Celebrate Jane Austen's 250th birthday with dress historian Hilary Davidson

We are delighted to celebrate the 250th birthday of the beloved novelist, Jane Austen, in the company of author and dress historian Hilary Davidson.

Dress in the Age of Jane Austen: Regency Fashion

Jane Austen was a social commentator. Dress is a nuanced social marker, and her novels use clothing and needlework to pinpoint niceties of character. Austen’s letters reveal a lively interest in clothes, alongside her concerns about how to dress well on limited income. During the author’s short life, unprecedented and accelerated change saw Britain’s turbulent entry into the modern age. Clothing reflected these transitions on local and global scales, and exploring the dress experiences of people who lived through Austen’s age goes a long way to understanding her work, her time, and its histories. In this talk, dress historian Hilary Davidson explores the lives and dress of the middle-class British gentry during the ‘long’ Regency (1795-1823) through the lens of Jane Austen’s life and writing, drawing on five years of research for her groundbreaking 2019 book Dress in the Age of Jane Austen: Regency Fashion (Yale University Press).

Pour yourself a cup or glass of your favourite tea/wine/beverage and join us online ...

**If you are unable to make the live talk, Hilary has kindly agreed that we can record her talk and send you a link afterwards. Sign up to Eventbrite to be on the list for the recording.**

Speaker:

Hilary Davidson is a dress and textile historian, curator and archaeologist. She has worked, lectured, broadcast and taught internationally across a huge range of expertise, and is currently Associate Professor and Chair of the MA Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory Museum Practice at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York.

Praise for Dress in the Age of Jane Austen: Regency Fashion:

'With this debut, Davidson… has done a superb job … This extensively researched and beautifully illustrated book is fascinating to read, fills a gap in Austen scholarship, and makes an impressive contribution to Austen studies.’ Publishers Weekly

‘This book is a very good example of history lightly worn but also a serious work of scholarship. The concept of taking one notable writer whose novels capture a period and to use her and her pin-sharp observation to illuminate a historic period is a clever one and Hilary Davidson makes it work perfectly.’ Colin McDowell

‘The best book on Regency dress ever written’ Paula Byrne, Times Literary Supplement

‘Combining meticulous scholarship and intellectual heft with an engaging, approachable style is one of the most difficult writing tasks there is, but Davidson makes it seem effortless’ Kerryn Goldsworthy, Sydney Morning Herald

‘A sumptuous book, its 180 beautifully reproduced colour plates complemented by Yale’s high-quality design features, and Davidson draws her details from a vast range of sources… thoroughly informative’. Times Literary Supplement

‘One of those books that you wish could just go on and on. At 300 plus pages, one would think I’d be satisfied, but the topic is so interesting, and Hilary’s approach is so novel that I could do with a few more chapters.’ The Vintage Traveler

Images: Portrait of Jane by her sister Cassandra c.1810; Watercolour of Jane by her sister Cassandra, 1804; Change in High Bond Street, James Gilray, 1796

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Online Programme 2025

Follow the Costume & Textile Association's Eventbrite page to receive notifications when new events are posted. Talks are held monthly on Tuesday or Wednesday evenings at 7pm.

Spring & Summer 2025

Weds 22 January Briefly: Men's Underwear and Swimwear 1940s - 2020s with Dr Shaun Cole, Associate Professor in Fashion at Winchester School of Art

Tues 11 February Recording Historical Costume Pattern Drafts with Anna Deacon, GSMB award winner

Wed 12 March Recycled Denim Art, 'The Secret Garden' and other Artworks with Ian Berry, Visual Artist

Tues 8 April Stitching like it's 1066: a Bayeux-style 'Tapestry' for Norwich Castle Keep with Nik Ravenscroft, Project Co-ordinator

Tues 6 May Lorina Bulwer's Embroidered Letters with Ruth Battersby, Senior Curator, Costume and Textiles, NMS

Tues 24 June The Vogue Fashion Photography of Lee Miller during WW2 with Ami Bouhassane, Trustee of the Lee Miller Archives (**Please note this talk is not being recorded)

Tues 15 July Japanese Textile Techniques on Historic Kimono with Dr Rosanna Rios, Textile Artist

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