Abby Cox is a full-time content creator on YouTube. You may have seen some of her videos, with her most popular video “I Wore 18th-Century Clothing *Every Day for 5 YEARS & This Is What I Learned (Corsets Aren’t Bad!)” having nearly 1.5 million views since it was uploaded in May [2020]. Collecting antique garments has been part of her life for the last ten years but, Cox explains, “I have really upped my collecting over the past year since my Youtube channel has grown in popularity, and sharing my antique garments is part of the content I produce.”

     Cox has a BA in Art History, History, and Theatre & Drama (Costume Design & Acting) from Indiana University – Bloomington which was followed by MLitt in Decorative Arts and Design History from University of Glasgow, Scotland. After finishing her degrees Cox worked at Colonial Williamsburg from 2010-2016 in multiple positions including Apprentice Milliner & Mantua-Maker. From Colonial Williamsburg, she moved on to working at American Duchess Shoes as Vice President until earlier this year. While at American Duchess she co-authored two books, The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking (2017) and The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Beauty (2019).

     Cox describes her views on dress history and content creation: “I have been studying and working in the field of dress history for 15 years, and I firmly believe that the study of dress history allows us to better understand the past from a multi-angle perspective, clothes and the wearing of clothing, like food, are deeply relatable things in the human experience and help humanize the past. People wore the clothes in my collection, real human beings with thoughts, feelings, hopes, fears, joys, and losses. Antique clothing carries that energy and, to me, makes the past seem not so far away. Fashion and the production of clothing also had such a huge impact on the economy and culture that by studying the history of dress, we can better understand the broader history of the society that wore those clothes.

    “I also believe in making dress history as accessible as possible, which is one of the reasons why I share my collection online via Youtube. So many people are interested in the subject of dress history or the hobby of historical costuming/reenacting, but they don’t have access to museum collections to study antiques, even before the pandemic. By explaining the garment history and construction details using up-close HD video and photographs, I am helping make antique clothing more accessible, and, as a result, making dress history more accessible.”

     Her average day revolves around the creation and editing of videos for various platforms. “Taking care of my collection is not my full-time job, but when I am producing content around my antiques, it usually involves deciding on what piece I want to feature, filming it, photographing it, getting construction information, and then editing and releasing the video. I also have a Patreon tier that gets an additional video of all the construction detail photos and video clips as well as an extensive construction note PDF Document.”

     Cox tends to collect items that she describes as “wounded birds.” In further explaining her collection she says, “I focus on collecting pre-1920 pieces that are usually ‘wounded birds,’ sometimes kind of ugly (I really like the ugly clothes…), excellent representations of normal clothes, and odd or unique pieces. I also love collecting outside the 22-26” waist size. My oldest piece is c. 1825, with the majority of my collection being late 1890s. Two of my favorite acquisitions have been a 1912 couture evening gown that is structurally sound but suffers from glass bead disease (I tried to donate it to a museum, but the glass bead disease put a stop to that), and an 1860s ensemble that has its skirt, day, and evening bodice all together and in really good condition.” In closing, she points out that “Being a YouTuber is just weird. Really, really weird.”

     In December 2020, Cox was featured in a Dress & Drinks webinar that can be seen on our YouTube channel. You can check out all of our Curator Profiles by clicking here.


~Profile written by Lauren Clark

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