Cries of London in Augusta Stays
The absolute highlight of Costume College for me was getting to spend time with my Augusta Stays collaborator: Amber of Virgil’s Fine Goods. We’d been working on the stays patterns solidly for three months, emailing almost every day. To get to spend three days together together to trade ideas in person: what a treat! And, to make it even better, our third roommate, Cait of Willoughby and Rose, was one of the testers of the pattern. We wanted to show off the stays, so we hatched a plan: dress up as some of the most famous depictions of 18th century stays: the strawberry seller and other street vendors from Wheatly’s ‘Cries of London’. Wheatley was a landscape and portrait painter who worked in Ireland and England, and was elected into the Royal Academy in 1790. Unfortunately the politics around his election put him out of favour with most artistic patrons, and he received no major commissions after 1790. Instead he completed a series of paintings showing the street vendors of London, and their cries. They …
