Court and royal dress; dress in seventeenth-century England; fashionable dress and accessories; theatre costume . . .

 Like many dress historians my research encompasses wide-ranging but inter-connected topics; all based upon regular examination of surviving articles of clothing, alongside archival and visual sources of information.

My longstanding interest in court and royal dress started with my dissertation at the Courtauld Institute. Later, at the London Museum/Museum of London I worked on displays of coronation garments and court dress for women. The latter display and publication informed the early development and planning of the collections which formed the present-day royal and ceremonial dress collection at Kensington Palace.

I have written about Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth Stuart, later Queen of Bohemia, early Stuart clothing, furs and regalia, and George IV’s coronation in articles and my book Royal Dress included versions of some of this material.

 Seventeenth century dress and textiles are an enduring interest, especially the exquisite gloves which led to a wider interest in accessories, explored in articles and a book – Gloves, and revisited when I taught a postgraduate seventeenth century option at the Courtauld Institute in 2007.  

 My investigation of theatre costume includes work on collections once held by the Museum of London, now at the Theatre Museum and complementary collections at Smallhythe, the National Trust property which the actress Ellen Terry once owned. I have participated in projects at Royal Holloway, University of London and written entries about costume, make-up and wigs for a variety of publications. A long-term project involves research into and writing about a rare printed handkerchief depicting theatrical performers: an oblique but fascinating introduction to mid-late eighteenth century social life. My articles and reviews often examine links between theatrical costume and royal dress and the close relationship between state ceremonial and theatrical performance.