I am the owner of the Mantua-Maker Historical Sewing Patterns, established in 1994. My costuming career began early – making dresses for my sister’s dolls. I discovered costuming at the BayCon masquerade, a science fiction convention held in 1985, and soon thereafter fell in love with historical costuming. After many years of collecting historical clothing terms, I decided to assemble and share them with other costume historians.

When I started Elephant's Breath & London Smoke, I could name twenty or thirty colours. I had no idea what Fraise Écrasée or Nacarat might be. I decided to start a list, with any explanations I could find, and my list kept growing at an appalling rate. I am very pleased to be able to share that list with other people interested in color.