This weekend just gone should have been the annual Pride in London and UK Black Pride events, but the current situation means that things have taken a different shape this year with Pride returning to its protest roots. Online events have sprung up too; last weekend I attended Bi Pride UK's excellent online Bi-Fi Festival... Continue Reading →
Sometimes I assume that everyone is on Instagram as much as I am, which is daft. Just because I use it daily to both share and to browse images, doesn't mean that everyone I know 'gets' that particular social media platform. Some folk might not be on it yet, some might have an account but... Continue Reading →
Pretty much everyone who knows me is now aware that, a few years ago, I did an MA part-time alongside my job and my Master's dissertation was on technology and the bra in the twentieth century. Since then, I have been looking for ways to share this research as I love talking about the things... Continue Reading →
There's no denying that this year has been a difficult one, and most people's lives have changed dramatically in ways we couldn't have imagined twelve months ago. Something a lot of us are coming to terms with is how our bodies have changed due to a reduction in the amount of movement in our daily... Continue Reading →
Rarely Wears Lipstick is looking a little different at the moment. As my self-hosted WordPress was becoming difficult to maintain with my extremely limited technical knowledge, Topper very kindly sorted out my messy database of a decade's worth of writing and migrated it to wordpress.com. The plan was to, at some point, revamp the look... Continue Reading →
On 27th August 2020, I gave a presentation at an academic event entitled Dress in a Time of Crisis, organised by the Dress in Context Research Centre at Birmingham City University. The event took place entirely online, and I was invited to present by the event's organiser, Dr Anne Boultwood. My talk explored three key... Continue Reading →
It was tricky to choose a second garment for my Wardrobe Stories series, but I figured it had to be something pre-loved. Something I'd fallen in love with on first sight but that had a previous owner. All of my clothing has stories attached to it, but I started this series as a way to... Continue Reading →
I follow a lot of journalists on Twitter. If I like their writing style, their 'voice', I follow with an aim to read every piece of work that they share. Blog posts, articles in magazines, columns in newspapers, I absorb it all to the point where they start to feel like a friend. (Apologies to... Continue Reading →
As the first few weeks of lockdown unfolded, I found myself rediscovering the joys of Twitter - not just history Twitter and museums Twitter but also mainstream Twitter. What was once a stream of people screaming into the void or trying to look like they were living perfect lives, slowly became a more truthful timeline... Continue Reading →
Today's story in the 'Lockdown Clothing' project is from Katie Sawyer. Katie is a trainee curator at Bodmin Keep, Cornwall's army museum. She studied archaeology at Durham University and specialised in archaeological textiles, including stinging nettle fabric. Currently she is working on her first exhibition 'Frontiers of Fashion: how military uniform influences civilian fashion', which... Continue Reading →
I found her in Beyond Retro on Great Marlborough Street, when I was looking for something to give me a 90s look for an event that I have long since forgotten the details of. I went into the shop thinking I could perhaps find a vintage slip and style it appropriately, but I quickly found... Continue Reading →
When I was young the scent of certain beauty products clearly made an impression on me, as even just looking at a photograph of some of these products in Sali Hughes' book Pretty Iconic brought back the memory of the smell. Strangely, it was often the scent of products my grandparents used that would stick... Continue Reading →
Submissions for the 'Lockdown Clothing' project have understandably slowed over the last few weeks, but if your routine has changed we'd still love to hear from you with your reflections on what you've been wearing. Today's interview is with Madeline Farr. Madeline is a New York-based artist and teacher. She works from a studio space... Continue Reading →