Everything you ever wanted to know about Corsets — and the women in 18th century Toronto who made and sold them!
Join us for a series of illustrated talks about corsets, dressmaking and women entrepreneurs in 19th century Toronto. The talks take place at our studio, 9 Neepawa Ave., in Roncesvalles Village, a block south of Howard Park and just east off Roncy.
On Sunday, Oct. 26, 2:00 – 4:00 pm Historian and fashion expert Alanna McKnight will first introduce us to the controversial garment and its evolution with changing styles. She’ll also defend the corset, long blamed for causing health problems in women. This bad rap, Alanna maintains, is undeserved!
Alanna McKnight
In Alanna’s second talk, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2:00 – 4:00 pm, you’ll meet an extraordinary and unconventional corset maker. In the late 19th century, Mme Hannah Vermilyea had a showroom and a store in downtown Toronto and a corset-making factory in the Junction. She also held corset-making patents, was divorced, and was, at one point, caught smuggling corsets across the border!
For her last talk, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2:00 – 4:00 pm,Alanna introduces us to shop-owner Mary Augusta and the pre-industrial needle trade in Toronto. Much has been written about Mary’s husband, Toronto’s second Black doctor, but she would have been forgotten had she not in 1854 placed an ad for her Toronto dressmaking store in a newspaper serving the Black population in Upper Canada.
The talks take place at Back Lane Studios, 9 Neepawa Ave. in Roncesvalles Village (a block south of Howard Park Ave. and just east of Roncesvalles Ave). Tickets: $15 for each lecture (refreshments included). Only 30 tickets are available for each session.
Buy your tickets here in advance on Eventbrite.
Lecture 1. Oct. 26: Corsets, their evolution with changing styles, and why corsets got a bad and undeserved rap!! Buy tickets here.
Lecture 2. Nov.16: The Unconventional Mme Vermilyea: Corset maker, Toronto shop owner, divorcee and smuggler: Sunday, Nov. 16, 2:00-4:00 pm. Buy tickets here.
Lecture 3. Dec. 14: Mary Augusta: The Forgotten Black Dressmaker with a Famous Husband: Sunday, Dec. 14, 2:00 -4:00 pm. Buy tickets here.
More about Alanna:
Alanna is a fan of corsets and has been wearing them and making them for years. She has a degree in Costume Studies from Dalhousie University, followed by a BA and then MA in history from York University. Her study of history was prompted by her fascination with historic dress and her wish to understand the social, economic and political worlds surrounding different styles.
She says she is as passionate about Toronto and its history, as she is about corsets. Her painstaking research through newspapers, city directories and other sources has helped reveal the fascinating stories of Mme Vermiyea, Mary Augusta and Toronto’s needle-trade workers.