The field of dress history has experienced exponential growth over the past two decades. This in-depth investigation examines the expanding borders and porous boundaries of the discipline today, outlining key debates and showcasing the most exciting research.With international case studies from a wide range of scholars, the volume encompasses work from a variety of historical periods from the late 18th century to the present day. Contributors examine, critique and expand the methodologies and sources used in fashion history, analyse how dress is collected, displayed and sold, and investigate clothing's meanings and uses in the practice of identity.Exploring overlooked territories and new approaches to analysis, the book offers students and scholars a fresh appraisal of dress history in the 21st century.

List of IllustrationsPrefaceNotes on ContributorsIntroduction - Dress History Now: Terms, Themes and Tools, Charlotte Nicklas and Annebella Pollen, University of Brighton, UK1. Dress Thinking: Disciplines and Indisciplinarity, Jonathan Faiers, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, UK2. 'Gloves of the Very Thin Sort': Gifting Limerick Gloves in the Late-Eighteenth and Early-Nineteenth Century, Liza Foley, National College of Art and Design, Republic of Ireland3. All Out in the Wash: Convict Stain Removal in the Narryna Heritage Museum's Dress Collection, Jennifer Clynk and Sharon Peoples, Australian National University, Australia4. Traje de crioula: Representing Nineteenth-century Afro-Brazilian Dress, Aline T. Monteiro Damgaard, Denmark5. The Empress's Old Clothes: Biographies of African Dress at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Nicola Stylianou, The Open University, UK6. Picturing the Material/Manifesting the Visual: Aesthetic Dress in Late-Nineteenth- Century British Culture, Kimberly Wahl, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada7. Dress, Self-Fashioning and Display at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Christine M. E. Guth, Royal College of Art, UK8. 'At Once Classical and Modern': Raymond Duncan Dress and Textiles in the Royal Ontario Museum, Alexandra Palmer, Royal Ontario Museum, Canada9. An 'Unexpected Pearl': Gender and Performativity in the Public and Private Lives of London Couturier Norman Hartnell, Jane Hattrick, University of Brighton, UK10. From Kays of Worcester to Vogue, Paris: The Women's Institute Magazine, Rural Life and Fashionable Dress in Post-war Britain, Rachel Ritchie, Brunel University, UK11. Radical Shoemaking and Dress Reform from Fabians to Feminists, Annebella Pollen, University of Brighton, UK12. Dress and Textiles in Transition: The Sungudi Sari Revival of Tamilnadu, India, Kala Shreen, Centre for Creativity, Heritage and Development, IndiaIndex