Dress, the history of fashion, is a production of iHeart Radio.

With over 7 billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common.

Every day, we all get dressed.

Welcome to Dress, the history of fashion, a podcast that explores the who, what, when, of why we wear.

We are fashion historians and your host, Cassidy Zachary.

And April Callahan.

Dress listeners, we return to you today with part two of our conversation with Lace Maker and historian, Alina Kanagilu.

Alina joined us earlier this week to discuss the history of lace making and share a bit about how the making and wearing of handmade lace was a common quote-unquote thread that united the lives of women for centuries.

And also how its construction and consumption spoke to broader issues of women's roles in society at the time.

And Cass, I love this little passage that I'm about to read.

This is from Iris Anthony's novel, The Ruins of Lace.

She writes, and this is fiction, this is historic fiction, but she encapsulates it so perfectly.

She says, Lace is formed from the absence of substance.

It is imagined in the spaces between threads.

Lace is a thing like hope.

It is lived, it survived, and was desired for what it was not.

If faith, as the nun said, was the substance of things hoped for, then Lace was the outline, the suggestion of things not seen.

Well, that's quite lovely.

And for actually anyone interested in historical fiction, Iris' book is about two French lace makers and is a little bit of a mystery novel as well.

I hope that out if you are so inclined.

But listeners not all handmade lace belongs to history, instead it belongs to not only today, but also tomorrow.

And we are so pleased to welcome Elena back for part two to discuss her own work as well as the contemporary lace making scene.

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