-
Margaret F. Rosenthal and Ann Rosalind Jones, The Clothing of the Renaissance World (2008)
by Katy Bond When Cesare Vecellio published his celebrated book of world dress in 1590, the Earth’s horizons must have seemed to the Venetian artist, to be ever-expanding. First published under the title, ‘Degli habiti antichi et oderni di diverse parti del mondo’ (‘Of the clothing, ancient and modern, of diverse parts of the world’),…
-
Exposing the ‘Naked Man’: A 16th-century motif of cultural nudity
by Katy Bond “Everyone’s way is made known through clothing” said Hans Weigel, author of a 1577 costume book of Nuremberg which illustrated the dress of a variety of nations.[i] In Renaissance Europe, it was expected that one’s countrymen would be identifiable through distinctive modes of dressing.
-
What Not to Wear: The Importance of Women’s Fashion in the Eighteenth Century and Today
By Matilda Embling Women and fashion are often explicitly linked. One only has to consider the media coverage of the new Duchess of Sussex to uncover how frequently a woman’s identity is equated to, or even entirely subsumed by, the clothing she wears. In a recent Guardian article , the more conservative muted wardrobe she…
-
Fashion Gallery as Archive: Researching Dress History in Museums
By Zara Kesterton (@ZaraKesterton) In recent years, it has become fashionable to talk of an ‘archival turn’ in history, in which the site of record-keeping has itself come under scrutiny.[1] At the same time, material history has risen to prominence as an intriguing counterpart or companion to the paper-trail left by written documents.[2] As someone…
-
Art in the Time of Coronavirus
By Zara Kesterton (@ZaraKesterton) 15 March 2020: we were beginning to realise just how much of an impact the coronavirus pandemic would have on all our lives. One of my friends messaged a group chat, ‘Now that we aren’t allowed to touch anything ever again does it spell the end of material culture? Is the…
doinghistoryinpublic.org 