K-SAA Interviews: Dress Historian Hilary Davidson

What can dress history tell us about Jane Austen’s fiction and its Regency context?

In this interview moderated by Communications Director Anna Mercer, historian Hilary Davidson talks to 2020-22 Communication Fellow Mariam Wassif about the distinction between “dress” and “fashion,” how both changed dramatically in Austen’s era, and how those changes intertwined with Regency life on intimate and global scales. Additional highlights include Lady Byron’s wedding dress and the representation of breasts in Regency film and TV adaptations.

Davidson’s book, Dress in the Age of Jane Austen: Regency Fashion, was published in 2019 with Yale University Press. Follow her on Twitter @FourRedShoes and @AustenDress. For more K-SAA Interviews, click here.