Stephens & Cox/Bell~ 18th Century Shirts

100% Reverse Engineered Patterns of Original Garments

The Stephens and Cox/Bell shirts allowed me to delve deeper into the lesser-celebrated aspect of male clothing: undergarments. These particular specimens offer exquisite examples of eighteenth-century workmanship and were part of Hidden in the Archive’s broader research.

Why was the Stephens Shirt chosen to base the Context article upon? Of all the garments, from elegant suits to luxurious dresses, Stephen’s shirt was the one that evoked the most extraordinary emotional response within me. The combination of pure admiration for the constructional skills with expertly refined panache of the most delicate decorative stitching I have ever seen, whilst it also debunked methodologies of construction used for creating period shirts in the current day of French encased seams, as the seams were constructed of tiny 3mm selvedges and whipped together towards the outside. 

Of course, with all the theoretical research undertaken, it seemed a shame not to document the patterns for the Stephens and Cox/Gow shirts, not just for my records but with the view to make them publicly available and for sale.

By request via email to anna@annadeacon.com a 100% paper pattern, which can be either folded or rolled upon request, can be purchased, with a unique, password-protected QR code to link to detailed original artefact photographs, research and construction details. Providing detailed information in this way allows for the most explicit presentation, with the ability to zoom into images and provide hyper-links to other resources. Additionally the service of pattern grading can be undertaken, also reproduction private commissions, price upon request.

This QR system has also been applied to my website, http://www.annadeaconcouture.com, for research links for all of the other Hidden in the Archives research artefacts.