The Marvellous Mrs Mary Merrifield

Curator Alexandra Loske is excited to discover that artist and writer Mary Philadelphia Merrifield was also a pioneering dress historian. She explains more in our new blog in the series 100 Pioneering Women of Sussex . Anita Corbin’s exhibition of … Continued

International Women’s Day, The Things Women Do To Feel Beautiful

International Women’s Day is a worldwide event which celebrates the achievements of women, while also calling out for gender equality. On Monday the 13th of February a group of young women collaborated with Brighton Museum to explore issues such as … Continued

Ruby: My Fashion Cities Africa journey so far…

An update from me, Ruby McGonigle, on my experience so far as the person behind Fashion Cities Africa’s social media accounts. So, it’s been six months now since I joined the Fashion Cities Africa team (I can’t quite believe it … Continued

Taking Over

Kids in Museums’ Takeover Day – Friday 20th November 2015 Takeover Day is a celebration of children and young people’s contributions to museums, galleries, arts organisations, archives and heritage sites. It’s a day on which they are given meaningful roles, … Continued

Helen: An incredibly busy few months

It’s been an incredibly busy few months for those of us working on the Fashion Cities Africa exhibition project and our Heritage Lottery Fund Collecting Cultures project. Through meetings with our consultants – including Helen Jennings and Hannah Pool – we’ve … Continued

Textiles on a Tuesday

A delve into Brighton Museum & Art Gallery’s African textiles collection… A few weeks ago I headed out to Brighton Museum & Art Gallery’s artefact store, a huge place filled to the brim with intriguing goodies, old and new. There … Continued

Ruby: My Experience of Fashion Cities Africa so Far

July 2015 Well, it’s been just one short month since I joined the Fashion Cities Africa team on a Workforce Development placement from my usual role front of house, but already I’ve had tons of fun and have learned a … Continued

States of Dress: Fashion in Fine Art

When it comes to fine art, it’s amazing the difference a guided tour from a curator makes to your experience. It really helps you see paintings with fresh eyes, particularly when viewed with a specific theme in mind. In advance … Continued

Fashion and Fancy Dress

The Messel Family Dress Collection consists of over five hundred items, largely women’s wear, most of which was worn and collected by Anne, Countess of Rosse and her mother, Maud Messel.  It is a unique collection of exceptionally high-quality, unusual … Continued

Queer Techno Fetish Punk

Jed Phoenix is a self-described Queer-Techno-Fetish-Punk (Q-T-F-P). Her style and identity draw on differing, sometimes overlapping interests in her life. This consciously avoids simplistic categorisation and the uniformity of single subcultural identities in favour of an assertive individualism. In an … Continued

Fashion and Style Gallery, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery

Fashion & Style Gallery  The Fashion & Style gallery draws on Brighton & Hove Museums’ costume collection to produce displays that explore a series of inter-related themes. The themes selected reflect different aspects of Brighton life. The current displays in the gallery … Continued

Punks

The 1970s was a time of extremes. High unemployment, power cuts, strikes and terrorism made for a bleak social context in which to celebrate the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. Extreme times created extreme looks, and punk was the … Continued

Hippies

Hippies emerged in the mid 1960s in the United States, particularly on the West Coast. The Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco became the centre of hippy culture, culminating in the ‘Summer of Love’ in 1967. They introduced or popularised many … Continued

Teddy Boys

Teddy Boys or ‘Edwardians’ began to appear in the early 1950s on the streets of South and West London. Dandified street gangs; their extravagant dress and defiant pose made them popular subjects for the expanding media of magazines and television … Continued

Women’s Fashion in the 1930s

Political and Economic Influences The 1930s saw a general maturity in attitudes after the exuberance of the “roaring Twenties”. The Wall Street Crash in 1929 lead into the Great Depression, which effected all aspects of life, including fashion, bringing with … Continued

Renegade

Renegade: A person who deserts a party or principle (Oxford English Dictionary) Dress is the most visible form of personal consent or protest. Throughout history groups of people have actively rejected the prevailing fashion to announce their alternative lifestyle and … Continued

Skinheads

Skinheads are one of the most controversial renegade youth cultures. Taking pride in their working-class roots, they nevertheless carry with them an enduring association with right-wing political extremism and football hooliganism that dates back to the rise of the National … Continued

Casuals

Casuals were born on the football terraces of England in the late 1970s, although not named as such until the early 1980s. Predominantly working class males, Casuals were fixated with up-market European sportswear labels and British classics such as Burberry … Continued

Skaters

Although skateboarding is believed to have been invented in the 1930s, it was not until the mid 1950s that skateboarding began to develop into the sports/style pastime that we know it as today. Skateboarders (skaters) originally took their dress of … Continued

George IV’s Coronation

George IV (1762-1830) entered Westminster Hall at 10.30am on Thursday 19 July 1821, almost half an hour late, to join the assembled court. From here there was a large procession to Westminster Abbey, with George arriving at the West Door … Continued