A Downton Abbey Fashion Primer & Tea

PROVIDENCE, RI – With the approach of the Season Four Finale of the popular
television drama Downton Abbey, Providence Public Library invites fans of the show
to join cultural historian Madelyn Shaw for a discussion of the season’s fashion and
a look at where — sartorially — the Grantham family has been and where they are
heading.

The program will take place on Sunday, February 23 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm in the
Library’s Meeting Room (3rd Floor), 150 Empire Street, Providence. Following the
lecture, participants are invited to gather for tea on the Library’s Grand Marble
Staircase balcony. The cost for the lecture and tea is $10 per person and will
benefit PPL’s Adult Learning Programs. Space is limited. Millinery and attire from
the era encouraged!

For complete information and to get tickets, visit:
www.provlib.org/events/downton-abbey-fashion-primer-tea

A Downton Abbey Fashion Primer, 1912-1925
Fashion has a social role. What we wear tells people a lot about who we are, or who
we want others to think we are. The time span of the BBC costume drama Downton Abbey
encompasses some of the most momentous social upheaval in British and American
society, and the show’s costumers have worked hard to use the costumes to define
character and to illustrate the place in society that the characters occupy.

The Speaker
Ms. Shaw is a well-respected museum curator and consultant, and has created
exhibitions for the New Bedford Whaling Museum and the American Textile Museum in
Lowell, Massachusetts. She has been affiliated with The Museum at F.I.T., NY and the
RI School of Design. In addition to her expertise on textiles of the Civil War era,
she also lectures on textiles connected with the maritime trades, aviation, and the
fashion industry.