This was our first live session of 2026, and after such a long stretch away it was really good to be back with everyone.

I started with an update on where I have been. We bought a house in Ascot, and what we expected to be a cosmetic refresh turned into a full structural rebuild: plumbing, wiring, floors, and a leaking roof that appeared just when we thought we had finished. I shared before and after photographs of the whole thing.

The part I am most excited about is the insulated outbuilding, which is becoming a proper workshop and sewing studio. That finally makes in-person classes possible, and I talked through what I want those to be. For the second half I took you through the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Marie Antoinette exhibition, which I visited on 11 January. It is the first exhibition ever devoted to her wardrobe, so most of these pieces have never been on public display before.

What We Covered:

• Walked through the renovation with before and after photographs: the deep blue kitchen cabinets, the new bathroom, the utility toilet we added downstairs, the upstairs floors that had to be replaced entirely, and the insulated garage floor and walls.
• Talked through the plan for in-person workshops here in Ascot, hopefully starting in early March. I want to run personal body block workshops with fitting issues properly solved, creative and artistic projects, and a Royal Ascot dress project ahead of June.
• Looked at the court gown shown for Marie Antoinette’s wedding, a French style gown of silver brocade silk. The example on display was worn by the future Queen of Sweden, made from silk ordered from the same Paris supplier as hers.
• Explained how the corsetry of the period shapes the entire posture. The back is boned very high, which pushes the shoulders back and the chest forward and narrows the upper body, until the proportions read almost childlike against the enormous skirts. I demonstrated the stance on myself so you could see it from the side and the back.
• Pointed out how flat the front of those skirts is cut, with all the width pushed out to the sides. That brings the feet forward, which is exactly why decorative shoes became part of the look.
• Discussed boning materials. Whalebone was expensive and used by those who could afford it, while everyone else had metal or wood pushed into stitched casings.
• Studied a robe à la française in shot silk, where a pink warp and a yellow weft together create the shimmer, and a gown in Chinese silk whose resist dyed warp threads give its trailing roses that soft blurred edge.
• Showed the zigzag cut and deliberately frayed silk trimmings. This is a couture technique, not an unfinished edge. You do not have to clean finish every silk edge, and a frayed one can be beautiful.
• Compared the formal robe à la française with the more informal robe à l’anglaise, which has narrow panniers, a tightly pleated back and often striped silk, and then the later cotton and muslin gowns where a pink lining shows through the white for a blush effect.
• Went in close on the embroidery: tiny velvet flowers, feather-like stitching, silk wrapped edging, and a court train sample of the kind a silk merchant would have shown to clients commissioning a gown.
• Found evidence of alteration in one bodice, where extra fabric had been let into the underarm. She refitted and kept her dresses rather than always ordering new ones, which I loved seeing.
• Looked at the Brunswick, a short two piece version of the robe à la française with a hood and detachable sleeves, based on German travelling dress. It is essentially an eighteenth century hooded jacket. Also the domino, a full hooded silk cape fastened with bows and worn with a black velvet mask for masquerades.
• Followed her influence forward through Empress Eugénie and the House of Worth, the 1897 Devonshire House ball, and Lanvin’s robe de style, which reinterpreted her panniers for the art deco period.

Questions & Answers:

• Q: Where were you living while the renovation was going on?
• A: In the house itself. We finished the upstairs bedrooms and bathroom before we moved in, then lived alongside the workers from morning to night. I project managed the whole thing and bought all the materials myself, which gave me control over exactly what I was paying for.
• Q: Are you having cabinets installed in the outbuilding studio for your fabrics?
• A: Yes. There is also a separate insulated shed just across from the garage, and that is where the fabrics will live so everything stays clean and dry.
• Q: What did they use for the boning in those corsets?
• A: Whalebone for the wealthy, because it was costly. Everyone else used metal or wood slotted into stitched casings.

It was lovely to be back after so long, and to spend the session on something as special as the first ever exhibition of Marie Antoinette’s wardrobe.

This is only volume one. Next time I want to show you how her style fed into work by Chanel, Dior, Galliano and Lanvin, along with the couture pieces at the end of the exhibition and the costumes from Sofia Coppola’s film.

I will also answer Liz’s question about geometrical cutting, and talk properly about what the in-person workshops are going to cover.