly."

This collaborative approach extends to visitor experience, where Jones's team works to balance the hospitality expectations of historic house museum visitors with contemporary museum practices and broader historical narratives.

Places of Inspiration

When asked about her favorite museums, smiling, Jones reveals her professional admiration for The Frick Collection and her personal sanctuary: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum9. "It is a refuge. It is an escape. And it's an inspiration," she says, her voice noticeably relaxing when discussing Gardner's unique atmosphere.

Among Newport's own properties, Jones finds herself "always in a relationship with Alva Vanderbilt10 at Marble House" while becoming increasingly fascinated with Kingscote11, calling its multi-generational story of the Jones and King families "generations of incredible narratives, international intrigue."

Looking Forward

As Jones and her team continue their research and expand their educational offerings, they're not just preserving buildings and objects—they're uncovering the human stories connecting our past and present. Their work reveals how these "palaces" functioned as a complex social ecosystems which shaped American culture and continue to influence and inspire our world today.

"It's a wild world to be in," Jones reflects, "but I wouldn't be anywhere else."

Learn more about the Preservation Society of Newport and plan a visit to the Mansions here.

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Synopsis

• The term ‘empire waist’ refers to a style of neoclassical women’s dress which shot to popularity in the early 1800s, specifically from about 1800 - 1819 in France, England and Ireland

• The empire waistline sits high on the form typically under the bust or just above the ribcage, emphasizing a verticality in appearance

• Empress Joséphine Bonaparte1 led European society fashion in the early 19th century and favored the empire dress style

• Fine and delicate fabrics, such as light, soft cotton muslin2 and silk, were the choice textiles for empire waisted gowns. Fabrics such as these were pliable, drape-able, comfort giving and moved with the wearer in a classically attractive way.

• Thanks to Jane Austen3 and entertainments such as the Bridgerton series, empire waist dresses are cemented in your 21st century mind as the official uniform of Regency era heroines

Neoclassicism Sparks a Fresh Take on Ancient Draping

The empire waistline, or simply empire line, was a method of dress popular throughout France, England and Ireland in first 20 years of the 19th century. Looking back through popular fashions of the late 18th century we trace the roots of the empire line to the mid 1780s, when leading French female social figures began wearing thick sashes around their midline extending above the natural waist. This trend for wearing sashes served as optical trickery, drawing one’s eyes to the wearer’s narrow waistline. It also delivered on a feminine and youthful appearance, especially when a bright or pastel colored sash was worn.

At the turn of the 19th century, the sash as an accessory gave way to the raising of the waistline altogether. In terms of both comfort and aesthetic, the empire line, was a welcome change in dress style from the restricting and highly tailored bodice forming dresses favored before and during the French Revolution4 however it also played into the philosophical spirit of the time.

Across Europe from the late 1700s through to the early 1800s, Neoclassicism5 emerged and reigned culturally as the premier inspiration for the visual and decorative arts, architecture, theatre, literature and music. As thinkers, writers and artists found inspiration in Ancient Greece and Rome, women’s fashion did much the same, quietly rebelling against fitted styles of the past decade to adopt a relaxed and goddess-style of gown, one that clung to the wearer, around the legs and hips, as they moved.

An Empress not a Novelist

When you think of the empire line who comes to mind? For most of the 21st century public, it is quite likely you are daydreaming about a Jane Austen heroine, the likes of Elizabeth Bennet, Emma Woodhouse or Marianne and Elinor Dashwood, immortalized, for us contemporary media consumers, in 20th and 21st century film and television adaptations of Austen’s books. While Austen’s novels are set in Georgian England within the Regency period, when the empire line was top looks for fashionable ladies, it was not she who popularized the mode of dress. In reality, her characters, and she herself, were followers of the time’s leading lady of fashion: Empress Joséphine Bonaparte.

Josephine, the Empress of France from 1804 until her death in 1814, was an enigmatic force. She had an interesting, sort of confusing, childhood having been born on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean. Her family, Tascher, was one belonging to the esteemed class of ancient French nobles and her first marriage, to Alexandre, Viscount of Beauharnais6, brought her wealth and eventually from the West Indies to Paris. After her first husband was guillotined during the Reign of Terror, Joséphine built a social stronghold through carefully cultivated romantic relationships with powerful men, among them Napoleon Bonaparte (she hit pay-dirt on that one).

While this is not A Brief History devoted to Joséphine, she’s a fascinating woman who, like many of her contemporaries, met a sad end. If you would like to read more on Joséphine see my recommendations below7.

After marrying Napoleon and being crowned Empress of France Joséphine assumed her natural position ruling over all that was social and fashionable. Her taste was to appear goddess-like, untouchable yet clad often in a seemingly simple white gown adorned with empress level finery or a luxurious shawl. It is interesting to review visual representations of Joséphine during the last 14 years of her life, she is almost always depicted the same way, it is unusual if she is seen standing and wearing any color other than white, and even if her surroundings are not, her posture is always relaxed, as if to say, “Who me?”

Fabric is Everything

A trend as tediously effortless as the empire waist required specific textiles. Fabrics that, when worn, would flow and drape as depicted in Greek and Roman sculpture. Fabrics which clung to one’s legs and hips when one strode through the park, a ballroom or across a field.

Selecting fabric for apparel is a tough task, one which today’s consumer does not give much consideration as we typically do not select the fabric for our clothes or sew them ourselves. In the 19th century however, women of all classes would have been familiar with the different types and qualities of apparel fabrics. The two most favored fabrics for the empire line dress were muslin and silk, with muslin being the more widely used. Muslin is a lightweight cotton woven fabric offering wearers a comfortable on-body experience while also being sturdy yet beautiful to behold.

Empire Waist Gowns: Elegant and enduring? Or unflattering 1800s trend?

The empire line gown looks most complete on a long figure, for instance Gwyneth Paltrow in Emma8 - it just works. In the below example, of Gwyneth as Emma Woodhouse (which I know is cheating because Gwyneth is perfect) the fabric flows downward in the right, classically evocative, ways and the tendency for the A-hung long skirts to make the wearer’s midsection look dense is avoided, again, because Gwyneth.

There are contemporary examples of the empire line in the wild, but most do not earn mentioning here. One worth pinning is Jennifer Lawrence at the Vanity Fair Oscars after party in 2024. Lawrence wears a 1996 Givenchy couture gown designed by John Galliano.

When Lawrence wore the above gown last year we deemed it vintage, at 28 years old, and though it is beautifully constructed I cannot help but think the empire waistline ages it - gives it a costume-y tinge. It feels as though Galliano crawled back in time, opened Joséphine’s wardrobe at Malmaison9 and 3D printed a gown or two before hopping back to the 1990s.

While the empire line presents an ever-elegant picture, it feels best left to the past. Reserved for the pastel painted cast of Bridgerton and the fusty historian producers I worship at the BBC. It is a style of dress which conjures ‘nightgown’ in 2025 rather than ‘empress’. What say you? lauren@21stand18th.com

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On this episode of 21st & 18th we’re in New York City. Neighborhood: Williamsburg with newsletter muse: Leigh Batnick Plessner (@ilovejezebel). Leigh is a person you instantly feel inclined to get to know, she’s intriguing and her conversation is like an iceberg sighting - you know there is more to uncover beyond the preamble - which is no surprise as she studied English lit in college and has walked a colorful journey across decades of building the highly lauded Catbird (@catbirdnyc), which you’re likely acquainted with if you appreciate jewelry, have an affinity for shopping or find yourself as a resident of NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco or Los Angeles.

Let’s meet Leigh & Catbird.

LLW: Leigh, would you introduce yourself to 21st & 18th Readers?

LBP: My name is Leigh Batnick Plessner. I am the Chief Creative officer at Catbird. What else do I want to say? I live in Brooklyn. I've been here for a while now and am originally from the south shore of Long Island, which is very near and dear to my heart. I also have an almost eight year old daughter, Bluebell, who is the biggest light of my life.

LLW: What is Catbird?

LBP: Catbird is a fine jewelry brand, line and stores. We started in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 2004 and our concept is beautifully made, easy to wear everyday jewelry crafted in solid 14 karat gold meant to last forever.

Last year, the New York Times published an article1 on Catbird, a once cult-classic Brooklyn based jewelry concept who, 21 years after its founding, owns a healthy share of the fine jewelry market and operates 10 retail locations across the United States. Catbird’s story is not one of overnight success, rather curiosity, commitment to quality of craft and a comment on how far authentic customer connection can drive a business.

Leigh Batnick Plessner has spent over two decades crafting something rare in the jewelry world: pieces that make you feel more like yourself. As Chief Creative Officer of Catbird, the fine jewelry brand with roots in a petite Williamsburg storefront dating back to the early aughts, Plessner has helped the brand’s Founder, Rony Vardi, transform her $16,000 investment into a cultural phenomenon whose glittery 14k gold ornaments whisper rather than yell to onlookers.

Transitioning from Stationery to Jewelry

LLW: We’re in Brooklyn in the early 2000s. How did Catbird originally begin?

LBP: Rony, the Founder of Catbird, is a very special and important person in my life. [Prior to Catbird] she worked at Bliss as a graphic designer…and was there when they were acquired by LVMH which brought her to a transitional, transformational moment in her career and life.

While working at the Bliss offices in Dumbo Rony became inspired by a market in the neighborhood which made her interested in starting a business that could evolve over time as her own interests ebbed and flowed.

At the same time, Williamsburg was high density per capita of very, very interesting people…makers, doers of all things, creator of stories and visuals [and so on], and there was not yet a ton of retail in the neighborhood…[After finding] a tiny storefront near her apartment with her savings and a zero fee credit card, Rony opened our first store.

Plessner's professional journey with Catbird began unexpectedly. Originally an English literature graduate working at the beloved Washington D.C. bookshop Politics and Prose2, she launched a stationery line, Jezebel, featuring 19th-century silhouette images. It was at her first trade show where she met Rony Vardi, Catbird's founder, who was scouting for her fledgling jewelry venture.

As the two future workmates’ worlds collided, Plessner recalls, "I went to work with Rony at the store because it felt right to be collaborating with her and working with customers rather than from home all the time. [Very naturally] over time, my involvement with Catbird grew and grew and grew."

The Catbird Philosophy

What set Catbird apart from the beginning was a mixture of original product style, namely signature thin bands and stacking rings, as well as Plessner and Vardi’s fundamental approach to jewelry as self-expression. "We love jewelry that's unfussy, pieces that catch the light and make you feel more like yourself," Plessner explains. The brand's ethos centers on heirloom pieces meant to be worn constantly—"put it on, never take it off"—crafted in 14-karat gold to ensure such durability.

The brand's early retail philosophy was revolutionary for its time. Instead of traditional jewelry cases, everything was displayed in refurbished antique china cabinets at eye level. "The scale was against your face, at your eye level, and customers became immersed in our jewelry rather than looking down on or into cases," Plessner notes. "It was like stepping inside of our little world."

From BK Boutique to Nationwide Storefronts

Catbird’s transformation from boutique to brand wasn't immediate. In 2008, during the recession, Plessner sensed something shifting. A grandmother from Ohio walked into their Williamsburg store asking for "one of those knuckle stacking rings." The moment poked at her intuition: "I remember thinking, 'How did you even get here?' [At that moment] I had a feeling the brand was more than the sum of its parts - something was going to happen."

That same year, couples began seeking out Catbird for engagement and wedding jewelry, drawn to pieces that felt unique yet accessible compared to traditional jewelry houses. "There was a burgeoning notion of buying jewelry for yourself which we've become more comfortable with in 2025 but that was newer in the early 2000s," Plessner reflects.

A Responsible Approach to Production

LLW: Consumers today are more apprised of sustainability in fashion and retail but Catbird has been thinking about responsible production for some time. I read you use recycled diamonds in your jewelry making process. Would you share more on that?

LBP: Years ago we focused on figuring the best path for diamond sourcing. We always wanted to be [both] best in class and mindful of who and how we were sourcing stones. This led to discovering recycled diamonds, which are diamonds that have been reclaimed from jewelry, sometimes stones are used as is, other times they're recut and repolished, but recycled diamonds refers to diamonds in a second or third life. That notion was wildly exciting to us.

Catbird's commitment to recycled diamonds reflects both environmental consciousness and Plessner's personal penchant for treasure hunting and respect for history. "About 95% of all Catbird's diamonds are recycled," she shares. "Even though you would have no idea our diamonds have a backstory by looking at them, I love that they each carry a unique history."

The Creative Process

Neither Plessner nor Vardi trained as jewelers, summiting the lofty notion of design, instead, from an emotional perspective. "We approached our design process with: What do we want jewelry to feel like? And what do we want to feel like when we're wearing jewelry?"

This led to poetic schematics for early jeweler partners and Plessner and Vardi stretching the usual processes of expert jewelers as they aimed to accomplish creating designs in which the "diamonds felt like drops of dew, like a gossamer spider web or for pieces to shimmer as they might when driving through a car wash."

Leigh’s Life in Motion

LLW: What are you currently obsessed with?

LBP: I always have the same obsessions and have since I was tiny…One obsession has always been reading…I went to one of my favorite secondhand bookstores this past weekend and left a bunch of titles behind. I've been obsessed all week with why I didn’t buy those books.

Also, I love secondhand vintage shopping and antiquing - searching for treasures.

Today, Plessner balances her creative leadership with motherhood, starting each day by taking daughter Bluebell to school via subway. Her morning ritual includes a macchiato and reading at Fortunatos3, her favorite Italian bakery followed by a walk to the Catbird office. "My walk is a really important part of my morning routine, I always say to Bluebell, for me, walking is like 'sweeping out the inside of my brain.'"

Her personal style reflects Catbird's aesthetic: "I really love diamonds, and the combination of diamonds and pearls. Big diamonds are not as exciting to me as a lot of little starry diamonds altogether. I like jewelry that has motion and movement to it."

Drawing inspiration from antique jewelry, classic films like "Holiday" with Katharine Hepburn, and contemporary works like 2012’s "Anna Karenina," Plessner continues to fuel Catbird’s unique ability to craft and market pieces that feel both natural and easy to wear and are special, romantic, slightly different and daring.

From a 225-square-foot store to a well-established jewelry operation, Catbird's story is one of intuition, authenticity, and the quiet power of pieces - really wearable art - that help you become more yourself.

LLW: Take us on one of your NYC walking routes…

LBP: To traverse my neighborhood, I get an iced espresso with a tiny drop of half and half from Lella Alimentari, walk to the Northside for a visit at Stella Dallas Living, Le Grand Strip, Northside Pharmacy and Junk, stopping along the way at dollar stores for rhinestone stickers and hair clippies and on the way home at Emily’s for fennel taralli and Vichy Catalan and Fortunato’s for marzipan. I’m like a cat, gathering small offerings along the way to leave at the feet of my family when I return home.

…I keep a list of people and subjects to look for in every used book store just in case - Colette, Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Bowen, Nabokov, Rumer Godden, Capote, Mitford, Cocteau, Joseph Cornell, Frank O'Hara, children's books, seashells, roses, pearls, jewelry, lace, ballet, film, etc.

Leigh and her design partners are supremely good at delivering romance and delight, a sweet surprise in today’s valley of, mostly, subpar retail experiences American cities tend to offer up consumers. Ahead of this article, I visited Catbird San Francisco and, found myself heartily enjoying the experience. As though Leigh were touring me through the space as she would on one of her neighborhood walks.

Catbird is museum-like with exhibition-type design placards educating me on the sapphire treasures from Jennie Kwon (my favorite is her Painter’s Ring in Blue or Pink Sapphires) and roped pearl bows by Kara Yoo (specifically the Margot Mauve Necklace). I find myself impressed with Catbird’s collaboration with The Summer I Turned Pretty and the products’ approachable price points and timelessness. I’ve become smitten with anything designed by Laurie Fleming (delectable gold pieces from her Secret Garden collection ie. Dewy Diamond Rose ring). This place feels at home in San Francisco, yet I’m leaving with a dusting of New York City magic.

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Marie Antoinette: The Final Queen of France

First there was Maria Antonia

Born Maria Antonia on 2 November 1755 in Vienna, Austria at the Hofburg Palace she was the 15th1 child and youngest daughter of Maria Theresa and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. You certainly know her as Marie Antoinette (her Frenchified name), wife to Louis XVI and the final Queen of France who, in the end, lost her head at the Place de la Concorde. While all of this is true, Marie Antoinette, just as every human, was more than her beginning and demise. 

Note: Although she was born Maria Antonia, we will refer to our main character as Marie Antoinette from here onward.

In 1756, one year after Marie Antoinette’s birth, the beginning of the Seven Years’ War2, and a minute after the Diplomatic Revolution3, her mum, Maria Theresa, brokered a deal with Louis XV of France that would ideally unite two European strongholds against the goals and ambitions of Prussia and Great Britain. There was to be a royal wedding - in a decade or so…

The Austrian Archduchess who would eventually become Queen of France was one in a long line of Habsburgs of her generation (child number 15!) and given so was very much a royal afterthought, in terms of her education. MA’s early life was largely one of familial happiness and, given what we know about the Austrian Imperial family and their lifestyle in Vienna in the 1700s, we must assumer life was pretty lush - who wouldn’t want to grow up at Schönbrunn?

Although her early years were filled with large, colorful family memories, as the youngest daughter and second to youngest child of her family her education fell by the wayside. At age 10 her tutors reported a complete lack of competency in writing and conversing in German or any other language, the singular bright spot in their seemingly hopeless pupil’s skillset? Her gift for and keen appreciation of music - she was also apparently a wonderful, graceful dancer.

Did you know? When she was 7, MA met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (yes, just the one you’re thinking) when he came to play for her parents at the palace, she and Mozart were the same age. MA was taught by Christoph Willibald Gluck, a German composer highly revered by Mozart and his contemporaries. While Marie Antoinette and Mozart were destined for very different lives they both, ultimately, met their maker all too early and tragically - causing one to pause and consider what conversation may have transpired during their fateful meeting in Vienna.

In 1768 at the age of 13, our girl became officially engaged to Louis the Dauphin4 of France. That same year Mathieu-Jacques de Vermond, an official tutor hired by Louis XV, was dispatched from France to Vienna to school the young fiancée - aka both France and Austria were eager to spackle the Queen-to-be’s educational gaps as quickly as possible and, ideally, before she arrived in Versailles. 

After a year of lessons, in every subject, language and social grace deemed necessary for her future role as Queen, plus a painful phase of corrective braces5, Marie Antoinette married Louis-Auguste, Dauphin of France at the age of 14 at Versailles (I have a hangover imagine the raucous and sugary reception that followed). Of their early marriage years, we need to note here that MA and Louis didn’t quite, how to I word this, click? TLDR; it took seven years to consummate their marriage. 

Aside from their marriage bed fengshui being completely in the can, in 1774 Louis ascended the throne as King of France, upon the death of his grandfather, Louis XV, making Marie Antoinette, officially Queen.

With their new titles and as their marriage and relationship matured, MA and Louis brought 4 children into this world, 3 of which survived infancy. Despite delivering on the anxiously awaited heir to the throne of France, Marie and Louis’ growing family and increasingly positive partnership was marred by the shifting economic and social upheaval sweeping through France (and much of Europe and her colonies).

Bringing up Marie

During these difficult, transitional years Marie Antoinette literally grew up. Remember she married Louis when she was only 14 years old - a teenager, who wouldn’t legally be able to drive in the 21st century6. She was growing up, getting married, trying to fit in on the European stage of politics, hoping to get knocked up sans the physical relationship with her husband which getting knocked up required, attempting to jive with her new Austrian-hating-in-laws - all while preening to every and any French citizen in the hope of becoming beloved. Can you imagine the stress? What were you doing between the ages of 14 - 19? Producing the heir to a centuries old dynasty? Trying to please your Empress mother? Let me guess, your teenage bingo card was more likely stocked with, ‘swipe booze from parents’, ‘study for SAT’, ‘get asked to prom’, ‘acquire Ugg boots’ etc.

We have great insight into the world of Marie Antoinette during her early years of marriage and Queen-hood as she often corresponded with her mother, Maria Theresa, who consistently kept tabs on her to ensure Austria’s strategic alliance with France was destined for greener pastures. Sadly, in 1780 Maria Theresa departed this world for the next, anointing Marie Antoinette’s brother, Joseph, to Holy Roman Emperor.

While Marie Antoinette fulfilled her duty bringing forth an heir, life at court and her popularity amongst the aristocrats and people of France suffered. A war in the Americas to assert dominance over Britain, a promotion of her court favorite, the Duchesse de Polignac7, to Governess of her children and a rumored8 affair with Swedish Count Axel von Fersen all, unfortunately, sifter together fatefully to tank Marie Antoinette’s standing in the eyes of the aristocratic class while also drawing her out as a target for political and economic pamphlets and outspoken French citizens seeking social reform. She was the scapegoat, everyone, of all backgrounds, needed.

Diamonds are not a Queen’s Best Friend

The clincher in her waning reputation was the Affair of the Necklace. Aptly named for an awful circumstance, which made Marie truly look a-fool, surrounding a diamond necklace. Namely, one larger than life diamond necklace worth over US$15mm today. In short, a prince of the Church, Cardinal de Rohan9, was tricked into commissioning a jaw dropping-ly lavish diamond necklace for Marie Antoinette, by a known thief called Jeanne de la Motte. Jeanne feigned the impression of the Queen and seduced the Cardinal, borrowing money from him and eventually, asking him to purchase a necklace, on her behalf, fashioned by jewelers Charles Auguste Boehmer and Paul Bassenge. The particular necklace Jeanne was after? The big daddy of diamond commissions, a necklace originally ordered by Louis XV for his mistress, Madame du Barry (because Louis XV has passed away before gifting the necklace to his mistress it sat orphaned and the jewelers in difficult financial straits). Jeanne had her eye on the piece, and through intrigue, disguises and forged letters and signatures she and her comrades duped Cardinal de Rohan into purchasing it, on payment plan, while she posed as Queen Marie Antoinette. In 1785 all events came to a head when jewelers, Boehmer and Bassenge paid a visit to the actual Queen of France to beg for payment of the necklace in full. As you might imagine, Marie Antoinette was displeased and, in a fury, confronted the Cardinal with Louis XVI by her side leading to their order of the Cardinal’s arrest. Following an investigation, the tale broke to the people of France and the Cardinal was stripped of his office and title and exiled to the abbey at La Chaise-Dieu in the South of France (ironically he would be acquitted of all legal charges and wrongdoing in the Affair and end up outliving both Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette).

In the wake of the Affair of the Necklace, things got worse for our girl. Political tensions swam in increased friction as Louis XVI was alienated by advisors and turned, more frequently to his wife for advise, who, despite having useful ideas and making a genuine show of support for the changes being implemented in France’s Finance Council, found it was an uphill battle incapable of winning: A country recovering from frequent expensive and long wars led by a royal family known for their excessive generational spending and with aristocratic and wealthy classes living happily without proper taxation? The state was one of disaster.

As this economic horror continued the Dauphin, eldest son to Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, fell ill from, and would eventually die of, tuberculosis an event that, given the social (ie. historic bread shortage) and economic strife budding in every corner of France, went almost unnoticed by the people (poor lil Dauphin).

In 1789 the Bastille was stormed and Versailles imploded as the revolutionary Third Estate declared itself France’s National Assembly and a new government began to wade through Paris. From this year onward, Marie Antoinette and her family underwent a slow, painful, demise until October 1793 and her inevitable execution by guillotining - reading back through the details of these almost four years her execution was written on the wall, impossible to outrun, properly inevitable.

The Queen’s Final Four Years

Most people think Marie Antoinette shopped, designed clothes and wore skyscraper wigs while drinking champagne. Some of this is true, because after all she lived in France during the 18th century and had almost resources, however most of her life was spent preparing to be a wife and mother and understanding how to support her husband, the future King of France. Anything outside of these roles, was extracurricular.

The thing about Marie Antoinette is that she was never trained to be the strategic leader, diplomat and humanist other European queens or female leaders may have. Her mother Maria Theresa was an outstanding and exceptional leader who defied gender norms and legalities of the early 1700s, but she pushed the limits of what she was trained and brought up to do - Maria Theresa re-wrote her job description. On the other hand, Marie Antoinette accepted her role as wife and heir-producing-Queen, as many royal or aristocratic women did in the 18th century, she did not need to do more because she fulfilled all that was asked of her, and when she began attempting to do so, it was simply too late to make a difference.

If we consider her role as wife and mother: Is it nothing to have brought 4 children into this world and secured the legacy of the House of the Bourbons? Is it nothing to have been married at age 14, had a difficult time finding common ground with your husband but, nonetheless, have made it work because the good of the realm, literally, depended on it?

During her 16 year marriage to Louis XVI Marie Antoinette was a critical supporter of the King, providing him confidence, a family escape and in the last decade of his life, political and social advise. She was always there for Louis XVI, which is impressive given the highest highs and lowest of lows they experienced together.

In terms of Marie Antoinette’s achievements, I urge you to dig mainly into what she achieved during the beginning of the Revolution, in the years before her execution. When their royal bubble burst, officially in 1789, she did not lay down and crumble, rather she stood beside her husband and fought, making alliances, appointing new political leaders, adapting their lifestyle and marketing her commitment to motherhood and family - but it was all in vain. None of it mattered, regardless of how good or fair she tried to be, Marie Antoinette was always going to face Madame la Guillotine.

Looking Beyond History’s Headlines

Contrary to general belief, there is no proof Marie Antoinette uttered the phrase, “Let them eat cake” when referring to her starving French subjects’ continued pleas for bread and sustenance. 

Before you posit that Marie Antoinette should have had a more strategic publicist, we have to consider her in context and as a human. We know, from centuries of records, letters and depictions of royal women, particularly in Europe, they were raised for one role, to marry, produce heirs and depict the ideal of a pious, loyal and serene wife and woman. In most cases, once royal women produced children, mostly importantly male heirs, they sort of got a free pass to sit back and relax.

It is interesting to consider the legacy historical figures and celebrities leave behind. I recently watched the latest episodes of Netflix’s The Crown, which overviews the final weeks of Princess Diana of Wales’ life. It is very well done, dramatic and almost feels like an account of reality. However the fact remains that we are watching a dramatized assumption, informed by fact, of her last weeks walking this Earth. At the end of the day we don’t know what happened, even in the life of a highly photographed contemporary celebrity or public figure - unless we knew them. In the case of historical figures, we have less fact and documentation to go on which means we all begin projecting our thoughts, wants and imaginings on these figures, admittedly, it’s difficult not to do so. When studying historical figures, we need to consider them in context, as best as we can, and in my experience studying history, the most interesting findings and realizations about humanity and society are always had when learning about what was happening around a historical figure to try and understand why/where/how they came to be them. In this case, we need to dig out Marie Antoinette’s world, why she was in France, how she came to be the Queen of France, how she was raised, when she was raised, what was happening politically and economically before, during and after her life. All of this lends critical color to the study of 18th century celebs.

Final Thoughts

Marie Antoinette’s story is extremely complex, with a variety of dimensions we cannot cover in this Brief History. What I hope you glean from this read is, an understanding that we will never fully know what transpired in the past but the realization that we can empathize with the plight of humans who came before us. We, as humans, can relate to making irrational decisions in the wake of anger or suffering, taking the easier road when there appears to be no negative ramifications to such and blaming the bad on someone or something to help us sleep more soundly at night. In the end, we can all relate to this: Humans want something to believe in, something or someone to ease the pain of the human experience.

21st & 18th Recommends

Read: Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund

An intriguing format combining Marie Antoinette’s letters, fact and a sprinkling of fiction magic, this is a great novel for thinking about Marie Antoinette’s day to day and considering how she may have felt marrying the prince of her native land’s fiercest enemy  - at just 14. Naslund’s novel plates themes many of us can relate to today: self consciousness, pleasing your controlling and high achieving parent, the struggle of partnership both courtly and friendly and the belief that your actions are in the effort of a higher power or being. 

Visit: Library of Congress

For excellent resources on Marie Antoinette, the French Revolution and its key players. I recommend taking advantage of the digital catalog at the Library of Congress, it’s free and boasts well cited source material for reading and research - just the place to get your history kicks.

Watch: Marie Antoinette, PBS, Television series

Watch with the understanding that this show is meant to be entertaining, it is not the arbiter of absolute truth. It is very engaging - beware it portrays a very immature side to MA. Costumes are excellent, however. 

Watch: Marie Antoinette, Film by Sofia Coppola, 2006

Have you seen this masterpiece by Sofia Coppola? It’s completely visually seductive - TLC for your creative soul. Also the soundtrack is a perfect combination of moody, misunderstood and feminine. I will always adore this film and use the still image of Rose Byrne biting into dessert as my Macbook screensaver.

Marie Antoinette’s story is extremely complex, with a variety of dimensions that we are not going to fully cover on Thanksgiving Eve. What I hope you glean from this read is, an understanding that we will never fully know what transpired in the past but the realization that we can empathize with the plight of humans that came before us. We, as humans, can relate to making irrational decisions in the wake of anger or suffering, taking the easier road when there appears to be no negative ramifications to such and blaming the bad on someone or something to help us sleep more soundly at night. In the end, we can mostly relate to the fact that humans are all just looking for something to believe in, something or someone to ease the pain of the human experience.

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Meet Justina Barrett & the Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Justina Barrett has been at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania for three years, serving as the Chief Learning and Engagement Officer. Before joining HSP, she had a 25-year career in museums, including 16 years at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where she worked in education, focusing on the American Art collection and managing two historic houses, Mount Pleasant and Cedar Grove, on behalf of the city.

“At Mount Pleasant and Cedar Grove, my job was to coordinate across departments—curatorial, security, conservation, visitor services, marketing—and develop programming. I did a number of big restoration projects and reinterpretations," Barrett explains. "We did programs that wouldn't be allowed in the art museum, like bringing sheep out for a shearing demonstration that was historically accurate.”

Barrett holds a master's degree from the University of Delaware in a program with Winterthur Museum in Early American material culture.

To start, what is the difference between a museum and a historical society?

There are historical societies, New York Historical1 and Maryland Center for History and Culture2 come to mind, where the weight is on their museum side. [In short] some organizations such as these have a front-facing venue for displays and exhibitions. In those organizations, the focus is bringing people through the doors and hosting conversations and engagement around objects.

Our energy at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania is really in our reading room. With emphasis on research. We equip research scholars and students - not only tweed jacket wearing scholars. In our 200 years, we’ve always had a broad view of who should be a part of history.

How do people use HSP’s reading room and collections today?

The Society's core function as an archive is to equip people to find their histories. Whether that's personal genealogy—a huge chunk of our audience is here to do genealogy because we have records no other organization has—or to find their neighborhood history. [We also often welcome] journalists, students and professors or artists seeking inspiration.

Set the stage for our Readers: What do HSP’s collections look like? And how many objects in your collection?

22 million paper objects. Books, manuscripts, graphic papers and notes…

How old is the Historical Society of Pennsylvania? How far back do your collections date?

We’re 200 years old - HSP was founded in 1824.

The strength of our collection is in colonial Pennsylvania, but we do have objects that date back to 15th century Europe. We have a Michelangelo letter somewhere…

How did HSP come to be?

Du Ponceau3 is one of our founders... he was also a member at the American Philosophical Society, which is a learned society, also founded by Ben Franklin4. However DuPonceau wanted to start a historical society here in Philadelphia when Lafayette5 came back for his triumphal tour in 1824.

And from then to now, how does your team think about your role in activating Pennsylvania’s ever growing historical and social record?

In a way, we're setting the table in a way. We have to make sure the message [whatever it may be] is out there to be found by the right person. Part of my job is to know that you can find various records here– certainly records of 18th century Philadelphia, but also the history of 20th century Philadelphia and its inhabitants, political records and cartoons or stories of immigration.

And within [those] objects and records are the greater stories. Looking at the object, reading about it in the right way– that’s what we help people to do.

In 200 years, one must collect some unreal objects. What are some of the juicy highlights in HSP’s collection

In the 19th century, autograph collecting became popular. The Gratz6 family was one of them, Ferdinand Dreer7 was another. They wanted one of everything—Marie Antoinette's8 signature is over here.

Take John Fanning Watson's9 manuscript notes from the 1820s…He was collecting stories. These are his notes, and what will eventually go into his book [the Annals of Philadelphia]. We can see him “scrapbooking,” collecting his evidences, his footnotes. Watson recorded information about the Department of Foreign Affairs in the 1780s, noting that important historical figures like James Madison10, Robert Morris11, Alexander Hamilton12, Marquis de Lafayette and Count Rochambeau13 all visited a small three-story brick house where the department was located.

Another highlight: Charles Willson Peale's14 museum accession book. Peale was a painter, a soldier during the Revolutionary War, and then created a museum in Philadelphia. This is his actual list of objects he was collecting: 'Something should never be postponed till tomorrow'—museum words to live by.

Do you have a favorite piece in the collection? If you had to choose.

It’s hard to choose… I think the best object is William Still's15 journal of the Underground Railroad. It is the handwritten journal, recording person by person: 'arrived this day, so-and-so now known as so-and-so, arrived from such and such a place.’ [The journal also includes a] physical description of each person, whom they left behind, where they were going, where the Vigilant Committee16 is giving them money to go, and sometimes a story of why they left.

The Society is working to tell more inclusive historical stories, including partnering with Philadelphia City Hall to help their volunteer guides present more diverse perspectives on the city's history.

At the beginning, we were collecting history to equip us to be better citizens – it's in our charter. It's not antiquarian or important because Ben Franklin touched it. [We’re collecting history] so we can understand who came before us—this is history with a purpose for the future so we can be better citizens.

Now, for a 21st & 18th classic: What are you currently obsessed with?

Everybody's thinking about 2026 and the celebrations marking America's 250th anniversary.

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is planning exhibits for 2025 focused on the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, founded in 1775. Right there at the beginning of the Revolution, people were organizing around anti-slavery [and that’s an important part of the story to tell].

I’m also excited about the American Negro Historical Society collection we acquired in the 1930s from Leon Gardiner17. It is a collection that documents the activities of Philadelphia's Black Metropolis.

Justina went on to show us broadside advertisements for fundraising events organized by Black communities to support wounded colored soldiers during the Civil War—parallel to similar events held by white communities. In addition to flyers and advertisements for community events and fundraisers put on by the Women’s Center of Philadelphia in the 1970s.

Learn more about Philadelphia’s Black Metropolis in this engaging video from the HSP.

I love studying history. Why? Because it equips me with tools to understand humans and our social tendencies but also because it provides perspective when life becomes overwhelming and we need an example to learn from or find inspiration in.

As we read about, watch and listen to history, don’t forget: these stories and facts are preserved because of hardworking and passionate people, like Justina, and organizations such as the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. People who have worked, as unknowing links, across centuries to weave our human story. Without them how could we care about or learn from the past? How would you know who Alexander Hamilton was? Or why Ben Franklin was a vegetarian who slept with his bedroom window open? And how would you learn about Philadelphia’s Black Metropolis?

We all play a role in the cycle of life and I’m here to celebrate the critical social and cultural role Justina and her colleagues at HSP are actively playing each day. Thank you Justina and HSP — our tricorn hats go off to you.

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The addition of a collar to a coat, shirt or dress, immediately elevates the wearer. Aesthetically, a collar ignites an alchemy of suave as one slips on a collared shirt or smoothes the lapels of a brass button-ed and fold collar-ed blazer. Today, collars hoist one’s sartorial status by being an omnipresent ‘what if’. What if I put on a tie? What if I button this all the way up? What if I pop this collar and wear it standing? Collars present opportunity and to our jaded 2025 eyes that might mean fancy abundance, and fanciness usually impresses us magpie-like humans.

Here on 21st & 18th, we are in the business of asking questions, and as I have been pondering the role collars play in fashion, my own closet and how they were melded into looks during this year’s Met Gala (theme: Superfine: Tailoring Black Style1), I have been asking myself: How did collars come to be? Was there a moment they were invented? Has there always been a dominant way of wearing a collar (ie. the polo shirt in 2025)?

As always my curiosity led to my favorite century (18 c.!) and our prompt for this week’s brain dump: How did men wear collars in 1700s Europe?

Until about 1750, the most fashionable men of European society preferred collarless pieces.

Interestingly, in some of the most powerful and economically relevant countries of the period, like France and England, men who were dressing with style actually went decades without wearing collars. Specifically, the wardrobe of commerce, court and social ritual were ruled by the collarless coat, waistcoat and a cravat frilled shirt.

Even more interesting, the fold collar, like one might see on a chore coat today, was used only on a robe or lounge coat. How strange is that? The contemporary collar as we know it, which feels formal to 21st century Westerners, was worn only as nightwear from about 1700 - 1750 -- as pajamas! Behind closed doors only! How odd! See an example below of what I mean.

In addition to these house robes with fold collars, banyans, or loose fitting kimono-like garments made from linen or silk and designed to be worn alone in the home, often featured stand collars, which would later become popular in the second half of the century. See an exquisite example below of a banyan made in about 1730.

My hypothesis here is that collars and ruffs were so overdone and associated with the 15th & 16th century pious, hard-nosed individuals such as religious reformers, church leaders and intense Dutch nobles and leaders (you know the ones who appear like goblins hanging in their portrait frames2) that fashionable people were collar fatigued and could only stomach them while at home relaxing in their undergarments.

By 1760, collarless jackets remained popular but in came the stand collar. In England we also begin to see a revival of military tailoring, double breasted jackets and large and high fold collars meant to be stood up in inclement weather or low temperatures.

The early 1760s, particularly in England, brought about a variety of collars in the menswear universe. Stand collars, collarless jackets and military attire or military inspired tailoring were all popular and worn by different types of men. Is this when we begin to see the rise of the British dandy? (God knows France was eons ahead of the Brits in male fashion expression) Men had a variety of choice and colors and patterns were used to taste - sort of like salting your food. Perhaps British men were inspired by their native country’s colonizing and exposure to various types of people and cultures as well as the wars that were ensuing because of such?

While it makes me giddy to note that men seemed to be enjoying fashion during this time in Europe, let us not forget black buckle shoes, white stockings3 and tricorn hats were as ubiquitous to any daily look as an iPhone is today.

1770 - 1780, the decade menswear becomes divided. Choose your fighter: Flamboyant tall stand collars or strong, thick fold collars.

Now begins a very real divide in menswear setting apart the men concerned with opulence and frippery from those who are serious, the likes of scholars, statesmen, military leaders, great men of business. This seriousness and quieting of menswear styles carries through to today.

See below for an example of our staid and respectable late 18th century gentleman. Shocker: he’s English.

Whereas below, we have a very continental man, the French dandy. Take note of his higher heels, brightly colored and sumptuously trimmed waistcoat. The color combination of his attire is more feminine, like a spring time parade of pastries.

Both men wear powdered wigs and possess social status and an assumed amount of wealth and power, though they’re expressing them in the most different of ways. Both men likely mix in society. One is a peacock, the other a hawk. Which do you find more appealing?

The last 20 years of the decade solidify fold collars as the collar of choice as well as bring another enduring menswear staple: navy blue outerwear.

At the end of the 18th century the French Revolution was underway in Paris, here in the USA our founding fathers were toiling to weave together a modern yet classical democracy while England was in recovery mode post war with America and France but also experienced the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution.

In France, England and America, there is serious economic and political change afoot, and from a fashion perspective most men chose to appear serious and somber in their dress, meeting the moment in Western history. Navy blue and prominent collars become the expected day to day dress of men of varying ranks and economic backgrounds.

Unless, you happen to be part of the upper classes hanging on to a flagging way of life...We know how this gentleman’s story likely ends. Spoiler: He’s French.

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The other morning my husband sent me an Opinion article from the New York Times: An Age of Extinction is Coming. Here’s how to Survive.

I put off reading it until an hour or two after he had shared the link. I was a bit annoyed at him and busy catching up on work after a weekend traveling, however I finally acquiesced and clicked the link to one of Ross Douthat’s recent pieces, mostly because I wanted to have some quippy notes for a potential discussion at the dinner table but also because I have been searching for queues from the universe, reminders of why I am doing what I am doing day over day.

The article is sort of scary, a perspective on how the next layer of the digital age is going to obliterate much of the social, cultural, emotional and human parts of our existence — unless, we do something about it and hold, tightly, to building in-person connections, reading, supporting the arts, cooking together with our friends and families and making eye contact with neighbors when stepping onto the sidewalk.

Douthat’s piece is thought provoking, which means it’s worth your while. It’s also a reminder to lean into cultivating your particular interests, no matter how small or odd they may be. Are you obsessed with learning to play an instrument? Do you really want to travel to Argentina? Have the complete works of Jane Austen been haunting you for two decades? No matter the case, follow the breadcrumbs, read the book, listen to a podcast on a topic you love. Look for the tip of the iceberg and take it one step at a time thereafter. Those small obsessions are what stoke the You in you, and they only continue to exist if you fan their flame.

I’ll start: 19th century women’s fashion in America & England.

1824 | The Romantic

• Always has a novel nearby

• Obsessed with embellishments like trims, feathers, crystals etc and is dressed either in silk or linen

• Prefers flat shoes with a buckle

In the Western world, the 1820s saw the exit of the Empire style of dress and a renewed commitment to The Romantic Movement influenced by Gothic literature and the rise of neoclassical lines and architecture. Women’s dress in the 1820s was highly individual emphasizing imagination, emotion and a fascination with the past.

Note this woman’s elongated shoulders and bulbous sleeves which taper, quickly at the bicep and elbow. Her waistline is higher and perfectly small and round, she’s almost like an advertisement for a doll or cake topper.

Embellishment, by way of trim, ribbon and, likely, hand embroidery is used liberally in a variety of directions, creating a geometrical treat for the eye.

The Romantic lady wears an A-line skirt hemmed just below the ankles for easy walking around the house and town. Her figure is largely covered, yet self expression is obvious.

1835 | The Ringleader

• Bossy — in a good way

• Steals pieces from her husband’s closet

• Prefers leather accessories over feminine bits ie. fans, silk pelisses, lace parasols

Our 1835 dress is defined by flouncing accessories, such as the jaunty hat atop our model’s head and the leg-of-mutton sleeve, a popular sleeve characterized by its fullness around the bicep or elbow area and being fitted at the wrist. Leg-of-mutton sleeves were worn by both men and women, first in the 16th century and later, again, in the 19th. Interestingly, when they became popular again in the 1800s, they were worn by women only as men’s fashion had progressed to being quite fitted and more somber than in earlier centuries. This type of sleeve is quite comfortable, allowing for movement of the shoulder and flexing of the arm while the tapers wrist keeps fabric away from your hands, for movement, hence the style of choice while being active.

Note, the V shaped waistline, which is particularly pronounced at the low back (seen on the woman seated on her horse riding away from the scene), and how it, combined with the downturned tulip shaped skirt, are incredibly flattering to the female form.

Her tall hat and elongated shoes add height and length to an otherwise squat and potentially widening look. Also note, the women’s skirts are slightly bustled at her left leg and thigh - she’s ready to ride, walk and explore in style.

1860 | The Belle of the Ball

• Has long eyelashes and a full mouth to match

• Dancing queen who blindsides you with her wit when you’re least expecting it

• Prefers to make an entrance via double doors

This fashion plate from 1860 freezes women’s dress just one year before the American Civil War (1861 - 1865) kicks off fighting at Fort Sumter in South Carolina on 12 April 1861. The fashion of this time is characterized by its massive skirts, which are seen to be balanced, most of the time, by large bell shaped sleeves.

Collars were popular at this time, which is fascinating considering women were returning to historically feminine motifs from the 18th century in wearing large skirts, corsets aimed at emphasizing a slender waist and varied flounces and frills. To me, the collar appears to be the only modern addition to women’s dress in 1860. It’s like they were fooling onlookers, hinting at femininity and a return to traditionalism yet the collar and buttons used to close and decorate bodices during this year are distinctly stolen from the Western male wardrobe. This woman knows her own worth and capability.

In England at this time, Victorian fashion reigns with Queen Victoria as sovereign from 1837 - 1901. The photograph below pictures Queen Victoria, alongside her husband Prince Albert, in a very similar style. Note, the slightly different shape of her dress sleeves. Also interesting is the intense middle part with low styled hair, which appears to have been the hairstyle of choice by many women of this year.

Curiously: This photograph was taken one year before Prince Albert’s unexpected death in 1861.

1891 | Turn of the Century Exploreress

• Highly educated & doesn’t let you forget it

• Appreciates looking nice but not a try-hard

• Annoying company for playing parlor games on account of being a know-it-all

Only 31 years later, we see a major shrink in skirt size and a drop in the waist, however there remains an emphasis on tailoring, borrowing even further from menswear.

Embellishment is subtle, but still utilized as a way of expressing personal style and wealth. It also varies in placement on the bodice and skirt, which is a reminder that separates, as we might characterize suiting today, was popular with women of the late 1800s.

While the waist has dropped to top of her hips, her skirt gains volume in the back with, what appears, to be a bustle or a other underpinnings meant to give the lady’s rear it just-do.

At the turn of the century and with women’s roles in society poised to shift massively in the early 1900s after WWI and, later, II, it’s no surprise our woman of 1891 is pictured with useful accessories: an umbrella that doubles as a walking stick, a hat, stylish yet useful with a wider brim and a monocular, for exploring and seeing what one needs while out in the world. She doesn’t know what’s on the horizon but is ready and able to meet it when it rears its head.

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Recommended reading for those interested in historic dress of the 1800s…

• Jane Austen’s Wardrobe by Hilary Davidson

• Dress in the Age of Jane Austen: Regency Fashion by Hilary Davidson

• Fashion by Contini

• FIT NYC’s Fashion History Timeline (Navigate to ‘Time Period’ in the menu bar and be on your way to any period to which you feel called)

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ART

She hangs, made immortal by Sir Joshua Reynolds1, in the wood paneled, windowless portrait gallery of the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens - and once you’ve seen her, she’s unforgettable.

If you are keen to know more about the Huntington, one of the foremost scholarly institutions in the United States and their rare and expansive collections of books, manuscripts, art and flora, I suggest you read 21st & 18th’s interview with Dr. Vanessa Wilkie, the William A. Moffitt Senior Curator of Medieval Manuscripts in British history and the Head of Library Curatorial.

The year is 1777 and Diana Sackville is a soon-to-be Viscountess, engaged to John Crosbie, Viscount Crosbie and the heir to the Earl of Glandore, an Anglo-Irish aristocrat born in Ireland and educated at Trinity College Dublin.

Our main gal, Diana, was 21 years of age in 1777, having been born on July 8, 1756 the eldest daughter of five children by Major General, George Germain, Viscount Sackville2 and his wife Diana Sambroke3. To understand Diana, let’s dig into her parents a bit because whose parents haven’t contributed to their children’s mental health issues.

First, her father, Lord Sackville: A younger son of the Duke of Dorset, which meant as a high placed younger son he had all the education, connections and breeding of his elder brother, the heir to his father’s dukedom, but he was not predestined to inherit. As in most cases of younger sons, he had to make his own way to a point and joined the military to do so. Her father, born simply Lord George Sackville, was bestowed the title of 1st Viscount Sackville in 1782 following a winding and shall we say interesting career in the British Army. We don’t have time to dive deep into Lord Sackville’s military exploits but the highlights go something like this: He partook in a number of battles ie. first being the War of Austrian Succession in 1740, he began rising through the ranks but his success was momentarily dampened when he was demanded to stand trial via court martial for failing to follow orders in the Battle of Minden in 1759 the result was Lord Sackville was found guilty, his military titles were stripped and he was legally declared "unfit to serve His Majesty in any military Capacity whatever" whoa, somehow upon the ascension of King George III to the British throne in 1760 he slowly rehabilitated his military and political career and in 1765 he was reinstated in his role within the Privy Council4 , in 1769 Lord Sackville became Lord George Germain upon the death of a wealthy relative from whom he inherited an estate and loads of money what luck!, in 1775 the guy became Secretary of State and in 1776 he gets involved with the American skirmish in the War of Independence.

Let us stop here as that brings us to 1777.

So our main girl Diana, has a father who is part younger son of a duke, part court martial-ed fool and part Secretary of State with a load of money/the King of England’s ear - very interesting.

Sadly in terms of Diana’s mother, Diana Sambrooke, we know nothing save for the year she was born, 1732, date she was married, September 3, 1754, the children she gave birth to, the names of her parents, John Sambrooke and Elizabeth Forester and the date she died, January 15, 1778. Super depressing, I know.

Diana, our Diana, herself was a bit of a conundrum. There are two recorded accounts of Diana as a young 20-something, from other ladies of her class, on one hand she was noted as being, “conceited and disagreeable, a sort of pattern Miss who lectured us all upon propriety." Alternatively, another lady described her as, “a possédée5 that makes herself perfectly easy wherever she goes, and has so very little doubt of not being welcome everywhere, that she makes no scruple of inviting herself." Funny, funny

Let’s take a look at Diana

Reynolds has depicted Diana as he does all his aristocratic female portrait specimens: in some type of motion and amongst a lush landscape reminding the viewer of certain persons mastery over life, society and nature.

Diana is perfectly pale with rosy cheeks, she has an elongated oval head and despite her movement and placement within mother nature, who seems to be willing a storm to clear or thicken one can’t be sure overtop her head, her perfectly quaffed hair has come loose in only the most correct areas. Diana appears girlish yet on the cusp of something, and that something is womanhood. Reynolds painted this portrait in 1777 with Diana’s marriage to Viscount Crosbie taking place on November 26 of the same year.

This portrait is like the ultimate in engagement photos or a boudoir book, Reynolds and the Sackville family is basically saying, here she is, perfect yet open and exciting and enticing, take her hand and everything else, Crosbie!

My favorite part of this portrait is how Reynolds has given Diana movement, her silk gown is rustling, moving as she pulls up her skirts and moves her arms, naturally, to match her energetic stride.

I am lost in the color of her dress, which is interesting as it is effectively a neutral, but Reynolds has given her beige gown golden and ivory hues, it sparkles and the golden braids at her arms and around her waist, remind me of ancient greek goddesses, enticing and exotic, promising devout worshippers a fun and fruitful future.

Notice how expertly Reynolds gives something so simple, as the silk of a woman’s skirts, perspective. In her skirts, he’s given us depth and movement. His paint strokes have captured the sounds of silk swishing sweetly on a balmy spring day. One can hear them crumpling.

Another deftly painted bit of this portrait is Diana’s legs and feet.

As we can see she is obviously pulling the skirts of her gown upward to walk more freely and easily, however all the viewer can see of her body is her elegantly, slipper clad right foot.

Genius, Reynolds, genius!

To have shown Diana’s ankle or more of her leg would have been an absolute joke. After all, at the time she was an unmarried lady of the peerage, not some stage-going-woman-of the night.

To show us, and her soon to be husband, Viscount Crosbie, only her foot, we see a sweet, young and open woman who is vivacious. To see anymore, her portrait might lose its positive glint. It’s a fine line between blushing bride and harlot, but there you have it - I didn’t make the rules in 18th century England!

What do you think of Diana?

I look at Diana and mostly think she looks like a good time. I’d love to be her friend and know her secrets but mostly have access to wearing her gowns.

Reynolds, an expert portrait painter, particularly of women, knew how to adroitly deliver bits of information about his sitter’s personality. I have no doubt, he smirked to himself as he painted Diana’s curious smile and sparkling eyes - there is indeed some joke or secret behind them - I wonder what it was? Did Reynolds know? That we will never be able to uncover.

However we do know that after her marriage, Diana did get herself into quite a bit of trouble due to her obsession with partying and gambling which sadly added an air of frustration to her marriage as she found herself in mountains of debt for several years of her life.

In addition to her frivolous gaming obsession, she and her husband were never able to have children, at which Diana felt great anguish.

On her husband’s succession as the 2nd Earl of Glandore in 1781, Diana became the Countess of Glandore and lived out the rest of her life in Anglo-Irish society. In August of 1814, Diana died in Ireland and was buried at the seat of her husband’s family, Ardfert Abbey, in County Kerry. Because she and her husband did not produce any children, the title, Earl of Glandore became extinct upon his death the following year in 1815.

Woof, I mean…How does knowing this background on Diana and her marriage impact how you see Reynolds’ portrait of her?

For me, I’m saddened. Reynolds gave us a girl about to be in her prime on the cusp of all of it - whatever it was - and in possession of charm, energy and position. The Diana of 1777 was ready to take over society, keen to be a wife and be free to explore the roads which were set to open up upon leaving childhood and the home of her parents behind.

I suppose Diana’s 1777 self is a snapshot of perfect time when things were possible and her potential and confidence were all that mattered - not dissimilar to our Instagram profiles or wedding invitation suite: frozen moments of our lives that allude to greatness and exciting things to come.

Like Reynolds painting the legacy of his sitters and Diana of 1777, all we really have is the present. Because either the future isn’t going to be as grand as we think or, even scarier still, we might not see tomorrow. Is that too stoic a note to end on? I think it’s rather self assuring to think of this moment, this time and day as the best we’ll be - it reminds us to live and take action in a way that aligns with how we wish to be remembered.

Sir Joshua Reynolds was born in Plymouth, England on July 16, 1723 and died at age 69 in London in the winter of 1792. Reynolds is recognize chiefly by his body of portrait work done in the Grand Manner style, full length, life size or larger, paintings which utilized visual metaphors to deepen the viewer’s reception and meaning of the sitter. Reynolds admired the work of the Old Masters, whose works he came into contact with at the end of his five years spent studying art, first in London and later in Italy. Reynolds devoted his work to elevating the craft of portrait painting and is remembered around the world by his portrait snapshots of aristocrats, the social and political who’s who and intellectuals of the 18th century.

Thanks for reading - I’m curious to know what you think of Reynolds’ Diana of 1777 or if you’ve seen his work IRL. Have you been to the Huntington in Southern California? Write me in the comments below or at lauren@21stand18th.com. Cheers.

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ART

Right now, with everything happening in America and the wider world and my multiple businesses sucking at my soul (I’m a creative production & retail GTM consultant1 & operate a textile goods business2) I am feeling how the girl in Whistler’s Symphony in White looks: dejected.

At least that’s what I get from her, a dispirited energy looking to others for a boost or direction. What do you see in her?

The first time I was asked, “What is your favorite work of art?” was during AP Art History I know I was annoying during my senior year of high school in North County San Diego. We wore uniforms and our teacher used old school photo slides. It was basically Mona Lisa Smile.

Anyhow, annoying and wearing plaid or not, I answered the question with, “Nocturne in Black and Gold by James McNeill Whistler.” At the time, I liked how the painting made me feel, and how it was murky with a thousand possible perspectives. Then, a senior in high school preparing to leave California for Pennsylvania and head to college, I was on the cusp of something. A great change. I knew the coming new season would bring good and bad and the grey between, but I was looking forward to it, and this painting reminded me: our most revelatory moments come in those in-between, usually oddly grey times.

James McNeill Whistler

Born in 1834 in Lowell, Massachusetts, James Abbott Whistler was the third son of a military man cum civil engineer, Major George Washington Whistler what a name, and his second wife Anna Matilda McNeill ah there’s the McNeill. Whistler and his family moved around New England before his father moved the lot of them to St. Petersburg, Russia plot twist as he was contracted to oversee the construction of a railroad line connecting their new hometown with Moscow. Time spent studying drawing at the Imperial Academy of Science was Whistler’s first proper introduction to art. In 1848 Whistler lived briefly with his older sister and brother in-law in London but the family’s European adventures were cut short by the sudden death of his father in 1849, after which the family returned to the United States and Whistler enrolled in West Point, the well known United States Military Academy happened to be his father’s alma mater as well.

Despite reportedly shining in his creative classes, Whistler was ‘dismissed’ from West Point in 1854, and went on to a few jobs here and there in the North East and Mid Atlantic USA. Nothing really stuck but his love of and interest in drawing and as you do Whistler decided he would become and artist and packed up to move to Europe.

Where did Whistler go in Europe? Paris obviously. Consider the times, France was obsessed with Realism3 in the wake of the country’s 1848 Revolution which overthrew the re-established monarchy classic and established the Second Republic. Because of the political and social shifts that seemed a constant, there was a lot of cultural energy brewing in Paris.

In Paris, Whistler enrolled in the Ecole Imperiale et Speciale de Dessin prior to entering into the Academie Gleyre. While studying and working, he chummed it up with avant garde artists and found great inspiration in the work of Courbet4 as well as 17th century Dutch5 and Spanish masters6.

Whistler’s time in Paris came to an end in 1859 when the Salon rejected his work, At The Piano. What did Whistler do? He packed up and moved to London where the Royal Academy happily exhibited the painting. Funnily enough, the painting that would bring Whistler international acclaim, Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl, was rejected by both the Paris Salon and London’s Royal Academy.

Whistler moved from England to South America in 1866.

In the 1870s he began signing his paintings with a butterfly composed of his initials and created his Nocturne series (mentioned above). After the art critic, John Ruskin7, denounced the aforementioned series as the equivalent to “flinging a pot of paint in the public's face” in 1877, Whistler moved to Italy with a besmirched reputation and after suing Ruskin but being awarded so little money he declared bankruptcy in 1879.

1880 brought Whistler’s return to England, where he would spend the next 23 years of his life living and working and achieving great artistic acclaim. He died in 1903 in London after a long and fruitful albeit dramatic career in the arts and having been elected president to London’s Society of British Artists, Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, and the Legion d'Honneur.

Let’s dissect The White Girl

Rejected from both the Salon in Paris and by the Brits at the Royal Academy. Interesting huh? The female character represented in Symphony in White: The White Girl has an angelic glow around her, made more stark by her being in a long, white gown with long sleeves and a conservative neckline and Whistler’s painting technique which creates a hazy halo around her hair and puffed dress sleeves.

While the gal looks and is dressed like a young angel, she seems older or at least to have experienced the complexity of life. To me, she doesn’t seem to be a young and sheltered woman. I think she’s been through it.

Also note Whistler’s painting technique and use of varying shades of white, with darker colors, to create lines and form in an almost entirely white subject and backdrop. It becomes a trying optical illusion if you stare at it long enough. While I’ve got you staring, notice how the soft and gentle addition of greys and browns amid loads of shades of white creates form and movement, you can feel the girl’s elbows bend and hear the linen and silk of her dress crunch.

There is very little color in this painting. In the girl’s hand we see a white flower. What sort of flower is it? Is it blooming or wilting? Are these features even important? Famously Whistler painted this girl, who in real life was an Irish immigrant, living in London, named Joanna Hiffernan8, twice more and insisted the trio of paintings was only about understanding the abstract qualities of line and color. Perhaps there really is no meaning to the flower.

Most of the color in the painting is relegated to the foreground, the carpet and bear fur at the subject’s feet, partially hidden beneath her dress. There are additional flowers, fallen from her hand lying atop the insane bear rug.

While absurd, this skinned and upset bear resonated with me today.

Looking back at the entire painting, I’m confused. I don’t really know what I’m looking at or why. Is it for the study of and understanding of color? Did Whistler paint with abstraction in mind but Joanna’s life experience shone through anyhow? Is she sad or bored? Or both?

Now this is the moment Whistler’s work, for me, becomes genius because it often leaves the viewer with such a confusion, and the viewer then begins to reflect, whether they realize it or not, on the work before them. Such reflections are typically contorted by what we’re feeling, going through in life, people we might be viewing the work with etc etc. For me, this is the moment when Whistler’s art becomes human. Almost animated. Because it becomes a mirror.

HISTORY & FASHION honorable mentions

• HISTORY Do you follow DC’s National Gallery of Art on Instagram? If no, you should. Particularly if you like history, art and being entertained. Whoever is at the helm of their social ship is crushing it. Follow here: @ngadc

• HISTORY Looking for your next read? Historical fiction lovers should queue up Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale. Two sisters, two stories of love, values and family set in WWII France. Learn more here.

• FASHION My most complimented piece of clothing over the past year is the Luisa pleated trousers in a muted brown. They’re by Staud and currently on sale for $173 and available in sizes 0 - 16.

• FASHION Also on a lowers kick, I purchased these green and white striped Twill Trousers from Talbot’s yesterday and have already worn them twice. Don’t sleep on the stores your mother loves. $109 and available in sizes 2 - 18, as well as petite and plus size.

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First some housekeeping…

• Have you read 21st & 18th’s interview with Kiki Smith, professor and Founder of Smith College’s Historic Clothing Collection? Last autumn, I drove up to Smith College to meet Kiki and learn about her time at Smith, fascination with clothing and how she’s grown the college’s Historic Clothing Collection to thousands of items worthy of books and news coverage across the country. Navigate here to tuck in.

• At the end of March, we will be featuring an interview with Justina Barrett, Chief Learning and Engagement Officer of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

• Ensure you’re subscribed to 21st & 18th to read our weekly posts on art, history and fashion, as well as our monthly culture features. All posts are free to read and all paid monthly subscriptions directly fund travel to interview our featured guests.

Know a leader in arts and culture we should feature? Write me at lauren@21stand18th.com

How did the LBD, or little black dress, become so completely ubiquitous in contemporary fashion?

Like most cultural movements, the LBD got its start from a leader in society and business, in this case, a slight French woman who lit the social set of Europe and the USA on fire with her elegant, uncomplicated designs: Coco Chanel.

In 1926, Chanel debuted a sketch for a new dress she called “The Ford,” a tongue in cheek reference to Henry Ford’s marketing, from around that time, of his new Model T motor vehicle, Ford is noted to have said of the Model T that it is, “Available in any color…so long as its black.”

It’s interesting to consider fashion in the 1920s operated much like the industry does today, with designers responding to the happenings in politics, business and technology through the art of their clothing. What would be the equivalent in 2025? Matthieu Blazy1 sending 3 dozen models down a catwalk at Paris Fashion Week all painted orange and wearing ensembles reminiscent of the clothes favored by dictators in history? (Maybe there’s something here)

Regardless of her remarks on growing industrialization and what she meant, Chanel unleashed the need/want for women to shake up their lives by debuting a short (for the time), long-sleeved, easy to wear and re-wear little black dress

What was the general relationship with wearing black B.1926?

B.1926 (before 1926, aren’t I clever) most people wore black for one of three reasons: 1) They were poor and black clothing did not show stains as easily as a lighter colored cloth might 2) They were in service, ie. maid or servant of some sort, and their uniform dictated wearing such a color at all times while on the job 3) Someone they were closely related to recently died.

Pretty bleak, I know.

This is all to impress upon you that B.1926, black was not a desirable color to wear as it called you out socially as someone who was poor, a servant or grieving for the loss of a loved one - I don’t know about you but I’m not actively signing up for any of these circumstances.

Fun fact: Famously Queen Victoria wore black every day for the rest of her life2 after the death of her beloved husband Prince Albert in 1861. She was only age 40 and lived until 1901 (aged 81).

What is our relationship with the Little Black Dress in 2025?

Interestingly enough, as a person who really enjoys color, wearing it, looking at it and decorating with it, I wear a lot of black and neutral tones.

Do we gravitate toward wearing a black dress because it’s easy to style? Or requires little thought in our fast paced lives?

Women in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries - wealthy women that is - generally took more time to ready themselves each day and had servants, hair dressers, people to lace up things and affix their necklaces to their swan-like necks. Perhaps I’m over glamorizing it, but the truth is, after Chanel’s 1926 Ford little black dress debuted, World Wars globalization and technology booms followed, driving women into the work place, servants out of the house and the urgency for productivity and need for speed, in all things, through the roof. Women in the mid 20th century had less and less time for the getting ready ritual and oft turned to the LBD to appear polished, professional and glamorous.

The reign of the ^vintage LBD

I’ve noted many times in this newsletter that I prefer vintage clothing. I prefer the construction, silhouettes and, generally, the fit is better on my form.

Here I am pictured in my 1960 time travel photo diary in a label-less LBD, it’s a heavy silk wool blend with black beading, hand sewn in about a 5 inch wide design, around the waistline. It’s easy to wear and incredibly flattering.

Notice how the LBD is for fitting but not tight or stretched from every angle? The thick fabric doesn’t reveal anything to the eye, no unwanted lines or creases when you stand up from sitting. Plus, no easily visible stains. All in all, it’s easy. A forecastable fashion win.

This LBD features a flattering bateau neckline which I particularly like as it accentuates the collarbone. Bateau is a usually overlooked neckline today, though I suggest it as it’s flattering on so many varied forms.

I paired with diamond and emerald earrings and two watches, all mixed materials (gold, silver etc) - that’s another great bit about the LBD it’s so simple you can layer jewels and accessories of all types without appearing as busy and cheap.

A moment for my two wristwatches. Isn’t she both quirky and cool?

The shoes are 1990s Anne Klein3 black silk sling backs. Kitten heels, like an LBD, are simple and always elegant, another detail I didn’t really have to consider for too long.

My handbag is from a St. John4 x Edie Parker5 collaboration which produced two tweed Burn Bags - note the retractable lighter.

Takeaways…

• The LBD was kind of invented by Chanel. I say ‘kind of’ as I don’t feel completely comfortable giving her all the credit. She was the first popular designer to show and market a little black dress for the sake of everyday elegance, but who’s to say dress makers or it-1920s girls of their day were not whipping up short-ish black dress confections?

• The LBD was made popular as the world and women’s roles within it changed in the early to mid 20th century.

• Vintage LBD’s are better than anything on the market today.

• Bateau necklines are something that should feature in your wardrobe.

• Wearing two wristwatches is cool, different and socially acceptable.

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Last September, I woke up in Brooklyn on an otherwise lame Monday morning trying to keep my cool. I chatted with my cat, Jasper, took stock of my body to figure out whether or not I was dehydrated (which I always am) and began to get ready for the day. I remember that day I was dressing off of an equation because I really needed my clothes to work for me. It went something like this:

My trusty 329A Jeans in ‘67 Patina by Imperfects + a blue and white striped Bonne Graine button up shirt by Maison Labiche + a pair of white tube socks (Hanes) + my well worn G.H. Bass Weejuns + an Iconic Doeskin Two Button Blazer by Polo Ralph Lauren + a red cashmere sweater I stole from my mother’s closet. I shoved my laptop, charger, a super old white Polo Ralph Lauren baseball cap and a snack or two into my R. Horn suede tote and walked out into the city.

In that classic yet comfortable ensemble I knew would deliver for me, I embarked upon a 3 hour drive from New York City to Northampton, MA, and considered my life over those 180 minutes. My favorite music, all jumbled up in Spotify, became the soundtrack to the movie of my life, which if written that day would have been about a young and hungry writer driving a rented mini van to Smith College to meet and interview a fabulous theatre professor and historic clothing expert named Kiki Smith, whose work with historic clothing has lengthy press credits, the likes of the New York Times1 and Wall Street Journal2 - as my imagination was running wild, I kept chuckling to myself over the fact that her surname happened to be Smith.

On that drive, I continually dog ear-ed a mix of feelings that were creeping up, I was so happy and free. Happy, free, excited to visit Smith and meet Kiki and ask her one million questions about the college’s Historic Clothing Collection:

What would Kiki be like? How does she store thousands of clothes, shoes and accessories? How would she be dressed? Does she dress for work with an equation like I do? Did women 125 years ago think about getting dressed each morning that same way I did today? How does she find clothing to grow her collection? Will she let me touch the clothes? What’s her favorite piece in the collection? Or is naming such profane chatter?

16 September 2024, Northampton, Massachusetts

LLW: When did your fascination with clothing begin?

KS: It mostly started with theater. When I was an undergraduate here at Smith3 - I backed my way into a theater major and became interested in set and costume design. It all appealed to me. I ended up being steered into costume design because [at the time] it was a woman’s area more than set design.

I went on and studied costume design and theater in graduate school and ended up coming back here, to Smith, for presumably a year - a sabbatical replacement. However they ended up hiring me and I've just been chugging along since, finally becoming a tenured faculty member.

What came out of [studying and teaching] costume design was a love for finding the materials, styles and varieties of clothing. There are plenty of beautiful collections of high end and chic stuff, but I was mostly designing plays about ordinary people, and there's not a whole lot of big fancy glamorous books on that, so I ended up realizing that in the library here we had Sears and Roebuck4 catalogs that got me started.

LLW: So all of this, this Historic Clothing Collection that has grown so extensive, was started by resources you had at Smith?

KS: When I first came back I moved a group of couture clothes out of costume storage and put them into metal cabinets that I could use in class and that we could go to when we were doing a Chekhov5 play from 1902. From those beautiful examples of construction of skirts we could take patterns from and work from.

LLW: And about when is this?

KS: About 1974…Upon my return to Smith, I sorted clothing out of our existing costume collection, and I kept finding things and realizing that, “This is not just an ordinary skirt. This is an early fabric.” Early on in those days, students found parts of, what would become, this historic collection in the costume storage closets and they were dazzled - as they should be - when I brought the garments into class to use while teaching.

LLW: Who wouldn’t be? I mean, I’m dazzled.

KS: One of the students decided this really ought to be a collection, and she set to work going to New York to meet with the Brooklyn Museum Clothing Collection and then the Met Costume Institute6. She carted along her two favorite pieces from Smith’s collection. The museum professionals were impressed and gave her feedback on what they recommended we prioritize, and in the meanwhile she applied for and got a $10,000 grant.

LLW: Are we still in the 70s?

KS: Yes. And the grant was used to fund student internships to succeed her and also could pay for remarkable, local scholars to visit and identify things…I was a costume designer. I hadn't studied this in great detail - we had lots to learn. Over a period of 40 years, we've had students constantly working here, managing everything from photographing pieces for online cataloging to researching individual pieces.

LLW: Impressive team work.

KS: And all of these pieces come as a donation, everything that's here, which can get a little higgledy piggledy - you get odds and ends.

LLW: I could imagine.

KS: About 15 years ago I discovered how useful eBay was, and found that I could get pieces to fill in holes within the collection for, amazingly inexpensive. Maybe it was an old corset that had a lot of stains or was worn out under the arms, but I didn't care, that corset gave us a pattern, and the students could get a sense of what these pieces were really like…The collection has grown from about 45 pieces to over 4,000.

LLW: Wow!

KS: Now in the world of museum collections, this is small, but more recently what I have been eager to collect and to find from people are women's clothing for work, their uniforms or what they might wear in the morning for their cup of coffee. For example, the uniform worn by a woman who works as a housekeeper in a motel. It could be waitresses, nurses, lawyers, all different levels and occupations. One of my wonderful students here said, “You know, Kiki, what you're interested in are social uniforms.”

Bingo.

LLW: Great phrase, “social uniforms.” I imagine this collection is a fantastic gateway to get your students talking about clothing, history, garment production then and now…all of it!

KS: Not surprisingly, a lot of students are concerned about the environmental issues, and we can all say we don't like fast fashion, but what can we do about it?

LLW: Understanding and action.

KS: If we cut tariffs, what does that do to the women at the very bottom in Bangladesh who are struggling to live? It's a house of cards. So all the complexity of that…It's all related and it starts here in the collection.

LLW: How would you define historic clothing versus, like, saying a piece is vintage in your collection? Do you have dates that you think about like that?

KS: I'm interested in clothing worn by mostly ordinary people, and they could be ordinary, really poor to upper middle class. I'm not interested in art-like clothes. I mean, they're beautiful, but museums are doing that. I can't presume to collect that nor would I be interested in it.

LLW: Sure.

KS: I'm interested in the history of clothing which encompasses the labor, racial social, economic, environmental and political issues for women. This is a teaching archive, not a museum. This is a place where you can dive into all the different things that made one crummy little piece of limp cotton, and get a sense of how this little piece of limp cotton was actually worn by somebody.

LLW: Note to our Readers: Kiki and her students can touch and use the collection and each of these textiles and different accessories from the 1800, 1900, etcetera. It's incredible. Truly unheard of to handle and inspect these historic clothes.

LLW: Kiki, I have to ask: What is your favorite piece in the Collection?

KS: It is sort of like Sophie's choice. Sometimes it's just whatever piece I'm diving into, and the more I can learn about it [the more I’m drawn in], whether I'm learning it from my colleagues who are remarkable costume historians [or otherwise].

I have to say there's a pair of dresses that I bought from somebody selling on Ebay from Chillicothe, Ohio. Ordinary day dresses, and they looked kind of interesting in the little photographs - they were probably $35. They arrived and were worn almost to shreds, and one of them is in the book. One of them I laid out on the table and another student and I noticed it's really faded along the arms. Was it sitting in a store window? It’s not faded down the front. Then we turned it over, no fading around the back waist. It was her apron.

Kiki penned Real Clothes, Real Lives: 200 Years of What Women Wore, a beautiful text that acts like a wonder wardrobe come to life to tell you bed time stories. The text features a foreword by Diane von Furstenberg (yes, that one) and introduction by Vanessa Friedman, the fashion director and chief fashion critic for the New York Times. Learn more and purchase here.

LLW: Fascinating.

KS: This was a woman who was outside a lot. Working, doing chores, and whatever of her wasn't covered was bleached out [by the sun]. The [dresses] are cheap, really cheap, cottons. It has cheap trim around the neck, really cheap little plastic buttons down the center front that aren't even practical as it actually closes with snaps.

LLW: So they're there to make it look like you've got buttons?

KS: The buttons were originally red and now they read as white…I look at these two pieces, and think ‘Is this fifties? Earlier?’ It's 1938. 38!

In the middle of 1938 in Chillicothe, Ohio, as a student who comes from there later told me, its coal country. [Knowing this] Appalachia during the Depression and the poverty that these two dresses faced and survived, comes to mind.

LLW: It’s like time travel.

KS: [Yes] and if my students can see these two dresses, they might get a really visceral idea of what kind of suffering these women would have gone through.

LLW: Hearing you talk about these garments, I’ve concocted this woman, the original owner from the 1930s, in my mind. Think how much she got out of her clothes, whether they were cheap or not. They had to work for her and they worked for her until the day she died. She wore them into the ground.

And all the things she thought and did and cried, laughed, prayed, whatever she was doing in those dresses. Uh, I just All of the The whole thing she gravitas of that becomes so much more real.

KS: Any person who sees this dress and really gets to understand the context of it, where it came from and how to read it, how to understand that it is not just a weird crummy dress. There was somebody who wore it to shreds and patched it.

LLW: And someone's lineage that brings us today.

LLW: The 21st 18th newsletter started because I had all these nagging obsessions that called for more deep investigation. I’m assuming, you may have some of these too. Would you share with us what you are currently obsessed with?

KS: I guess there are 2 parts to this. 1) I'm obsessed with trying to set up this collection so it survives and so I can retire, and the college can embrace it as an important part of the study of women.

LLW: Important.

KS: 2) This is kind of a mini obsession: I am going to teach a class on women and pants next semester.

One dear scholar friend of mine pointed out there's never been a book or exhibition about women in pants. I’m going to make the topic into a course, and I realize women were wearing pants in many other cultures for centuries before the women in Europe and America adopted them, so we won’t just look at it from the narrow perspective of the West.

There will be a section focused on helping students understand the construction of pants. I have all my students work with thread and needles on an ironed piece of muslin to learn what a hem stitch is and how to baste and sew a 2 or 4 hole button. Now some of these students have never held a needle in their hands, so the quality of the work is not high but these are useful skills.

And they help [students] learn to appreciate the skill it takes to construct and sculpt limp fabric and make it into a form that is distinct. So they'll do a little bit of sewing, but there's so many interesting categories of rational dress, which came in the 1860s, when Susan B. Anthony7 and Amelia Bloomer8 were frustrated with all of the clothes that women were expected to wear - of course, this is the middle class and up, because there were a lot of working women who had rather more simplistic wardrobes, but even those clothes would have had the architecture and style of the time.

I'm looking forward, with some trepidation, to launching into that topic.

LLW: Will this course be taught in 2025?

KS: It's the spring semester. Right around the corner.

LLW: May I just say? You’re doing such wonderful work here. This is useful, educational and incredibly fun and interesting which is the goal of educators, right? To make content and learning relatable and engaging.

KS: And a lot of that goes back to that remarkable mentor, Nancy Rexford, who taught me that a teaching archive, if you're really gonna teach people and learn, needs multiple examples. Not just a best one. We have multiple examples of drawers that were worn under the pantaloons, I'll pick out a range of them to find multiple examples for the students to study and learn from, and while we don’t have everything we can fill in gaps from other collections.

LLW: Personally, outside of all the historic clothing, what do you gravitate toward collecting?

KS: Here's what comes out of me: It's whatever makes me amazed and full of wonder. It could be the little straw bonnet from 1845 that I found in an antique store in Vermont. Or I look at these Asian hats and African hats [motioning to the hats hung on the wall of her office] and think about the people who made them. I look at a beautiful French 1920s piece…you become connected to [these things] physically when you can look at them up close. They're just amazing creations. It's the creation of the hat with the pair of hands or groups of hands that fascinates me. It’s about paying homage to the creators.

LLW: And most of them are anonymous.

KS: We'll never know who they were. Or we create faces in our minds. I’m in awe of those anonymous amazing women. And they're mostly women who did this labor.

LLW: I’m curious, was there costuming in a play or movie or tv show that really inspired you?

KS: I watch very little television. But the other Saturday night, very unlike me, I went to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and of course, the costumes are fabulous.

When I look at some of those costumes, they are brilliant, and I'm delighted to celebrate the brilliance of another designer. I particularly am interested in theater because there are things that theater can do, which I call theatricality, which is a suspension of belief that people can put out something that is so obviously trite and contrived. But the way the actor uses it, you understand what they’re intimating. Everyone in the audience gets it.

LLW: Thinking about theater costuming and props from that perspective, it’s almost like magic.

KS: You’re right. Kind of like magic.

In addition to teaching, Kiki Smith is also a professional costume and set designer. She designs for regional theaters and choreographers, including the Talking Band in New York and Shakespeare & Co. in Lenox, Massachusetts, where she is a founding member.

Smith won a Village Voice OBIE award for her designs for the Talking Band's 2003 premiere of Ellen Maddow's A Painted Snake in a Painted Chair, directed by her colleague Paul Zimet. She earned an A.B. from Smith College in 1971 and has a master's from the University of Virginia and a master's of fine arts in theater design from the University of Texas.

Smith teaches two levels of costume design, supervises student designers and oversees the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection. Other special topics courses she has offered include Design for the Dance, Twentieth Century Fashion Designers, and Making Theatre Illusion with Costume Construction, Masks and Makeup.

We appreciate you joining us as we slipped back in time to 21st & 18th’s visit to Smith College’s Historic Clothing Collection. The Collection and Smith’s theatre department, where Kiki Smith is a professor, are seriously impressive and inspiring. I left Kiki’s office and Smith’s campus with a nagging excitement to create. It was as if in ‘returning to school’ I left campus with homework, homework to stay curious and keep asking questions — thank you, Kiki and to the women of Smith who have played varying roles in the building of this important Collection.

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ART

In a twist that could have only been plotted by the art history gods, in a ploy to lift my Rococo colored glasses, aka my art comfort zone: I can’t stop thinking about Raphael.

Not to be confused with the Ninja Turtle, party supplies store or a democratic Senator from Georgia, the Raphael I can’t stop thinking about is the Italian painter and architect, born Raffaelo di Giovanni Santi in 1483.

Raphael was born in Urbino, Italy, a story book walled town on the Eastern coast of the country, near the Adriatic Sea. Though Raphael’s was a short life (spoiler: he dies at age 37), he left an indelible impression on the art historical canon and Europe. I’d also argue his work, which managed to be perfectly balanced and effortlessly graceful, was emotional and energetic in a new way encouraging Renaissance viewers, as well as those of us today, to evolve emotionally or at least convene with religion in a new, perhaps more authentic, way.

Raphael lived and worked during the High Renaissance, an age of creation and thinking which was also home to his later contemporaries, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, and he was widely regarded during his lifetime, as well as after, as one of the greatest painters. It was also said he possessed great wit and charm earning him the nickname, “Prince of painters.”

Raphael’s father was a painter at the court of the Duke of Montefeltro in their hometown of Urbino, and it is accepted that he learned to paint from his father. After his father’s death, little Rapha was only 11 years old, the young painter proved to possess painting technique to amplify his innate skill as when he arrived in Florence in 1504, age 21, he entered directly into the workshop of Pietro Perugino1. It was said that Raphael possessed dexterity in depicting landscape painting as well as human expression. In Florence, Raphael quickly became a sought after artist in his own right and later, in Rome from 1508 to his death in 1520, he was the toast of the town delivering on commissions for frescoes in the papal chambers, designing tapestries for the Sistine Chapel and painting some of his best work: series of mythic scenes in which the characters depicted express intense emotions, such as joy and courage, and are aptly painted with such sentimental exuberance. See below for an example.

Fascinating Fact: Raphael was so highly regarded by the pope, he was named keeper of antiquities2 while living and working in Rome, and after his death, the pope insisted he be buried in the Pantheon3.

Why am I obsessed with Raphael?

First because his work is intriguing and inspiring. Next, his artwork asks for emotional intelligence from its viewer, which, to me, is surprising as this is an art-viewer relationship trait I normally equate with modern or contemporary art.

Raphael was the precursor to Michelangelo and Leonardo, two of the most famous names in global culture, however his work, if you consider the sect of painting he carved out, to me, is more effective. I feel moved looking at a Raphael, whereas I move to look at artwork by Leonardo, for example. Each of these High Renaissance painters was a genius in his own right, but I feel Raphael more, which predisposes me to think he’s the best. For me, Raphael represents emotional connectedness and when I can connect with a painting or drawing of his, I feel as though I am doing a good job understanding myself and others. It’s this weird art report card, where I feel some higher power, perhaps Raphael himself, is giving me a gold star for being a good classmate.

If you would like to learn more about Raphael, I recommend the following reading:

• An introduction to Urbino by Rick Steves (it’s good, trust me)

• Read Raphael’s biography, by the National Gallery of Art, here

• Explore his work and the history and analysis of such from the Uffizi’s curatorial team, here (scroll down past each work to read their in-depth overview of each work of art)

HISTORY

This is the best book in the world.

Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand is the best book in the world. In fact, I am going to pause writing this Newsletter draft to go write her fan mail4.

Seabiscuit was the winning-est racehorse in history during his career (we may be able to prove he held that title longer) and certainly the most popular racehorse of his time through to, I’d argue, today. Seabiscuit was a thoroughbred racehose who was, until he found the right trainer, owner and jockey, constantly underestimated. He was considered ‘ugly’, ‘too short’ and notably his early trainers and owners remarked upon his ‘strange, staccato gait’ but it was this always-overlooked little bay horse who wowed the world of racing when he beat the supposed best horse in the USA and Triple Crown winner, War Admiral, in an historic match race in 1938. Seabiscuit set countless track records and took first in the Santa Anita Handicap5 in 1940.

Hillenbrand’s 1999 book so interestingly weaves together the history of Seabiscuit’s life, racing career and legacy with the struggles, achievements and moments in between of his legendary trainer, Tom Smith, owner, Charles S. Howard and jockeys, Red Pollard and George Woolf, who often mounted the Biscuit during Pollard’s injured years.

Hillenbrand’s hundreds of pages bring history together with drama, not because she dramatizes or adds a ‘spin’ on the events that took place during the lifetime of Seabiscuit, but because she so perfectly sandwiches the story of each character with the happenings of the time (mostly 1930s - early 1940s USA, particularly focused on California and the Northeast) to give the reader a keen sense of how the achievements and failings of Seabiscuit and his cohort of men might have felt or the ripple effects their actions caused in the world of racing and beyond.

As a horsewoman who has definitely seen the 2003 film Seabiscuit (and visited Seabiscuit’s grave in Menocino County, CA6) and knows a fair bit about thoroughbred racing, I came away from this novel having learned a mass amount. Hillenbrand’s meticulous research and intense editing goes a long way in leaving her readers a great deal smarter. I also found it refreshing to read a book set in the early 20th century that didn’t focus entirely on World War II, temperance and prohibition, women’s right or Civil Rights, not because those things are not important, but because there were a lot of things going on in the USA during the first half of the 1900s and I want to know more about them!

Fascinating Fact: In 1938, Seabiscuit was voted American Horse of the Year, ahead of the Triple Crown winner, War Admiral7 and that same year he clocked more time in the press, measured by newspaper column inches, than President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

I adore this book and cannot recommend it enough because it is so heartening to imagine the entirety of America, not just horse enthusiasts, coming together to root for this underdog and celebrating together when he won, most of the time, across his lengthy career. This is the only book to ever incite tears in my eyes while reading and I will be gifting my copy to my sister.

If you would like to read Seabiscuit: An American Legend, see here.

FASHION

I’ll keep this short, see below for a list of things I purchased over the last two weeks:

• Extended Shoulder Boyfriend Shirt by Talbots (On sale for $69.99 (Usually $99))

  I recently read Ina Garten’s memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, and was influenced by her as she famously wears the same outfit, in color variations, each day (and the gossip mill tells me she buys most of her button ups from Talbots). This shirt is well priced and 100% cotton, and I needed more white button up shirts in my wardrobe that do not have logos - sometimes, I don’t even want the Ralph polo player, sorry Uncle Ralph. This shirt is well priced so I don’t have to be too precious or care that much when it gets stained with wine or tea. I also like it in the Bold Stripe (also on sale for $69.99).

• Monocle Magazine, December 2024 issue ($17 via Ann Mashburn)

  This is not fashion, but they do discuss fashion within. Highly recommend for anyone who lives in a city and is looking for sturdy subway, tube or bus reading that can double as coffee table decor.

• Purple Label Bengal-Stripe Poplin Shirt by Ralph Lauren (On sale for $319 (Usually $495))

  I purchased this shirt in alternating strawberry and deep green stripes, however it’s no longer available. I opted for size large to achieve a super oversized look. Note: Be ready for French cuffs on most Purple Label shirting.

• Black Scrunch Dress by Ganni ($345)

  Ganni dresses just work on my body, I’m petite at 5’3”, and I have been looking for more clothing that accentuates my waist vs. the baggy parachute dresses we’ve all been wearing. I like this dress because it’s easy, washable at home and will stay looking fresh for seasons to come, because, hello, black.

• Aprés Puff Slip Ons by SeaVees ($80)

  If you purchase one thing in my little round up here, let it be these Aprés Puffs by SeaVees, they are so so so so so cozy, and perfect for bopping around a house, hotel room or walking out into your back garden or onto the porch. Also, would be great on a long haul flight. I have been wearing these non-stop since Christmas. Buy Buy Buy! Note: SeaVees sells out quite fast in these limited edition styles.

Thank you for reading folks. I’ll be back next week with a feature on Kiki Smith, professor and head of collections at Smith College’s Historic Clothing Collection. Subscribe to 21st & 18th to receive the interview direct to your inbox.

6

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ART

The holiday season and end of the year are time for reflection. In my personal moments of reflection, I am searching for comfort. I want to look at, listen to and ingest things that produce only comfortable, lovely, wonderful feelings. As an art historian and ex-museum professional, art is often where I turn for a reset and recharge.

Being that I am currently in San Diego (decidedly not the USA’s culture capital) I have been reading a lot about art as well as planning my museum visits for upcoming trips (I’ll be in New England for the next few weeks and can visit the Gardner (@gardnermuseum) and MFA (@mfaboston), if I’m lucky I’ll also squeeze in a trip to Newport, RI, and later in, January I’m returning to The Huntington Library (@thehuntingtonlibrary)).

If you’re like me and find yourself, landlocked in a culturally challenged location OR it’s so cold you cannot fathom leaving the house and trekking ‘round a city in pursuit of the higher arts, I hope you’ll enjoy my current art obsession reading list:

Konfekt from Monocle

Subscribe here & listen to Konfekt’s podcast here

A delightful long-er form monthly podcast series, with a magazine component, hosted by three Monocle editors (Sophie Grove, Marcela Palek and Gillian Dobias) who discuss everything from fashion, design, art and travel. I love Konfekt for introducing me to new artists or designers and catalyzing cultural rabbitholes that keep me whole and my brain moving.

Art Apéritifs with Derrick Cartwright of the Timken Museum of Art from 21st & 18th

Read here

An energetic interview featuring Derrick Cartwright, Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Timken Museum of Art. Cartwright chats about his current obsessions, working as a museum director at art institutions around the world and why you should visit the Timken next time you’re in San Diego.

20 Years of Discovery from R & Company

Explore here

I interviewed, Zesty Meyers, co-Founder and Principal at R & Company, a Tribeca based art gallery, archive and exhibition space founded in 1997, earlier this year and left feeling completely inspired. Zesty was kind enough to gift me this text, 20 Years of Discovery, and when I’m feeling a little lost I sit on the floor in front of my coffee table, open it up and just browse. Like my conversation with Zesty, I always find something to spark my curiosity and tickle my sense of wonder. Great for art and design lovers who appreciate being pulled out of their comfort zones. If you’re keen for more, read my interview with Zesty here and if you’re based in NYC - you can buy this text IRL at R & Company’s location at 64 White Street in Manhattan.

HISTORY

For your holiday hanging and lovely lounging, I recommend tucking into a Susanna Clarke confection.

On a recent trip to Philadelphia, to interview the Chief Engagement Officer of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, I forgot my Kindle and was in need of some cross country in-flight reading. In a turn of, very un-LLW, shopping activity, I stopped into a Barnes & Noble shop near Rittenhouse Square and purchased two new reads. Among these was Susanna Clarke’s The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, originally published in 2006, this re-issue features curiously delectable illustrations by Charles Vess (truly, you end up staring at them for 3+ min and they make you feel like a kid lusting over I Spy folios) which accompany eight short stories and is perfect for holiday and travel reading, when you often have to start and stop as flight attendants, TSA or family members annoyingly burst into your mental space without a proverbial knock (it’s called a nudge, tap or “Excuse me?” - nothing worse than your crazy aunt ruining a chapter in a good book by harassing you with queries about when you’re going to have a child!!).

I’m counting The Ladies of Grace Adieu as part of this week’s History Obsession because Clarke’s writing is largely considered Alternative History, which is a sub genre of fiction in which one or more historical events and characters meet a different fate than actually happened. For example, one the eight stories in The Ladies of Grace Adieu, “The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse,” details the story of a very real, Duke of Wellington, however Clarke drops the Reader into the meat of his adventure in magical Faerie universe - perhaps the Duke was indeed open to the supernatural? Perhaps not. In either case, Clarke is a fascinating authoress and I laughed audibly several times while reading her fantastical short stories.

My second history obsession is the reading room at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (@historicalpa), in Philadelphia.

As mentioned above, last week I was in Philly to interview some of the leadership, and look behind the scenes, at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the 200 year old institution that paved the way for historical collecting, archiving and curating in the United States (they were the first organization of their kind!).

If you’re local to Philly or passing through for work and looking for a place to write, study or focus, do yourself a favor and visit the reading room at HSP, 1300 Locust Street. The reading room is open to the public and free to use for HSP members, students and military, $10 to visit for the general public (a latte is about $7 these days so count this as a deal!) visitation hours vary during weekdays, see here for more information. Also, ensure you’re subscribed to 21st & 18th to read our interview with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in February 2025.

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FASHION

It’s chilly, even here in San Diego, and I’m currently on a plane to New England for Christmas with my in-laws, so my fashion obsessions are all centered around coziness. It’s trite but it’s true the Christmas season is a time for cozy-comfort and sweaters deliver on just that. While I am known for my Irish wool knit collection, my current fashion obsession is all cotton and soft to the touch and made in the USA.

Specifically, the lounge sweaters I’ve designed and made for J. Gray’s (@jgraybrand) initial collection (we’re launching on St. Stephen’s Day, 26 Dec) . J. Gray is my new brand, and we handcraft tabletop linens, from repurposed antique linens and denim milled in the USA, and unisex loungewear (there are even bits for the little ones in your lives), from wonderfully soft cotton.

Each of J. Gray’s lounge sweaters have an embroidered motif, important in the life and lore of the character behind the brand concept: J. Gray, a cat with a thirst for adventure and gin martinis who is keen to outfit your home. You’ll see J’s Tiny Tini or Billie’s Bows on a snow white sweater, the Gray Clover Trio on our blurry Clover Club Sweater in Oatmeal - a dropped shoulder and oversized piece - and, finally, J’s Lucky Horseshoe. See below for a smattering of tantalizing imagery which will illustrate the craziness of my product naming and *hopefully* lure you onto our checkout page.

In addition to finally launching J. Gray (the website was a labor of love), I am very proud to state that all of our products are handmade in California and almost1 every single material, from the fabrics we’ve sourced to the thread we embroider our motifs with, was made in the USA.

Aren’t they good? Can I get one? Who is J. Gray? Why is he a cat?

I hope you’re asking yourself all of these questions and you’re feeling cozy and lazy and rest-full. I also hope you have an incredibly Merry Christmas and enjoy this holiday season. I’m looking forward to bringing you riveting, unique cultural conversations in 2025 and highlighting the small obsessions which bring glitter to my, and hopefully your, weeks.

My very best,

Lauren Lynch Wemple

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ART & HISTORY

Today, we’re discussing tapestries. Specifically, the 30 tapestries purchased by King George IV in 1825 when he decided Windsor Castle needed ‘refurbishing1’.

Who was England’s George IV?

In short, George IV (b. 1762 - d. 1830) was the “Mad King’s” son and heir who assumed the position as regent in 1811 at the age of 48, when his father was deemed too ill to govern. In 1820, he ascended the throne as George IV after his father’s, George III, passing.

George IV’s reign was short lived, at a decade, and while he had an atrociously muddy personal life2, he contributed a great deal to the Royal Collection by way of art and in the commissioning of great architectural projects. Specifically, George IV built the Royal Pavilion in Brighton and majorly transformed both Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. It’s also said that George IV’s personal interest in pageantry influenced much of the ceremonial pomp (ie. the Trooping the Colour parades and Buckingham Palace balcony waving) the world still ooh’s and ahh’s at today.

Back to George’s tapestries

In 1825, after four years on the throne, George IV purchased 30 French tapestries for Windsor Castle, the traditional seat of British monarchs that sits about 25 miles from London and was originally built in 1070 by William the Conqueror, with the goal of bringing the royal space up to snuff and on the level with being one of the homes of the British monarch. These tapestries were likely different series, ie. a number of scenes that together tell a story, and all featured a woven border around the scene, sort of like a pseudo picture frame, which was made popular by the French3 .

To dial it back a bit, a tapestry is a woven structure formed with threads running in both directions rather than top to bottom or left to right. Despite modern textile and weaving technologies, the techniques involved in tapestry weaving have barely altered in thousands of years (historians have dated fragments of tapestry, which they believe is one of the first, found in China to 300 BC). Weaving a tapestry is an incredibly laborious process which requires exceptional attention to detail and architect-like planning skills.

Interestingly, tapestries, while being incredibly entrancing works of art, have always been multi-purpose, even in the most palatial of palaces: They are decorative and exhibit the wealth and status of a household but also served as large scale insulation of sorts in drafty castles, manors and palaces. Tapestries continue to be highly sought after by art collectors and prized in stately homes and official government or royal residences today. See below for an example of a tapestry purchased by Britain’s current monarch, Charles III.

Let’s look at one of George IV’s tapestries

For a guy who had a horribly messy and unsuccessful love life, George Four had taste. (At least, he and I appear to share the same taste in tapestries) All of the 30 tapestry panels he acquired in 1825 for Windsor Castle were French, woven at the Gobelins Tapestry Factory, which was originally founded by Louis XIV in Paris in 1662. Louis’ goal? To supply the French royal palaces with the highest quality of textile decor.

Gobelins tapestries from the late 18th century are characterized by their highly stylized scenes that were almost warped in perspective as such detailed depictions of highly ornate classical and historical scenes made in thread and fabric have a different tactility than paint. For example, the below panel, The Story of Jason, one of eight panels that made up a series of scenes recounting the story of ancient Greek hero, Jason, and his wife Madea, is detailed like a Rococo or classical painting, but the viewing experience is gooey-er, than looking at a painting. The woven threads give it a sheen and depth that feels three dimensional but looks so obviously contrived. It’s a delightfully confusing feast for the eyes. This tapestry was woven c. 1776-9 in Paris, France.

Sadly for the Bourbons yet happily for George IV and his ancestors, after the French Revolution, in the early 19th century, the eight panels in this series from Gobelins, and many others, were put up for auction and snapped up by the Brits4.

Fun Fact: The Gobelins Tapestry Factory is still in operation in Paris today. The artisans produce a select number of woven goods each year and their historic location, in the 13th arrondissement, is available to visit and tour. Learn more here, Manufacture des Gobelins.

FASHION

Two words: Ralph Lauren.

Am I boring? Predictable? If you know me you know I wear a lot of the same labels, with Ralph Lauren being one of them. I am a sucker for Ralph Lauren men’s shirting, vintage Ralph Lauren Collection (2001 - 2005 bias cut gowns are my jam) and Ralph Lauren sheepskin outerwear (ask me about my prized possessions in the comments).

It seemed right to note Ralph Lauren as this week’s Fashion obsession because it is about to be the Black Friday sale of all sales: the Ralph Lauren Black Friday Sale, which is really the best Black Friday sale on the planet. I kid not! Medium Bellport bags for under $500, wool men’s suiting for under $800, polo shirts for $32!!!!!! Run don’t walk. At this stage in my life, I don’t do much Black Friday shopping, it’s dumb and feels like peer pressure in high school - just say no - and I’m not into doing what everyone else is doing. What I am into is snagging Ralph Lauren classics for 20 - 40% off plus free shipping. That’s just called being intelligent.

Pro tip: Ralph Lauren’s candles are to die for, come in beautiful plaid boxes, perfect for a holiday hostess gift, and are typically included in Black Friday markdowns. The Bedford Candle (Regularly $75, Currently $45) is my personal favorite.

What will I be buying from Ralph Lauren this Black Friday?

This Black Watch Plaid Double-Breasted Coat (Regularly $380, Currently $228)

because I have been on the hunt for a calf length officer’s coat in navy or plaid since Kate Middleton married Prince William in 2011 and wow-ed the world with her collection of well fitted officer’s coats. This coat just feels like the right buy - you’ll see me in it all Christmas season plus the winter months. I also feel this is a great investment given how versatile it is for styling, I’m imaging it over: tailored denim, a polo shirt and wool sweater, a pair of joggers while on a long flight AND a silk gown for an evening or event out. Like the Swiss army knife of coats.

A Medium Bellport Bag in Cuoio or Black Leather (Regularly $698, Currently $419)

I have a number of Ralph Lauren’s Bellport Bags but all in the mini size, which is such fun and great for travel or being onsite at events or creative shoots, however it’s time I replaced my Louis Vuitton Never Full (I have the striped beige and brown one that is a bit more elegant but nonetheless screams 2010 teenager) and I have had my eye on a Medium sized leather Bellport Bag for two years. Why? First off the bag is reversible and the suede lining is great when you wish to transition from week to week-end. Next, the shape and size are large enough to comfortably carry an iPad or MacBook Air but not too large so as to look like a diaper bag. Bonus points to RL for ensuring the length of the Bellport straps are just long enough to sit comfortably on your shoulder but also to hang lazily on your forearm. Love you, Uncle Ralph.

With that, I’ve decided, this Black Friday, it’s time. I’m buying the bag. The question is do I want to be the cognac girl in flaxen combed wool? Or the city chic woman who wears a lot of black on black (I really hate black blazers tho)? Vote below, curious which you think I am.

I’m on the fence about this Double-Breasted Wool Melton Trench Coat from Polo Ralph Lauren (Regularly $798, Currently $479)

This coat feels like it needs to come home and live with me, but do I need it? I don’t currently have a tan colored wool peacoat, and these heavy, warm wool coats are very malleable. When you’re traveling in the winter, or late autumn, this is the kind of coat you want to bring with you: A one hit wonder with the versatility for any event, from casual to formal, time of day and culture are both moot points too (ie. I dress very differently when I visit Japan vs. Austria vs. Denmark and this coat could really do it all). If you think I should adopt this Double-Breasted Melton Coat, please hit me up in the comments below.

My advice to you: Beware the Black Friday shopping frenzy! I only allow myself a browse at Ralph Lauren and then take myself off to the horse races at Del Mar (@delmarracing) for their Bing Crosby Season - it’s much more fun to throw away your money on horses rather than cheap imported clothing you don’t need (lol).

Cheers & Happy thanksgiving to my American Readers & Patrons!

- LLW

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ART

Louis Wain (English, b. 1860 - d. 1939)

An eccentric Englishman born in 1860 who painted psychedelic portraits of cats? Say less.

I have a cat named Jasper, he is a dear. A gentleman who understands ‘la dolce vita’: sunning on a crisply cut lawn, chasing butterflies, naps by a roaring fireplace, lounging on antique French furniture - Jasper is a cat of many talents and great character. Yes, of course he is a cat, but there are layers to him. You may scoff but I know Jasper incredibly well, at least I have lived with him for 13 years, as he was my family cat, and in 2021 we took our relationship further when I invited him to move with me, and Wemple, to New York City. We have resided together ever since.

I am telling you this because it ties back into Louis Wain and his body of work which features, almost singularly, cats. However Wain’s cats are not lazing about in a curled up croissant or licking milk from a bucolic bowl, no, they’re doing things, golfing, having tea, singing in a choir together, tucking their kittens to sleep in a bed - Wain’s cats have personalities and lives. I am incredibly obsessed with the idea of animals, particularly cats, living lives and having a universe that is all theirs. I say: If we humans are here inventing cars that run on white wine and dancing on Tik Tok to millions of views around the world, why can cats not be singing in a choir somewhere? It is an insane thought, but what an original thought to think.

Wain was born in London, England on the 5th of August in 1860, to a textile trading father and mother who made a small living embroidering at the Catholic church the family attending. Interestingly his maternal grandfather, Louis Boiteux, was an artisT. Wain was born with a cleft lip and was said to be sickly which kept him from attending school until the age of 10. Once in school he was truant quite often, skipping class to hunt for insects or attending lectures across London - while a different sort of adolescent, he proved curious and bright. After finishing his schooling he went on to attend the West London School of Art where his talents were almost immediately recognized and he joined the teaching ranks of the school as assistant master.

In Christmastime of 1881 Wain published his first piece in Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, a popular weekly magazine founded in 1874 and operated until 1970. What did this first published drawing picture? Bullfinches on a laurel bush. (He was drawn toward animals from the getgo). This publication led to a job at the magazine, which allowed Wain to leave his teaching position and focus on his art full time.

Three years after becoming a full time artist, in 1884, Wain married one Emily Marie Richardson, the governess to his younger sisters. Shortly after their marriage Louis and Emily brought home a black and white kitten, named Peter, and near the same time Emily developed breast cancer.

This is a defining moment in Wain’s life and career as his wife found incredible comfort and happiness during her illness in Peter. If we consider Louis, for a man who was already interested in depicting animals, those years spent with Peter and Emily at home must have stirred something in his heart and imagination that we will never be able to fully understand.

While his wife was becoming increasingly ill, Wain worked a lot, taking commissions for pet portraits (he was ahead of his time) and illustrating several popular children’s novels based on cat characters. Sadly, Emily passed away in 1887. Wain never remarried and devoted himself to his work and the arts, by 1890 he was a household name and considered an expert on cats.

Fun fact: Louis Wain was elected President of the National Cat Club in 1890 (lol).

Over the next decade and prior to WWI, Wain was a star on the rise, he moved briefly to New York, after Heart Publishing offered him an illustration contract, returning to London only after the death of his father after which he assumed responsibility as the head of the household for his mother and 4 sisters. He was a prolific artist, producing over 100 works per year, and the demand for such works afforded a comfortable life for him and his family.

Unfortunately, after the War, in 1918, interest in his pictures dwindled and the last decade of his life was spent in a hospital psych ward, after his remaining sisters had him committed for ‘insanity.’ That took a turn, huh? Wain was not without friends and allies however, and some such people raised money to move him into a more comfortable retirement home of sorts. Eventually, Wain was moved to Napsbury Hospital in Hertfordshire where he would later die, following stroke complications, on 4 July 1938.

Despite his sad end, Wain’s vitality for creating really never wavered, until he could no longer, he painted and drew. Depicting landscapes, animals and of course his society of cats doing their various activities, living out scenes he could no longer take part in. It is beautiful to think of his art as an escape and solace at the end of his life.

I am currently obsessed with Louis Wain because he had a vivid imagination which he fully embraced. How often do you give over to your imagination? Do you write, paint or tell crazy stories to your niece or son? Do you feel silly for doing so? Would you do such in front of or share such with your friends or colleagues? To me, Louis Wain was a courageous and talented man who proved that one can indeed find success in your wildest fantasies.

Keen for more? Queue up the Electrical Life of Louis Wain on Amazon Prime, it features Benedict Cumberbatch as Wain and Claire Foy as his wife, Emily. I’d also recommend reviewing some of Wain’s work in the Victoria & Albert Museum’s online collection.

HISTORY

Medieval Women’s History

As we know from our Art Apéritifs feature on Dr. Vanessa Wilkie of the Huntington Library, the Medieval period in history is hundreds of years long stretching from the fall of Rome through the Renaissance. Across this insanely long period of time, too many things happened for me to recount in this paragraph, but I recently happened onto a thread about women’s history in the medieval period, studied through the lives of four women writers. I found this thread through one of my constant history obsessions: the History Extra Podcast from BBC History Magazine. This is a 46 minute episode featuring the podcast host in conversation with Hetta Howes, author of the newly published, Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife. Howes’ book recounts the stories of four Middle Ages women who you have probably never heard of: Marie de France, Julian of Norwich, Christine de Pizan and Margery Kempe. It’s a fantastic way to end your day or accompaniment on a long walk in the morning and because its focus is not an overly studious historical topic, you’re sure to find some interesting anecdotes to stoke new historical obsessions.

Intrigued? Listen to: Medieval women: friendship, wanderlust and medieval hustle from History Extra

FASHION

LLW’s Recipe for Professional Fashion Success

I recently started working the front desk, a couple times per week, at Barre31 San Diego (@barre3sandiego) and just last week one of the instructors, after teaching an early morning class, was getting ready for her new in-office corporate job. The gal changes into her “work outfit” and starts asking me and the other B3 gals if we like her work look, as she is not sure how to dress. I proceeded to detail LLW’s Recipe for Professional Fashion Success, a carefully thought out recipe tested over about a decade of office and remote professional dressing. This recipe of mine goes like this:

Men’s long sleeve oxford shirt + High waisted, tailored denim + loafers + trouser socks = CEO Material

There are a number of photo examples of my coveted professional fashion recipe below. Sometimes I swap the denim for chinos or trousers or the oxford shirt for a polo with long or short sleeves. In either case, it is a refined easy look that keeps me comfortable and confident on video conferences, phone negotiations or in-person at meetings or on set.

My husband, Wemple, has even adopted this equation, and I love him for it. If you ask him, he will say it was his personal ‘style’ that influenced this ensemble…whatever helps you sleep at night, Wemple. ; )

Fashion obsessed? Follow me on socials: @lolynchwemple, @21stand18th

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Today’s Saturday Culture Scroll features my latest obsessions across Art, History and Fashion. I hope you’ll find a tid bit of something new to inspire your next read, purchase or tablescape…

ART

Art Collecting

This is a tangent I’m not yet prepared to go on about yet however since I attended a lecture at the Timken Museum of Art, featuring a West coast based art collector’s sculpture collection, with my dear friend Lady A last week, I have been obsessed with art collecting. Specifically, talking with collectors and understanding why they are drawn to certain artists and periods and talking with artists about how they decide to sell what and at which price. I know some of our Readers and Patrons scrolling today are collectors of art works, if you’re willing to connect with me for an interview, I’m keen to feature an art collector and get stuck in. If you too are keen, feel welcome to write me at lauren@21stand18th.com.

Also, major plug for the lecture and event series at the Timken Museum of Art, it is $15 or free to attend, if you are a member, and the topics range from deep dives into their collection and those of colleagues like the National Gallery of Art in DC to conversations with conservators, collectors and other leaders in the arts.

Toile

Is toile considered art? Toile is a motif, a design, but it is always seen sketched, printed, drawn, painted or embroidered, which are all art forms. Looking at toile in this way, we can indeed say it is a valid art obsession. I am obsessed with toile because I really enjoy looking at various patterns, they’re incredibly interesting to the eye - sort of like adult I Spy books - and I’ve been doing a lot of looking at toile patterns because I’m preparing to launch my brand, J. Gray, we design and manufacture linens and other table top and home products. Once of such products is a line of linens and other textiles that will be embroidered with our J. Gray Toile - sneak peek below.

I became even more enamored with toile after learning about its history: A German born turned French man, Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf (b. 1738 - d. 1815), born into a family of dyers, who through ingenuity, creativity and ambition, became a globally lauded and forever remembered textile designer and craftsman. Oberkampf, owned and operated the Oberkampf Manufactory, and was given the title of Royal Manufacturer by Louis XVI, created what we refer to as ‘toile’ today in 1760 when he set up the first Toile de Jouy business. Toile de Jouy was more than the patterns that we recognize as idyllic countryside scenes today, it also designated the type of fabric, a tightly and well woven batiste like cloth made from cotton or silk (that’s the ‘jouy’ part of the phrase) and the ‘toile’ tacked onto it denotes the patterns printed on the fabric.

What was revolutionary about Oberkampf was the fact that he invented new printing and textile weaving processes that allowed he and his team to save time on the making of fabric and spend time on the printing of motifs. Oberkampf’s original toiles were historical and bucolic French scenes in red or green ink on white fabric.

Fun fact: Oberkamp also invented the process for creating and printing on wallpaper, as we know it today. We salute you, Monsieur.

HISTORY

Antonia Fraser’s Louis XIV

My current reading list consists of two tomes: First, a re-read of a 1980s historical fiction romance novel that I won’t detail here for fear of judgment by strangers and the next, Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King by Antonia Fraser. The book reviews the history and extraordinary life of Louis XIV (b. 1638 - d. 1715), one of the great (certainly the most depicted in contemporary pop culture) Kings of France by exploring his relationships, in fantastic detail, with the women in his life, specifically: his mother, Anne of Austria, wife, Maria Theresa of Spain, and official mistresses: Louise de la Vallière, Athénaïs de Montespan, and Madame de Maintenon. Each woman brings something very different to Louis’ life and reign playing a massive role in his maturation and achievements. Reading the book impresses upon one how much love Louis XIV had for the Woman. He regards Woman as an archetype of everything, a multifaceted goddess who is beautiful, kind, saintly, motherly, sensual, interesting etc, and because he never managed to find one complete amalgamation of these things IRL it’s almost as if he collected women who embodied each of these assets…Fascinating. Good gift for the coming holiday season.

I recommend reading this book via eReader, I am a Kindle girl *sometimes*, because Fraser does not scrimp on details and her books are dense, dense in a good way but dense no less. When reading on a Kindle you don’t really think about how long the book is, and I have found that reading biographies, especially when 30+ of the male characters have the same 3 French first names, is made more enjoyable when you don’t know how far through it you are.

FASHION

GANNI FW ‘24 Woolens

Specifically this Dark Blue Wool Sweater, which I have worn almost every day in October. I purchased this sweater, along with this fabulous ivory and black gingham dress that has silver threads and creates an iridescent murmur when being worn,  in Soho at the beginning of September when it was still too hot for wool, but today’s autumnal crispness felt ‘round the nation has decided it - I’m going full wool. I adore wore, all types and thicknesses and levels of scratchiness.

This sweater is $325, 100% wool and a rich and chunky navy blue. The shoulders are purposely dropped which lends further to the relaxed, oversized look. I’m obsessed with this sweater because it is soft and warm but more so due to the fact that the oversized torso combined with the dropped shoulders and boiled wool aesthetic-effect, achieved by the flat, combed wool weave, allow you to remain buttoned up and elegant as well as comfortable and “not too styled” looking. It’s refreshing to find a sweater that is comfortable but not frumpy and formal without having embellishment or being fitted, because, let's be real, I think we are all tiring of the oversized-disheveled-Gen Z-look.

Wear over a collared short sleeve polo or draped over your shoulders and tied at the neck in an architectural knot.

Thanks for scrolling. See you next week. Cheers.