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By: Isabel Dunstan
Date: 26th Mar 08
Product: Design
Anatomy: Heart
What:
Cottage Industry
Where:
67 Gertrude St, Fitzroy
When:
Wed-Sat 11pm-6pm
Contact:
9419 2430
Visit Penelope's blog here
We know year 8 history lessons were no fun without shoebox dioramas or discovering crap in fossilised rock. But those educated brain cells were probably obliterated in the following years behind the school shed. So here's a quick refresher - make a diorama while reading this if you must...
Despite the rib-snapping corsets and ludicrous wigs men insisted on wearing, the 1850s marked many beginnings in contemporary fashion. Waistcoats set the trend for the modern business suit and woman began wearing pants in the style of bloomers. More relevant to the point of this article is the cottage industry. A cottage industry was a manufacturing industry where highly skilled craftspeople whipped up wearable goods from home and took them to a marketplace to sell.
Wake up, class, because there's a new cottage industry in view. It's where Penelope Durston has found home to sell her crafts. All her cushions, bags, purses, and heartbreakingly-soft angora pieces can be purchased for prices that are too reasonable to be right. Have we replenished those damaged brain cells today? A recap: Penelope Durston is now on Gertrude Street and the fashionistas of the 1850s set some trends. And thank your angora mittens we forgot about the wigs.