Trust the history of fashion is a production of I Heart Radio.

Over 8 billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common.

Every day, we all get dressed. Welcome to Dressed, the history of fashion.

The podcast will be explored the who, what, when, of why we wear.

We are fashion historians and your hosts, April Callahan and Cassidy Zachary.

Welcome dress listeners. As with so many of our episodes today, we are being transported back

in time to September 20th, 1838, to be exact, when a young British woman by the name of Anne

Sykes was given a diary on her wedding day. And this is actually no ordinary diary because it's

a dress diary and one that is composed almost entirely of fabric swatches.

2,134 fabric swatches to be exact, Cass. And these were collected by Anne from her clothing and

that of over 100 different people over the course of her long life. She actually died in 1890.

So fast forward more than 120 years later. And this extraordinary diary fell into the hands of today's

guest, Dress Astorian Kate Straston, who is joining us today for the third time. And if I am not

wrong, Cass, this might make her a contender for most frequent guests. Dressed guests.

Some of our listeners may remember that we welcomed Kate to our very first season to discuss

a Sartorial Life and Legacy of Queen Alexandra. And then she joined us again in 2019 as part of

our live recording of Dress at the Bard Graduate Center in New York City, where we are part of a

panel discussing their French fashion, women, and First World War exhibition. Yes, and Kate and I

actually remember this very clearly because I was so excited to finally meet her in person and we

went to breakfast the day after our recording. And it was then that she first told me of this

incredible dress diary that had come into her possession and that she had plans to write this book

that we are actually here to talk about today. I'm so excited. Her book, The Dress Diary of Mrs.

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