Followers of Fashion

I had a job to keep up with my Mr Darcy last week in Bath, finally cornering him in the Assembly Rooms. Luckily he was as keen as I was to venture downstairs to the Museum of Costume - the gorgeous exhibition of 17th century embellished and embroidered gloves piqued even his highfalutin taste.

The museum also offers a colourful look at fashionable clothes from more recent periods.

I had forgotten how cool the '80s were, if you were wealthy enough to wear Galliano.

***

Later at the American Museum at Claverton Manor, near Bath, I found a "look" that was very much to my taste.

The museum also displays the original simple cotton kerchief, spotlessly clean and ironed smooth, worn by Nancy Burns a freed slave, and depicted in a watercolour of her dated 1844.

And as we made our way home for tea we found another delightful example of humble fashions in Frome - the neat frills worn by these stone maidens, carved in the late 18th century to adorn a charity school offering training in domestic skills to poor girls. ("I'll bet they're discussing that appalling pointing," said Mr Darcy.)

***    

N.B. Both museums mentioned above now allow photography - Hooray!