Perhaps you could take a tour of the costuming department of a local theater or look at the history of fashion.
A propos of this suggestion, I was looking just yesterday at photos of the most wonderful collection of reproduction 18th-century clothing; a woman who is working on an MA in historical textiles reproduced an entire wardrobe of a middle-class English woman ca. 1750-70, using only historically appropriate sewing techniques--very fascinating! And beautiful clothes (even though I'm strictly a T-shirt and blue jeans kind of a gal, I love looking at lovely garments, I must say!). She also has some very interesting observations about cultural history. Here's the address:
http://brocadegoddess.wordpress.com/Sorry, kind of veered off down a tangent, but thought it might strike her as interesting.
mm
