Dr Serena Dyer

Lovely short video by fashion historian @serenadyer.bsky.social on the new Marie Antoinette exhibition at the V&A museum

To learn more about the doomed Queen of France, check out our recent episode of BBC YOU’RE DEAD TO ME about her with @100days1815.bsky.social & Jen Brister

Thank you for the shout out Greg!

YouTube video by Serena Dyer What did 18th-Century Women *REALLY* Wear?

“When a woman chose her gown…she was making a statement about her place in the world.” - @serenadyer.bsky.social #18thcentury #gowns #fashion #clothing #history
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GlS...

YouTube video by HistoryExtra Did pregnant women really wear corsets in the past?

Love this video about 17th-century clothing from @serenadyer.bsky.social: www.youtube.com/shorts/uG3uL... #fashion #history #clothing #17thcentury #women

Photo of the book cover for Embodied Experiences of Making in Early Modern Europe.

Photo of the first page of chapter 7, titled "Remaking Sixteenth-Century Botanical Woodblocks: Embodied Artisanal Knowledge in Early Modern Woodcutting."

Received my copy two weeks ago but only able to open the parcel now! Exciting book edited by @sarahabendall.bsky.social and @serenadyer.bsky.social.

More info: www.aup.nl/en/book/9789...

Get 20% off with discount code “AUP20”, valid until 31 March 2025.

In Conversation: Shoes and the Georgian Man Serena Dyer talks with Matthew McCormack about his new book, Shoes and the Georgian Man, published by Bloomsbury in January 2025.

Next week, I'll be having a chat about my new book with @serenadyer.bsky.social as part of the Northampton-Leicester @histassoc.bsky.social programme.

6pm on 11 March. It's online and free to attend - sign up below:
www.eventbrite.com/e/in-convers...

Photo of the cover of the book 'Material Literacy in Eighteenth-Century Britain: A Nation of Makers' edited by Serena Dyer and Chloe Wigston Smith, published by Bloomsbury. Cover image is eighteenth-century painting depicting upper class women crafting together.

Absolutely thrilled to have won the @cecs-york.bsky.social book giveaway! 😊 Can't wait to dive into this wonderful anthology - many, many thanks to @chloewigstonsmith.bsky.social & @serenadyer.bsky.social!📖

Eighteenth-Century Political Participation & Electoral Culture 18th-century Britain is notorious for corrupt and restrictive politics, when few could vote, bribery and debauchery were commonplace. But it was also an age when modern democracy was being shaped.

For anyone interested in #c18th political or electoral history & for students researching EPQs, special subjects &/or final year dissertations, do check out the wealth of data & information available on our Political Participation
& Electoral Culture (ECPPEC) website #skystorians 🗃️ecppec.ncl.ac.uk

The book Material Literacy in 18th Century Britain, posed before the King’s Manor building in York.

Hello, new followers! CECS is delighted to share a book giveaway: Material Literacy in 18th c Britain, co-edited by @chloewigstonsmith.bsky.social (CECS’s new director) and @serenadyer.bsky.social (CECS alum). To enter: reply to our post with your favourite #18thC material object / skill

Histories of fashion, dress, and textiles are not just found in texts, images, and extant objects. The ‘embodied turn’ (Davidson, 2019) has seen scholars, curators and makers alike turn to their needles, dyestuffs, and looms to investigate how making can elucidate on how we understand the garments of the past. Joining the generations of conservators and experimental archaeologists who have employed similar methods, these maker-researchers are employing innovative techniques and practices to consider how retracing the creative processes of the past can reveal new dimensions to historical material knowledge. However, much of this research is difficult to capture and translate into the traditional written formats of the monograph or journal article. It is tacit, felt in the fingers, hands, and body, and challenging to wrangle into a comprehensible written form. Recreative Reflections invites authors to experiment with short-form modes of articulating and communicating their recreative practice approaches to dress and textile history. We seek short essays of 1,000 words to appear as part of the Recreative Reflections section of the Bloomsbury Dress and Costume Library. These may comprise of pieces of reflective writing, autoethnographic studies, or accounts of making projects and the interventions and new knowledge which they exposed. We especially encourage authors to consider the broader value of their recreative work. How, for example, might it feed into understandings of historical bodies, notions of gender, the relationship between bodies and machines, or the temporalities of making. Reflections should be submitted to Dr Serena Dyer and Dr Sarah Bendall at serena.dyer@dmu.ac.uk by 24th February 2025.

@serenadyer.bsky.social & I are pleased to announce a #cfp for our new edited online collection of Reflective Recreations with @bloomsburyfashion.bsky.social We seek short pieces of 1k words around recreative practice in dress & fashion history, museum studies & more! See the call & deadline below:

Spent a fabulous day with part of the 18th-century mantua-making dream team. We’re working on an exciting new collaborative making project with Leicestershire Museums Service 🪡

@serenadyer.bsky.social & I are thrilled to announce that our edited book is out now!

It focuses on how processes of making, experimenting, experiencing, & reconstructing illuminate understandings around manual labour & material life.

Overview 🧵 on 📕 chapters & our contributors! 👇

Very excited to share that I am now represented by Carrie Plitt at Felicity Bryan Literary Agency ✍️ Working with her and the team at Felicity Bryan has been an absolute delight so far, and I can’t wait to share more about what’s in the pipeline!

My piece for BBC Sheffield on the origins of Topshop also went live today! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

I had a lovely time on BBC Radio Bristol this afternoon chatting to John Darvall about the history of tights! Go to 2hrs 51mins to hear the segment. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Wondering what to get the fashion history fans in your life for Christmas? @bloomsburyfashion.bsky.social currently has 30% off a huge range of titles, including three of my own books. www.bloomsbury.com/uk/material-...

DMU research to investigate history of women A DMU research project will shed new light on sportswear culture as it looks to record the history of the uniforms worn for women

A big welcome to @emmyailish.bsky.social who has started her pioneering PhD on the history of women's hockey clothing with @serenadyer.bsky.social and @hdichter.bsky.social @icshc.bsky.social. The project is a collaboration with the Hockey Museum. Full story here www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/ne...

Thrilled to be supervising @emmyailish.bsky.social on this exciting project along with @serenadyer.bsky.social in conjunction with The Hockey Museum. Can’t wait to see what exciting work she produces! 🗃️

We discovered this during our house renovation work today. I wonder who Lee and Katie were. And I hope they don’t mind that I just ripped up their c. 1990 tiling.

Lots of new followers today so this is worth reposting! @serenadyer.bsky.social and I have an edited volume forthcoming with amazing chapters from fellow historians and art historians. Please consider asking your libraries to preorder! 📚

Some home renovation updates! Just don’t look down…the floor is next weekend’s task.

I’m on the hunt for garments in museum collections that are stained with (known or conjectured) menstrual blood (from any time/place) 🩸 Do you know of any?

@serenadyer.bsky.social & I are delighted to announce a project we’ve been working on: our forthcoming edited volume ‘Embodied Experiences of Making in Early Modern Europe’ is now available for pre-order with AUP! Published 13 Dec!

www.aup.nl/en/book/9789...

Learning to do repousee work....Lots of chance to think through your hands at the 'Making Historical Dress' festival at De Montfort University. @serenadyer.bsky.social @sarahabendall.bsky.social #earlymodern

Fitting the front of a mantua

Fitting the front of the bodice...

And the front is now in place...if it needs to be extended later, you will add in additional straps of fabric.

Corset fitting

And now for the keynote we have been waiting for at 'Making Historical Dress'...@serenadyer.bsky.social and Brooke Welborn walk us through making an 18th century Mantua. ##earlymodern

Day 2 of the 'Making Historical Dress' conference at DMU in Leicester. Paula Hohti's keynote on recreating 17th century stockings from Turku in Finland.

Reconstructing a doublet from the Verney collection - redated to around 1637 - toile shows that it is probably for a child or adolescent - could be Mun Verney who had scoliosis.

@serenadyer.bsky.social up on stage now to tell us about learning through remaking.How do we regain access to the hands of tailors and those who sewed garments in the 18th century? Experimental history needs to step up to the task.