Victorian dresses

Victorian England Had a Problem With Cloth Piracy

Calico took the newly industrial world by storm. But battles over bolts of fabric shook Britain during the nineteenth century.
Mary Edwards Walker

Why Modernist Women Liked Cross-Dressing

Women pioneers of modernism like Gertrude Stein, Frida Kahlo, Radclyffe Hall, & Djuna Barnes found cross-dressing a blessing in disguise.
Queen Elizabeth I

Rags, Riches, and Cross-Class Dressing in Elizabethan England

In Elizabethan England, strict sumptuary regulations made sure that people dressed according to their rank in life, but many transgressed.
A woman in a modest swimsuit with sleeves and a skirt past her knees

Modesty in Fashion

The intersection of religion and fashion has led to modesty in bathing suits.
A young woman struggling to pull on her jeans

The Peril of Skinny Jeans, Corsets, and Restrictive Clothing

what do skinny jeans and corsets have in common. as you may imagine, quite a bit.
Anna Wintour Costume Center, Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Gallery
Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Women’s Expressions of Grief, from Mourning Clothes to Memory Books

Mourning clothes were a signal to the world that a family—really, that a woman had suffered a loss.