Regency fashion-obsessed teen looks like a character from Bridgerton

SWNS

Meet the fashion-obsessed teen who looks like she’s walked straight from the set of Bridgerton - with a wardrobe full of 300 handmade historical outfits.   Eleanor Shendery, 16, painstakingly crafted her outfits over 3,000 hours in total.   She wears the floor-length gowns while visiting castles, stately homes and on historical reenactments.   Eleanor's grandmother, Ann Gill, 79, taught her to sew eight years ago - she started making her own dresses aged 12 and has built up quite the collection.   Eleanor, an A-Level student, from York, Yorkshire, said: "People used to say I dressed like something out of Pride and Prejudice - but since Bridgerton came out, everyone thinks my style is really cool.”  Eleanor has always loved history and decided to make an outfit from the Tudor era after Ann taught her to sew.   She said: "It was a brown Tudor gown made from some curtains my parents were throwing away.  "I made it over the course of two-or-three days."  Eleanor spends days on her designs and reuses pieces of material she finds in charity shops to be as sustainable as possible.   She said: "My parents were throwing old clothes and I wanted to see what I could make of it.  "It doesn't have to be an expensive hobby - people should express themselves.  "I got a pair of curtains they were throwing away - some of my mum's friends have donated some spare fabric lying around."   Eleanor has to wear a uniform at school - but likes to incorporate Edwardian-style blouses and jewellery in her day-to-day style.   She wears a lot of "preppy" skirts and dresses - and describes her outfits as "cottagecore".   A lot of her clothes are second-hand - and her favourite app to shop on is Vinted.   She said: “It would be unrealistic to wear my regency costumes all the time - but I do like to incorporate some of the elements into everyday wear.   “When I’m not at school, I like to wear flowy blouses and tudor-style jewellery.   “I’d probably say my fashion is very cottagecore, to be honest.”  Eleanor says she feels “lucky” that she gets lots of compliments on her outfits - and says people are “indifferent” at worst.   She said: "I think most people really like it - especially since Bridgerton came out - I've never met anyone who isn't supportive.  "Some people think it's really cool and ask me about it - the response has been quite positive."  Eleanor is finding the hobby hard to balance alongside schoolwork.   She said: "In 2022 I made 75 dresses, in 2023 it was about 30, and this year I have only made seven so far."  "I definitely need to find the balance, as I do have a sewing room in my house that I need to make use of."  When she finds time, Eleanor attends many historical reenactments, meet ups and events where she has had the opportunity to meet others who share her love of history and period fashion.   She is also a member of a historical dance group and has visited castles across the country in which she sports her best dresses.  She said: “I often have people coming up and asking me for photos, thinking I work there.  "I've received very positive reactions from everyone, people are generally really fascinated."  With the latest season of Bridgerton just around the corner, Eleanor is a big fan of the show and loves that it has brought historical costuming to the forefront.   She said: "Historical costuming has always been around, but Bridgerton has definitely blown it up on social media."  You can see more of Eleanor's designs on her TikTok -  https://www.tiktok.com/@eleanor.costumes?lang=en

Transcript

00:00 Hello, my name is Amarna Shundari. I am 16 years old and I make historical costumes.

00:06 I started costume making in the end of 2019, beginning of 2020, so a few months before lockdown.

00:16 But I've always been sewing since I was like little, I think I was eight when I learned to sew.

00:23 I've always had a huge passion for history and so I really kind of wanted to get into historical costuming, so that was always my plan.

00:32 So I started off by making kind of more simplistic clothes and then around halfway through 2020 during lockdown, I started making historical costumes.

00:45 My first costume was a Tudor gown, it was made out of my parents' curtains that they were throwing away and I just haven't stopped since then.

00:54 My favourite era to do is probably anything sort of the end of the 15th century, early 16th century, so kind of the early Tudor period is definitely my favourite to make from.

01:06 I think that the Regency dresses, even though they're very simplistic, they're really pretty and I also really like the sort of classical elements that come into them, I think that's just beautiful.

01:17 So I was taught to sew by my grandmother who was an art and textiles teacher and she really inspired me to kind of get started.

01:34 I think a lot of what I've learned is sort of with the foundations of what she taught me, like how to sew, you know, how clothes are constructed, how patterns are made, fabric.

01:47 Definitely I've learned a lot from her and also the elements of the artistic side, I've definitely learned from her.

01:53 But then a lot of it's kind of stuff I've taught myself, but definitely her foundation and her inspiration was really what got me started with it.

02:02 [Sewing]

02:04 I've made 300 costumes now. I'd say in my current collection that I've got in my house I've got about 150, because I tend, I've sold a few and I've dismantled quite a number of them that I know I'm not going to wear.

02:21 Most of them are kept in my sewing room, which used to be a spare room but now is my sewing/craft room.

02:30 [Birds chirping]

02:32 Probably would say like there's about 60 of them that I wear reasonably regularly and that, you know, I'm quite proud of and they're sort of the most recent costumes I've made like in the last year or two.

02:47 [Birds chirping]

02:52 In terms of my future kind of costume plans, I'd definitely like to probably continue with the similar styles that I'm doing at the moment, but just make more accurate costumes, more detailed costumes, possibly work on embroidery and beading.

03:07 That's something I definitely want to do.

03:09 But again, I'd like to do kind of more research projects because what I want to do in the future is preferably be a historian.

03:18 So I think I'd really like to do more research into how I can make the costumes even more accurate and sort of construction techniques and maybe looking at some more unique things, definitely like the pre-Raphaelite art.

03:32 I absolutely love that and I'd like to do more costumes with that style.

03:35 [Birds chirping]

03:37 [Music]

03:39 (birds chirping)

03:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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