Making Historical Dress Network

Making Historical Dress is an AHRC-funded network which explores how picking up a needle and thread can enhance our knowledge of the past. Through recreative methods, it is possible to reverse engineer how garments were constructed, recover lost skills, and test instructions and diagrams. Recreative methods push back against the narratives of professionalised and masculine production, which dominate the archive, and offer a mouthpiece to makers.

Over 2023 to 2025, the Network will hold a variety of in-person and virtual events, as well as a mentorship scheme and opportunities for publication, bringing together scholars, curators, and makers to consider how we can best work together to uncover and share this making knowledge.