Join the Chicago Historical Costume Society for a day of delving into the rich world of medieval fashion history and its Victorian afterlives. Our scholars, Professor Emerita Gale R. Owen-Crocker and Robin Netherton, will guide us through three captivating lectures exploring surviving examples of medieval headwear, the Victorian misinterpretations of medieval fashion, and a survey of Anglo-Saxon clothing. Don't miss this rare opportunity to learn about medieval fashion history from two renowned experts in the field!
As a bonus, admission to the Chicago History Museum is included with your purchase of this ticket as well as 10% off in the North & Clark Café throughout the day.
Schedule
9:30 am: Meet at the North & Clark Café to check in, and for coffee/meet & greet
10-11 am: “Headgear with a History” with Gale R. Owen-Crocker
11:10-12:15 pm: “When Medieval Meets Victorian: The Roots of Modern Costume Sources” with Robin Netherton
12:15-1 pm: Lunch break
1:15-2:15 pm: “Anglo-Saxon Dress” with Gale R. Owen-Crocker
2:15-3 pm: Book signing and opportunity to order fashion history books
Please note: There is to be no audiotaping or videotaping of the lectures. Participants may take still photos of the speakers, but they may not photograph the slides, which would violate the speakers’ arrangements regarding permissions to use the images.
Lectures
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Headgear was an immediate identifier of gender, role, and status throughout the Middle Ages (and indeed into modern times). This lecture takes a close look at four surviving items, respectively from thirteenth-century Spain, fourteenth-century Sweden, very early medieval Scotland (third to seventh century), and fourteenth-century England. The first two are closely contextualized. The latter two have no associations, and the objects have to tell their own stories—but what a lot they can tell us!
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The lecture begins by considering how we come to know anything about dress in the Anglo-Saxon period (England, c. 450–1066), considering in turn the written evidence, the archaeological evidence, and the evidence of art, and explaining the special value and limitations of each. It continues with a rapid chronological survey of what we know, highlighting what seem to be particularly favorite features throughout the Anglo-Saxon era.
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Too often, books present “facts” about medieval and Renaissance dress that are actually misinterpretations dating from the Victorian era. This lecture traces the development of modern costume scholarship and examines the motives and methods of 19th-century costume historians, to help the 21st-century costumer recognize — and compensate for — Victorian influence in current sources.
Lecturer BiOs
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Ms. Owen-Croaker is Professor Emerita of the University of Manchester. She has published extensively on early medieval culture and on medieval dress and textiles, beginning with the landmark study Dress in Anglo-Saxon England and more recently such titles as Textiles of the Viking North Atlantic (2024), Textiles of Medieval Iberia (2022), Refashioning Medieval and Early Modern Dress (2019), and Clothing the Past: Surviving Garments from Early Medieval to Early Modern Western Europe (2018). She directed the Manchester Lexis of Cloth and Clothing Project (http://lexisproject.arts.manchester.ac.uk) and is Chief Editor of the Encyclopedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles of the British Isles c. 450–1450. With Robin Netherton, she co-founded and for fifteen years co-edited the academic journal Medieval Clothing and Textiles.
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Ms. Netherton is a researcher specializing in Western European clothing of the Middle Ages and its interpretation by artists and historians. Since 1982, she has given lectures and workshops on practical aspects of medieval dress and on costume as an approach to social history, art history, and literature. Her lectures emphasize approaches for researching medieval costume and ways to avoid common myths and mistakes. Her published articles have addressed such topics as fourteenth-century sleeve embellishments, the cut of Norman tunics, and medieval Greenlanders’ interpretations of European female fashion. With Gale Owen-Crocker, she co-founded and for fifteen years co-edited the academic journal Medieval Clothing and Textiles.