Overview of fat women's historical fashion cultures.

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45-minute talk

Using two collections of historic dress with online presences (CWF and a private collection), this presentation will shed light on how size-conscious acquisitions not only benefit institutions by making historic clothing more relatable, but also fight long-held misinformation and myths surrounding the historic body and its size.

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20-minute formal presentation

A distillation of my FIT thesis work, reporting on the unacknowledged bias of size in museum collections and the ways we can begin to change the practice.
 

20-minute formal presentation

An analysis of African-American wedding dress in the nineteenth century via 1930s oral histories: Who wore what, and how did they source it?

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Audience: Professional fashion historians

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Type: 20-minute formal presentation

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A scholarly historiography and primary-source-based analysis of period and post-period terminology concerning the corsetry styles of c. 1900-1907.

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Audience: hobbyist & professional historical costumers, fashion designers, and fashion historians.

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Type: 45-minute lecture

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Historical research examining the potential dyes that might have been used on an 1850s evening gown, providing a methodological framework for similar pursuits. Based on work undertaken at Museum Textile Services in 2018.

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Audience: Conservation professionals

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Length: 20-minute intern presentation

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This presentation aims to discuss the nineteenth-century origins of today’s body-pruning selfie culture and asserts that while the technology has changed, fatness is visually minimized and removed in digital photography today using methods that directly descend from (and often are identical to) those developed in the 1840s-50s.​

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20-minute formal presentation

This presentation will examine the dress of stout women in the nineteenth century through the lens of prescriptive periodicals and will argue that fatness did not preclude (but was certainly seen as an impediment to) fashionability.

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20-minute formal presentation

An analysis of African-American wedding dress in the nineteenth century via 1930s oral histories: Who wore what, and how did they source it?

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20-minute formal presentation

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A scholarly historiography and primary-source-based analysis of period and post-period terminology concerning the corsetry styles of c. 1900-1907.

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Audience: Professional fashion historians

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Type: 20-minute juried formal presentation

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How can living history interpreters actively engage their audience via costume, and how can we connect it with the purpose of living history and its role in the interpretation and preservation mission of the NPS? 

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Audience: NPS site interpreters

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Type: Hour-long seminar

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Uncovering and understanding the history , various appearances, and purposes of an 1850s evening gown. What were the ethical and preservation considerations in restoring the dress to a semi-original appearance? Based on work undertaken at Museum Textile Services in 2018.

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Audience: Historic preservation professionals

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Length: 10-minute intern presentation

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This presentation discusses stout women’s corsetry and highlights a selection of objects and advertisements that demonstrate the availability, use, and marketing of clothing invented specifically for fat bodies in the nineteenth century.

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20-minute formal presentation

This presentation re-centers sideshow performers as professional actors who made calculated decisions about dress and self-image to capitalize on profits and spread their names. The conventional dress of the "Fat Lady" underwent several transformations across the second half of the 19th century, each of which played upon different societal expectations for fat people.

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20-minute formal presentation

Jo Watson, a postgraduate student at the University of the Highlands and Islands, has been researching the beautiful Beetle Wing Dress and the life of its owner Barbara Morrison. In this event, Jo will lead an informal discussion with Vanessa Martin (Curator, West Highland Museum), Kenna Libes (postgraduate student at Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, and expert on beetle wing dresses), Dr Jim MacPherson (senior lecturer in History at UHI) and Cath Jones (great, great grand-daughter of Barbara Morrison) in which they will explore the story of this outstanding dress and the life of Barbara.

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Audience: Exhibition visitors

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Type: Two-hour panel

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An overview of antique extant garments of larger sizes drawn from my database as well as the concept of survival bias. 

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Audience: Hobbyist & professional historical costumers and fashion historians.

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Type: Two-hour panel 

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Initial presentation of research for an article I drafted while in class at Brown University, revised the next summer, and submitted for publication in Dress (published Dec 2020).

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Audience: MA & PhD students of History of Art and Architecture

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Type: 15-minute research presentation

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