Be introduced to key moments in the history of dress from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
Using the NGV’s rich collection of art, fashion and textiles as a guide, leading historians, writers, and curators from around the world consider how what we wore in these periods reflected societal ideas and change.
From sixteenth-century portraiture to eighteenth-century painting, the open robe to the round gown, the Macaroni to the Dandy, we examine the movements, makers and moments that shaped dress across three sessions.
Breeze Barrington
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw a flourishing of portraiture. This medium provided the perfect opportunity for rich courtiers to display their wealth and magnificence. Dripping in their finest jewels and extravagantly colourful silks, velvets, brocaded tunics, dresses, gloves, these aristocratic sitters still stare arrestingly out at us centuries after they lived. This talk will look at the development of power dressing portraits over 100 years in Britain and will look at how this genre shaped and was shaped by society
Breeze Barrington a cultural historian specialising in the artistic cultures of the seventeenth century, with particular focus on women’s history and female artists. She teaches literature at the University of Cambridge. As an arts writer and critic, she is a regular contributor to Apollo Magazine, The Art Newspaper, the Financial Times, and the TLS. She is an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and her first book, ‘The Graces’, will be published by Bloomsbury in 2025.
‘DESPOTS OF ELEGANCE’: MEN’S FASHION FROM MACARONI FOP TO REGENCY BUCK.
Peter McNeil
Is men’s fashion political? Absolutely. Despite the myth that men don’t care much about their appearances, men’s fashion has for centuries responded to politics and social change. 300 years ago the suit began to be worn by well to do gentlemen in polite company. But the suit could also be worn with a twist. We explore the contours of men’s dress, from macaroni subcultures to Regency dandies. Exploring the fine NGV collection, we explode the myth that men’s dress was dull, and that men didn’t care. They most certainly did.
Dr Peter McNeil is Distinguished Professor of Design History, UTS. He was Professor of Fashion Studies at Stockholm University and has spent much of his career working on men’s fashion. Author of ‘Pretty Gentlemen: Eighteenth-Century Dress and The Macaroni Fashion World’ (2018), he worked with Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Reigning Men (2016), the largest show of men’s fashion held.
SHIFTS TO MODERNITY: THE REVOLUTIONS IN EARLY 19TH CENTURY FASHION
Hilary Davidson
From the 1790s to the 1820s, European fashion and textiles underwent a number of radical shifts towards modernity. In this age of many upheavals and revolutions, dress too was revolutionised through developments in global influences, technology, society and culture. This lecture examines 10 key changes that defined the elegant styles of the time.
Hilary Davidson is Associate Professor and Chair of MA Fashion and Textile Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York. She was curator of fashion and decorative arts at the Museum of London and has lectured, broadcast and taught across a wide range of dress and textile history expertise. Hilary is consultant for archaeological textiles and the Oxford English Dictionary, and is an editorial board member of Fashion Studies. Her extensive study of British Regency dress is published as Dress in the Age of Jane Austen: Regency Fashion (2019) and Jane Austen’s Wardrobe 2023; both Yale University Press.
This is the first session in the three-part series: Observations: Dress in Art and Design History.
Book into all three Observations sessions
With a focus on the NGV’s leading collection of historical art, fashion and textiles, historians, writers and curators from around the world examine the movements, makers and moments that shaped and were shaped by dress across the centuries across three sessions.
The entire collection of presentations, conversations and lectures will be transcribed into a printed publication, giving audiences the opportunity to revisit the content from Observations: Dress in Art and Design History. Participants can pre-purchase a copy of the book, set to be released in March 2025, when booking.
NGV Members, students and educators enjoy discounted tickets to all Observations sessions.
Full program and speakers announced soon. Participants will have access to content for four weeks following the release date.
INFORMATION FOR TEACHERS & EDUCATORS
Observations offers an inspiring and creative professional learning opportunity for teachers of all levels and subjects. Observations meets the following AITSL standards:
• Know the content and how to teach it (2.1)
• Engage in professional learning (6.1)
A certificate of professional learning is available on request.
Observations: Dress in Art & Design History is generously supported by an Anonymous donor.