Costume Society Annual Conference 2025 In the Shadow of the Georgians - From the Jacobite Rising to Waterloo

Saturday, 18 October – Wednesday, 29 October

The Costume Society’s Annual Conference 2025 will focus on all aspects of dress from what we know in Britain as the Georgian period of 1714 to 1815.

In the 1998 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, exhibition ‘The Ceaseless Century’, the late Richard Martin, Curator of The Costume Institute described the period and the subsequent two centuries as a touchstone to discuss ‘the complex navigation that characterises fashion revivals.’

We will consider clothing of the period from around the world and also explore how the styles of the time have been recreated for subsequent stage and screen dramas and how later fashion designers have used the era as inspiration for contemporary collections.

In the year that sees the V&A Museum celebrate two hundred years of ‘Marie Antoinette Style’ in a major new exhibition and The Science Museum explore ‘Versailles: Science and Splendour’ the Society seeks to contribute to our understanding of the continuing impact of the ‘Georgian’ era.

The Conference will be held on-line in four sessions (the afternoons of Saturday 18th  October and Saturday 25th October and the evenings of Wednesday 22nd and Wednesday 29th October).

Conference call for papers details

We are seeking papers and presentations on any aspect of dress between 1714 and 1815 and its continuing influence on both Fashion and Costume for Performance.

We would expect the conference to cover themes such as (but not exclusively):

• Making, marketing and retailing of fashion and dress across the world
• Military clothing from Wars of Liberation and Subjugation during the period
• The impact of social, political and technological revolutions
• The wardrobe choices of individuals during the period
• The impact of colonialism, discovery, world trade and cultural exchange
• The experiences of enslaved people and their clothing and the textile and clothing production related to enslaved labour
• Revivals of styles from 1714-1815 in later fashion
• Recreating costume for performance based during the period

We welcome proposals from across the community of dress and fashion historians, independent scholars, designers, makers, curators, conservators, collectors, wearers and performers.

Presentations (which can be PowerPoint, a practical demonstration, a live ‘in conversation’ or other suitable format) are to be either 20 or 30 minutes in length and able to be shared on Zoom.

1. Those wishing to offer papers should submit their initial proposal using the template provided which can be found here.

Proposals and accompanying CVs should be sent to Our Chair Philip Warren

2. All submissions must be received by close of Friday 25th July 2025.

All submissions will be considered by an Advisory Panel made up from the Costume Society Executive Committee and specialists in the thematic areas.

3. All candidates will be notified by Friday 15th August.

Successful speakers will then be required to provide additional information in advance of the Conference. This will be required by Friday 29th August.

This will include:

An image/s relating to the talk/demonstration to be used in social media promotion for the conference. These must have permissions from the rights owner of the image and rights must be for commercial activity (as we will be promoting your presentation to sell tickets for the conference)

A recent headshot – also for promotion

A synopsis of the talk/demonstration to be used in social media promotion and the published conference programme and a short biography, and any social media tags to be used in promotion of your particular contribution to the conference

We expect participants to co-promote their contribution to the conference as well as the conference as whole on their own profiles

Please note the Society posts ‘live’ commentary on the conference on social media.

The Society regrets that it is not possible to pay for expenses in the preparation and presentation of a paper, but free access to the conference series will be available for contributors.

 Please contact Philip Warren if you have any queries.