Janet Arnold Research Showcase: Textile Culture, Social Fabric, and the Unravelling of Material History, organised by Dr Linda Grant FSA

This one-day conference will take an expansive and up-to-date view of the cultural and historical contexts of textiles, dress and fashion. Supported by the Janet Arnold fund located in The Society of Antiquaries of London, the event will showcase the dynamism and interdisciplinarity of this burgeoning field of scholarship, and the range of projects, methodologies and practices that are driving research. Bringing together historical, archaeological and contemporary ways of thinking about dress and the textiles from which it is made, this event will showcase recent research that bridges both theory and practice, including the reconstruction of historical garments and what we can learn from them.

Spanning textile culture, visual and material culture, histories of art and design, archaeology, and literary studies, this conference will take a global approach to exploring the interwoven relationships between textiles, dress, history and our understanding of the social fabric across time and place.

Confirmed Papers:

Keynote address: Western colonialism and cultural constructions of luxury and dress in the Southeast Asian region from the mid-19th century to the present by Professor Mina Roces, University of New South Wales

Shoes and the Georgian Man by Professor Matthew McCormack, University of Northampton

The Masquerade: Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Costumed Leisure Culture by Dr Meg Kobza, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, University of Newcastle

A Homestead in the Forest: Exploring a Quilt Constructed by Jane and May Morris by Dr Kathy Haslam, Curator at Kelmscott Manor

Recreating the Items Given to ‘Greensleeves’ in the C16th Song: Her Smock, Her Stockings, Her Garters, Her Petticoats, Her Shoes, Girdle, Kerchers, Purse, Pins, and her Famous ‘Gown…of the Grossie Green,’ with ‘Sleeues of Satten Hanging by Tamsin Lewis, Passamezzo

Full schedule for the day TBC

If you have any questions, please contact us on [email protected].

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