Friday Fashion: Exhibition about Keats lover: Fanny Brawne

Abbie Cornish and Ben Wishawe as Fanny Brawne and John Keats in Bright Star

Those of us who have seen Bright Star cannot get past our curiosity about Fanny Brawne, a Regency seamstress and John Keats's lover (played superbly by Abbie Cornish). The film was breathtaking and illuminating.

"According to Wentworth Place, the museum ran inside Keats’ Hampstead home, Brawne subscribed to plenty of fashion magazines of the era, and didn’t just sew idly- but was practically a fashion designer in waiting. This summer Wentworth Place are opening up an exhibition based not just on her relationship with Keats, but with the clothes she was drawn to and created (through a series of created artworks made to discover.)" - Fashion for Lunch

Abbie Cornish as Fanny Brawne

Fashion Exhibition About Keats Lover:

"No one knew until long after the death of poet John Keats; when his love letters to Fanny Brawne were published in 1878, about the fiance who had been his companion during those final years. Brawne it seems was known for being elegant, witty and really into fashion- the timely Regency style of course, and anything else with a historical whim to it."

The Needle is Always At Hand will be exhibited at the John Keats House in Hampstead, London, from June 14 through August 14, 2011.

"An exhibition exploring Fanny Brawne's time at Keats House through her interest in dress. Blurring the lines between costume and art this exhibition invites visitors to find each piece for themselves, to discover more about Fanny Brawne, Regency fashions and dressmaking."

FREE with an admission ticket to the house.

Fanny Brawne

Read: A Biography of Fanny Brawne and Discussion of her Romance With John Keats.

Friday Fashion: Fabulous Find

Gentle Readers, What a fabulous find. This link to Letters and fashion plates from the time of Jane Austen from the Priaulx Library. leads to a series of letters that could have been written by a friend of Catherine Morland or Lydia Bennet.

The Priaulx Library's mission is to promote and celebrate Guernsey life, language, history, culture, and literature, and to give access to our unique rare book collection.

Fashion, November 1798

Description of the collection of letters and fashion plate on the library's site:

Some fascinating letters from a young Caroline Guille Le Marchant to her friends in Bath and London, from Edith Carey's Scrapbook, and some contemporary winter ladies costumes for Christmas, from two bound volumes of fashion-plates, entitled in French Figures. The plates are hand-coloured; some are from The Fashions of London and Paris, a monthly magazine that began publication in 1798, published by Richard Phillips.