Costume Society Annual Conference 2026:

Saturday, 17 October – Wednesday, 28 October

Marriage À La Mode: Dressing for Weddings, Civil Partnerships & Conscious Couplings: Tickets now on sale

For the first time in its history the Society is inviting presentations on the theme of marriage ceremonies, whether they are religious, civil or personal commitments.

Tickets are now on sale 

We are delighted to announce the full line up for this year’s conference: Marriage À La Mode: Dressing for Weddings, Civil Partnerships & Conscious Couplings’

SESSION 1 SATURDAY 17th October 14.00- 17.00 

Keynote Speaker Grace Evans: Marriage a la Mode, Wedding Dresses from the Olive Matthews Collection, Chertsey Museum, 1780s-1980s 

Tannya Villalvazo: Marriage in Black: Ritual, Mantilla, and Alternative Bridal Modernities in Spain

Anna Sienkiewicz: Imagining the Bride: Bridal Fashion, Aspiration and Scarcity in Polish Women’s Press 1956–1970

Lucy Postal: “Here Comes the Bride”: an Analysis of the Silhouette and Materiality of Mid-Twentieth Century Wedding Dresses in ‘American Fabrics’

SESSION 2 WEDNESDAY 21st October 19.00 – 21.00

Davide Castagnola: Threads of Power: Bridal Dress and Political Ritual in Medieval Italy

Serena Ciarcià: Dressing the Role: Eleonora Statella, Lady-in-Waiting at the Royal Wedding of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies 

Vivian Yip: A Decorative Sisterhood: Bridesmaid Dress, Etiquette, and Social Performance in the Gilded Age

Hannah Wroe: Ceremony, Survival, and Couture: Reading British Fashion and House of Isobel through a 1928 Wedding Dress

SESSION 3 SATURDAY 24th October 14.00- 17.00 

Highlight Speaker Loren Crowe: Renunciation to Celebration: Designing Fabulous Queer Men’s Wedding Apparel for a New World of Same-Sex Marriage

Elaine MacKay: King James II Meets James the Pretender

Jacek Zukowski: “Like a sheet of gold!” Wedding outfits of Ladislas IV Vasa 1637 and 1646

Guillermo Léon Ramírez Martínez: ‘I want to get married in white!’ A review of men's suit styles at LGBTQ+ and queer weddings in Mexico

SESSION 4 WEDNESDAY 28th October 19.00 – 21.00

Maria Illincheva-Cherkashina: From Wreath to Kerchief: The Transformation of a Slavic Bride

Rebecca Lees: A Wedding Dress for What?: Examining and Understanding a Dress Belonging to Christian Matheson Carmichael

Dunia Vecchini: Central Italian working class and farmers' wedding dresses and Sunday best as depicted by artists between the 1790 and 1850

Anne-Marie Segeren: To Stand Her Ground (In Stripes)

 

 Please contact Philip Warren if you have any queries.

 

Image caption: Marriage à la Mode, opening case, © Olive Matthews Collection, Chertsey Museum.

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