Peacock Dress 2: Unpacking a dark history

As the world changes and commits to creating a more inclusive, equitable world, some historical clothing makers have been asking hard questions specific to what we do. How on earth do we go on admiring and happily sewing clothes from a history that's laced with racism and injustice?

I've been thinking hard about this myself, since as I'm sure you are aware, there's more to the Peacock dress than pretty metallic embroidery.

This week, I want to share more about the historical landscape in which the Peacock dress was designed, made, and worn - including a potential connection to my own ancestors - and if I may, I'd like to share the thoughts of one insignificant, white, middle class woman about where we might go from here as people recreating these clothes.

I think there IS something important that we can contribute - in fact, I think we have a small but highly relevant part to play in helping to create a better world.

I hope you'll let me know what you think.

Footnotes: apologies that most of these are Wikipedia links, I'm still early in this journey.
1 - First Indian War of Independence, 1857 / "Rebellion": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Rebellion_of_1857
2 - Britain in India: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_British_Raj
3 - Muslin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslin#History
4 - Dr Shashi Tharoor on what Britain owes to India: https://youtu.be/f7CW7S0zxv4

Further reading: this has been my first port of call...
An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India by Shashi Tharoor

Images:
- Thumbnail: Muslim Lady Reclining or An Indian Girl with a Hookah, painted in Dacca, Bengal Presidency. A woman in Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent clad in fine Bengali muslin, by Francesco Renaldi, 1789 {{PD-US}}
- Mrs Edmund Morton Pleydell by Thomas Gainsborough
- Illustration from ''Journal für Fabrik, Manufaktur, Handlung und Mode''. Leipzig, Voß, 1st half of the year 1796.
- Photograph of Cavendish Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne: One of a number of mills in the town where my ancestors lived. Photograph by Clem Rutter, Rochester, Kent.
- Peacock dress listing on the National Trust website: http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/107881

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Видео Peacock Dress 2: Unpacking a dark history канала Cathy Hay