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Dr Serena Dyer

@serenadyer.bsky.social
2.5K followers 517 following 26 posts

🎓 Associate Professor of Fashion History ✍️ Author: Material Lives; Labour of the Stitch 🎬 Presenter @englishheritage 📚 Rep’d by @felicitybryanagency She/her

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Reposted by Dr Serena Dyer
Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
NEW EPISODE! This week on You’re Dead To Me, we explore the history of underwear 🩲 I’m joined by the hilarious @vicmmic.bsky.social and fashion historian @serenadyer.bsky.social Exclusively on BBC iPlayer & Sounds for the first month, then YouTube & all Podcast apps in late August
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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Some more photos from our new episode about the history of underwear— including me and @vicmmic.bsky.social wearing beautiful corsets & panniers handmade by our expert @serenadyer.bsky.social
Greg (centre) stands while wearing a 19th century purple corset. Vic (right) holds a funny pose while wearing an 18th century corset with hip panniers. Dr Serena Dyer sits in her chair smiling at camera, behind her stands producer Emmie
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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Lovely short video by fashion historian @serenadyer.bsky.social on the new Marie Antoinette exhibition at the V&A museum To learn more about the doomed Queen of France, check out our recent episode of BBC YOU’RE DEAD TO ME about her with @100days1815.bsky.social & Jen Brister
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Emily K Michael, Writer @emilythepoet.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
“When a woman chose her gown…she was making a statement about her place in the world.” - @serenadyer.bsky.social #18thcentury #gowns #fashion #clothing #history www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GlS...
youtube.com
What did 18th-Century Women *REALLY* Wear?
YouTube video by Serena Dyer
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Emily K Michael, Writer @emilythepoet.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
Love this video about 17th-century clothing from @serenadyer.bsky.social: www.youtube.com/shorts/uG3uL... #fashion #history #clothing #17thcentury #women
youtube.com
Did pregnant women really wear corsets in the past?
YouTube video by HistoryExtra
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Jessie Wei-Hsuan Chen @jessiewhchen.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Received my copy two weeks ago but only able to open the parcel now! Exciting book edited by @sarahabendall.bsky.social and @serenadyer.bsky.social. More info: www.aup.nl/en/book/9789... Get 20% off with discount code “AUP20”, valid until 31 March 2025.
Photo of the book cover for Embodied Experiences of Making in Early Modern Europe.Photo of the first page of chapter 7, titled "Remaking Sixteenth-Century Botanical Woodblocks: Embodied Artisanal Knowledge in Early Modern Woodcutting."
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Matthew McCormack @historymatt.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Next week, I'll be having a chat about my new book with @serenadyer.bsky.social as part of the Northampton-Leicester @histassoc.bsky.social programme. 6pm on 11 March. It's online and free to attend - sign up below: www.eventbrite.com/e/in-convers...
eventbrite.com
In Conversation: Shoes and the Georgian Man
Serena Dyer talks with Matthew McCormack about his new book, Shoes and the Georgian Man, published by Bloomsbury in January 2025.
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Dr Corrina Readioff @fierengraw.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Absolutely thrilled to have won the @cecs-york.bsky.social book giveaway! 😊 Can't wait to dive into this wonderful anthology - many, many thanks to @chloewigstonsmith.bsky.social & @serenadyer.bsky.social!📖
Photo of the cover of the book 'Material Literacy in Eighteenth-Century Britain: A Nation of Makers' edited by Serena Dyer and Chloe Wigston Smith, published by Bloomsbury. Cover image is eighteenth-century painting depicting upper class women crafting together.
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Prof. Elaine Chalus @profelainechalus.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
For anyone interested in #c18th political or electoral history & for students researching EPQs, special subjects &/or final year dissertations, do check out the wealth of data & information available on our Political Participation & Electoral Culture (ECPPEC) website #skystorians 🗃️ecppec.ncl.ac.uk
ecppec.ncl.ac.uk
Eighteenth-Century Political Participation & Electoral Culture
18th-century Britain is notorious for corrupt and restrictive politics, when few could vote, bribery and debauchery were commonplace. But it was also an age when modern democracy was being shaped.
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Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies at York @cecs-york.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Hello, new followers! CECS is delighted to share a book giveaway: Material Literacy in 18th c Britain, co-edited by @chloewigstonsmith.bsky.social (CECS’s new director) and @serenadyer.bsky.social (CECS alum). To enter: reply to our post with your favourite #18thC material object / skill
The book Material Literacy in 18th Century Britain, posed before the King’s Manor building in York.
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Sarah Bendall @sarahabendall.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
@serenadyer.bsky.social & I are pleased to announce a #cfp for our new edited online collection of Reflective Recreations with @bloomsburyfashion.bsky.social We seek short pieces of 1k words around recreative practice in dress & fashion history, museum studies & more! See the call & deadline below:
Histories of fashion, dress, and textiles are not just found in texts, images, and extant objects. The ‘embodied turn’ (Davidson, 2019) has seen scholars, curators and makers alike turn to their needles, dyestuffs, and looms to investigate how making can elucidate on how we understand the garments of the past. Joining the generations of conservators and experimental archaeologists who have employed similar methods, these maker-researchers are employing innovative techniques and practices to consider how retracing the creative processes of the past can reveal new dimensions to historical material knowledge. However, much of this research is difficult to capture and translate into the traditional written formats of the monograph or journal article. It is tacit, felt in the fingers, hands, and body, and challenging to wrangle into a comprehensible written form. Recreative Reflections invites authors to experiment with short-form modes of articulating and communicating their recreative practice approaches to dress and textile history.

We seek short essays of 1,000 words to appear as part of the Recreative Reflections section of the Bloomsbury Dress and Costume Library. These may comprise of pieces of reflective writing, autoethnographic studies, or accounts of making projects and the interventions and new knowledge which they exposed. We especially encourage authors to consider the broader value of their recreative work. How, for example, might it feed into understandings of historical bodies, notions of gender, the relationship between bodies and machines, or the temporalities of making.

Reflections should be submitted to Dr Serena Dyer and Dr Sarah Bendall at serena.dyer@dmu.ac.uk by 24th February 2025.
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
Spent a fabulous day with part of the 18th-century mantua-making dream team. We’re working on an exciting new collaborative making project with Leicestershire Museums Service 🪡
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Sarah Bendall @sarahabendall.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
@serenadyer.bsky.social & I are thrilled to announce that our edited book is out now! It focuses on how processes of making, experimenting, experiencing, & reconstructing illuminate understandings around manual labour & material life. Overview 🧵 on 📕 chapters & our contributors! 👇
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Very excited to share that I am now represented by Carrie Plitt at Felicity Bryan Literary Agency ✍️ Working with her and the team at Felicity Bryan has been an absolute delight so far, and I can’t wait to share more about what’s in the pipeline!
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
My piece for BBC Sheffield on the origins of Topshop also went live today! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
I had a lovely time on BBC Radio Bristol this afternoon chatting to John Darvall about the history of tights! Go to 2hrs 51mins to hear the segment. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Wondering what to get the fashion history fans in your life for Christmas? @bloomsburyfashion.bsky.social currently has 30% off a huge range of titles, including three of my own books. www.bloomsbury.com/uk/material-...
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Martin Polley @historymartin.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
A big welcome to @emmyailish.bsky.social who has started her pioneering PhD on the history of women's hockey clothing with @serenadyer.bsky.social and @hdichter.bsky.social @icshc.bsky.social. The project is a collaboration with the Hockey Museum. Full story here www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/ne...
dmu.ac.uk
DMU research to investigate history of women
A DMU research project will shed new light on sportswear culture as it looks to record the history of the uniforms worn for women
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Dr. Heather Dichter @hdichter.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Thrilled to be supervising @emmyailish.bsky.social on this exciting project along with @serenadyer.bsky.social in conjunction with The Hockey Museum. Can’t wait to see what exciting work she produces! 🗃️
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 10/11/2024
We discovered this during our house renovation work today. I wonder who Lee and Katie were. And I hope they don’t mind that I just ripped up their c. 1990 tiling.
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Sarah Bendall @sarahabendall.bsky.social · 10/11/2024
Lots of new followers today so this is worth reposting! @serenadyer.bsky.social and I have an edited volume forthcoming with amazing chapters from fellow historians and art historians. Please consider asking your libraries to preorder! 📚
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 10/11/2024
Some home renovation updates! Just don’t look down…the floor is next weekend’s task.
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 05/11/2024
I’m on the hunt for garments in museum collections that are stained with (known or conjectured) menstrual blood (from any time/place) 🩸 Do you know of any?
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Sarah Bendall @sarahabendall.bsky.social · 05/10/2024
@serenadyer.bsky.social & I are delighted to announce a project we’ve been working on: our forthcoming edited volume ‘Embodied Experiences of Making in Early Modern Europe’ is now available for pre-order with AUP! Published 13 Dec! www.aup.nl/en/book/9789...
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Evelyn Welch @evelynwelch.bsky.social · 13/09/2024
Learning to do repousee work....Lots of chance to think through your hands at the 'Making Historical Dress' festival at De Montfort University. @serenadyer.bsky.social @sarahabendall.bsky.social #earlymodern
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Evelyn Welch @evelynwelch.bsky.social · 13/09/2024
Fitting the front of the bodice...
Fitting the front of a mantua
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Evelyn Welch @evelynwelch.bsky.social · 13/09/2024
And the front is now in place...if it needs to be extended later, you will add in additional straps of fabric.
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Evelyn Welch @evelynwelch.bsky.social · 13/09/2024
And now for the keynote we have been waiting for at 'Making Historical Dress'...@serenadyer.bsky.social and Brooke Welborn walk us through making an 18th century Mantua. ##earlymodern
Corset fitting
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Evelyn Welch @evelynwelch.bsky.social · 14/09/2024
Day 2 of the 'Making Historical Dress' conference at DMU in Leicester. Paula Hohti's keynote on recreating 17th century stockings from Turku in Finland.
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Evelyn Welch @evelynwelch.bsky.social · 14/09/2024
Reconstructing a doublet from the Verney collection - redated to around 1637 - toile shows that it is probably for a child or adolescent - could be Mun Verney who had scoliosis.
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Evelyn Welch @evelynwelch.bsky.social · 14/09/2024
@serenadyer.bsky.social up on stage now to tell us about learning through remaking.How do we regain access to the hands of tailors and those who sewed garments in the 18th century? Experimental history needs to step up to the task.
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Evelyn Welch @evelynwelch.bsky.social · 14/09/2024
@sarahabendall.bsky.social on the 'bents' and whaling materials or 'boning' that give #earlymodern clothing their shape. What were the physical limitations of these garments?
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Evelyn Welch @evelynwelch.bsky.social · 14/09/2024
@sarahabendall.bsky.social wearing a full scale reproduction of the ''Lady Clapham' doll's Mantua. A wonderful way to discuss late 17th-century dress at 'Making Historical Dress and embodied relationships between wearer and dressmaker.
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 19/12/2023
Out of office email is on and pre-festive period trip to the hairdresser complete. Let the mince pies and mulled wine begin! 🍷🎄
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 14/12/2023
Home from my final on-campus day of 2023 and delighted to have won the Most Impactful Research prize at the Faculty Research & Teaching awards this afternoon! What a lovely end to the year!
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 25/11/2023
I present this year’s winner of Most Cursed Christmas Ornament. Why is there a mushroom growing from its head?! 🐷🍄
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Sarah Bendall @sarahabendall.bsky.social · 09/11/2023
@serenadyer.bsky.social & I are delighted to announce the ✨Call for Interventions 📷 for our 3rd network workshop on ‘Learning from Making: Methods and Processes’. See the thread for more information! 📷 🚨Deadline 15 December 🚨 makinghistoricaldress.dmu.ac.uk/Workshop-Thr...
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Dr Elisabeth Gernerd @elisabethgernerd.bsky.social · 02/11/2023
✨Call for Papers✨Delighted to announce the CFP for Politicising Fashion and Fashioning Politics, a one-day symposium at De Montfort University exploring political dress and fashion! Keynote speaker: Eleri Lynn. 🚨Due Date 15th December 2023🚨
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 31/10/2023
We made a Halloween apple and rhubarb cake, using fruit from the garden 🎂🎃👻
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 31/10/2023
A little 🎃Halloween🎃 reminder that if you want some spooky sartorial content today, check out my video, 👻Why Do Ghosts Wear Clothes?👻 youtu.be/kIQ9NSs0Clk
youtu.be
Why Do Ghosts Wear Clothes?
Why do ghosts wear white sheets? How do the spirits of the dead conjure up clothes? And how have writers, paranormal investigators, and parapsychologists exp...
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Dr. Heather Dichter @hdichter.bsky.social · 26/10/2023
Applications open for the funded PhD with @serenadyer.bsky.social & me and The Hockey Museum. Gender, Bodies, and Society through the Material Culture of Field Hockey, 1880 to the present. DMU application due Nov 30 but Midlands4Cities application due Jan 10 networks.h-net.org/group/announ...
networks.h-net.org
Funded PhD: Dressed for the Field: Gender, Bodies, and Society through the Material Culture of Field...
De Montfort University is offering a fully-funded PhD through the Midlands 4 Cities Collaborative Doctoral Programme with The Hockey Museum. The doctoral student will work with Dr. Heather Dichter (sp...
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 22/10/2023
Join me at 5pm UK time today for the ✨premiere✨of my new YouTube video, 👻Why Do Ghosts Wear Clothes?👻 youtu.be/kIQ9NSs0Clk
youtu.be
Why Do Ghosts Wear Clothes?
Why do ghosts wear white sheets? How do the spirits of the dead conjure up clothes? And how have writers, paranormal investigators, and parapsychologists exp...
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 12/10/2023
I had an absolutely fabulous time last night at the private view of @luciewhitmore.bsky.social and @bethanbide.bsky.social’s masterpiece of an exhibition, Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style @museumoflondon Docklands until April. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 07/10/2023
Some more snapshots from filming this week. Can’t wait to share this episode with you all!
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 05/10/2023
Living my best historian/presenter life today. Any guesses what/where we were shooting? 🎬🎥🏰
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 02/10/2023
Next on my to-do list: finish off this early 18th-century mantua (excuse the temporary belt). 🪡
Image of a nearly-finished c1700 mantua
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 02/10/2023
The final manuscript for Labour of the Stitch has been submitted! 🍾🍾🍾 It's rather lovely to return to your work after a few months and feel genuinely proud of it. I can't wait to share this volume with you all!
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 01/10/2023
Early 18th-century mantuas have the most fun pleated sleeves 🪡
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Dr Serena Dyer @serenadyer.bsky.social · 01/10/2023
I’m tip tapping away on the final revisions to Labour of the Stitch, which are due on Monday. The volume explores my recreation of this 1760s gown, and will be published by Cambridge University Press. So excited to share this research with you all! I’m rather proud of it.
Photo of me in my recreation of a yellow silk 1760s English gown
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