Someone asked - Did people really wear those jackets?

I have just returned from Maidstone Museum where thanks to their dynamic curator, Fiona Woolley, Mary Brooks gave a fascinating talk on 17th century embroideries and reaised work - and what lies hidden inside them. There was also time to really take in the beautiful Maidstone Jacket which is simply quite beautiful. And it is simply more astonishing to realise that at some point in the past it would have clothed a living breathing person. What would she have been doing while wearing it....collecting flowers in the garden, dancing, stitching....? Someone asked me when they saw it - did people really wear those jackets? And the answer is yes. And they still do.

This is Laura Mellin of Extremecostuming.com who is not only wearing a jacket based upon the Maidstone Jacket and a wonderful coif - but she made both herself, and here she is putting in hours on the Plimoth Plantation Jacket also. How fantstic is that? I predict that 2010 will definitely be the year of Amazing Jackets!