Worn and the afterlife of clothing

Using Manchester Art Gallery’s latest exhibition, Worn, as a jumping-off point, cultural historian and gallery guide Dr Lindsay Porter looks at the meaning and myths surrounding specific types of historical dress.

Society balls in post-Revolutionary France, the nineteenth-century rag trade, dress reform and the politics of women’s pockets – how do we read the clothes of the past and what will historians of the future make of how we dress today?

Dr Lindsay Porter is an art and cultural historian specialising in the late eighteenth century. She has been a guide at Manchester Art Gallery for the last ten years, and regularly speaks at cultural events, including the Manchester Histories Festival and the Oxford Literature Festival.

Image: Smock (detail), 1880–90, dyed blue linen, Manchester Art Gallery

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Host or Publisher Manchester Art Gallery