Site Map
Every page on the site, arranged by section.
How the collection is organised
The collection is described in three layers and they are meant to be read in any order. The era pages are the spine: one page per period, each covering the silhouette that defined it, the fabrics and construction methods in general use, and the specific details that place a garment in that decade rather than the one either side of it. The category references cut across the eras, following bridal and eveningwear as continuous stories from the nineteenth century to the 1990s. The material pages sit underneath both, dealing with the cloth itself and with what keeps it intact.
If you are trying to date something, start with the relevant era page and then check the construction notes in the bridal reference, which collects the dating markers — closures, seam finishes, interior structure and waist position — in one place. If you are trying to identify a fabric or a lace, start with textiles. If you have something and want to keep it, start with care and storage.
The collection
- Home — an introduction to the collection
- About Mill Crest Vintage — the collection, how it was built and what it was used for
- Notes on Vintage — the longer pieces, collected
Bridal and eveningwear
- Vintage Wedding Dresses: A Decade-by-Decade Reference — the bridal silhouette from the Victorian period to the 1990s, and how to date a gown
- Assessing a Vintage Wedding Dress — condition, fabric failure and the real limits of alteration
- Vintage Evening Dresses — formal, dinner and cocktail dress, and evening construction
By era
- Victorian — the long nineteenth-century line and hand-finishing
- Edwardian — the S-bend, whitework and fine cotton
- 1920s Vintage — the dropped waist and the unstructured line
- 1930s Vintage — the bias cut
- 1940s Vintage — rationing, substitution and rayon
- 1950s Vintage — the full skirt and the tea length
- 1960s Vintage — the raised waist and the shift
- 1970s Vintage — soft historicism and the natural waist
- 1980s Vintage — scale, shoulder and structure
- 1990s Vintage — reduction and the matte column
Materials and care
- Vintage Textiles — fibres, weaves and lace, and how to identify them
- Caring for and Storing Vintage Textiles — storage, light, humidity and pests
Practical guides
- Measuring for a Vintage Dress — the measurements that matter and how much ease to allow
- Wearing Vintage — starting out, mixing eras and why the construction is better
Nothing described here is for sale, in stock, or available to order.