Etruscan Fresco

Working Group 2 – Clothing Identities: Gender, Age and Status

Introduction

Objectives: To explore the meaning of clothing through ages, areas and cultures. To use clothing as a key to explain values in society. To use clothing as a key to understand individuals, self-representation, and groups.

Themes: With clothing, humans express their gender, age, beliefs, and social status. Ancient costumes combine skin and textile, wrapping and tailoring. Many clothing elements in antiquity are unisex, but are worn differently according to gender and age. Children’s clothes are generally simple, but Roman children expressed their civil status and gender through clothing. Adults negotiate the changes in their age, body and status through garments. Poor people, slaves, and workers performing hard physical work, wear loose-fitting garments allowing freedom of movement. Late Antique sources report on second-hand clothing as an important part of the economy. Members of the elite display their wealth through luxurious garments, decorated with complex patterns including precious metals and stones.

18th century clerical garment

A legal framework of sumptuary laws and prohibitions, and a normative framework of appropriate dress, accompany dress history since 2500 years. Gender studies can effectively balance the functional approach to clothing. Fashionable items, such as knitted stockings and cotton dresses, are generated from innovations and trade, and they have the capacity to alter body perceptions and gendered features of dress. In 18th and 19th century Europe, national/ ethnic/ regional costumes become an object of systematic study (Linnaeus) and exhibition, and as reconstructions, they draw on historical costumes from selected eras of history.

Major questions are: Q1: How do gender and age through clothing express one’s place in the economic, social, and productive spheres in society? Q2: How far did sumptuary laws and prohibition shape European clothing? Q3: How can we rethink and re-make dress exhibitions in a more inclusive way, and discuss their colonial, ethnic, nationalistic and religious markers and symbolism? Q4: How can museums’ dress collections contribute to the re-writing of European history?

Team

Working Group
Leader
Magdalena
Wozniak
PL

Working Group
Vice-Leader
Cecilie Brons
DK

Working Group
Vice-Leader:
Paula Nabais
PT

Country Name Affiliation
AT Karina Grömer Natural History Museum Vienna
AT Elisabeth Trinkl Institute of Archaeology, University of Graz
DE Berit Hildebrandt University of Hannover
DE Petra Linscheid Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Bonn
DE Juliane Müller Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich
DK Cecilie Brøns Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
DK Audrey Gouy Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen
DK Jane Malcolm-Davies Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen
DK Elsa Yvanez Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen
EE Riina Rammo University of Tartu, Institute of History and archaeology, Department of Archaeology
EL Tina Boloti Academy of Athens
EL Tatiana Kousoulou Greek Ministry of Culture, Directorate of Conservation of Ancient and Modern Monuments
FI Sanna Lipkin University of Oulu
H Csilla Kollár Hungarian National Museum
H Réka Semsey Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest
IRE Elaine Sisson Institute of Art, Design + Technology, Dublin
IS Meghan Korten History Department, University of Iceland
IT Emanuela Alberti University of Florence
IT Francesco Meo University of Salento
IT Francesca Scotti Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, Italy
LT Eglė Kumpikaitė Kaunas University of Technology
LT Daiva Milašienė Kaunas University of Technology
LV Ieva Pigozne National History Museum of Latvia
NM Dushica Brachikj
NM Liljana Kovachovska National Museum of Macedonia
NL Anique Hamelink University of Amsterdam
NO Hana Lukesova The University Museum of Bergen
PL Mikołaj Dobek Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Faculty of History, Institute of Archaeology
PL Małgorzata Grupa Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Faculty of History, Institute of Archaeology
PL Dawid Grupa Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Faculty of History, Institute of Archaeology
PL Zofia Kaczmarek Institute of European Culture Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan
PL Tomasz Kozłowski Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Faculty of History, Institute of Archaeology
PL Filip Nalasowski Institute of Pedagogical Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
PL Katarzyna Schmidt-Przewoźna Institute of Natural Fibres and Medicinal Plants, Poznan/School of Form, Warsaw
PL Magdalena Wozniak Polish Centre for Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw
PT Catarina Costeira UNIARQ – Centre for Archaeology of University of Lisbon
PT Francisco B. Gomes UNIARQ – Centre for Archaeology of University of Lisbon
PT Paula Nabais NOVA University of Lisbon
PT Vanessa Otero NOVA University of Lisbon
PT Luís Mendonça de Carvalho NOVA University of Lisbon
PT Nuno Belino University of Beira Interior
PT Ana Amor Santos CEAACP – University of Coimbra
PT Ana Maria Silva University of Coimbra; CIAS; UNIARQ; CEF – University of Coimbra
RO Roxana Coman Bucharest Municipality Museum
RO Bianca Cristiana Olteanu Babeș-Bolyai University
RO Irina Petroviciu National Museum of Romanian History
RO Flocea Darie Silviu
RO Iulia Teodorescu ASTRA National Museum Complex and the ASTRA Centre for Heritage
RO Constanta Vintila Institute of History – Romanian Academy
RS Jasmina S. Ciric University of Kragujevac
RS Branislav Cvetković Art Department, Regional Museum in Jagodina
SL Aleksandra Berberih-Slana National Liberation Museum Maribor
TU Deniz Sarı Department of Archaeology, Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University
UK Sandy Black London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London

 

News

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Registration is now open to attend a very special edition of the Midis de l'Archéologie programme of the Louvre Museum organized by the 'Costumes of Authority' project (PL).

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