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Making History
Join us for our new series Making History where we uncover the lives and histories of the artisans, makers and rare trades practices of the past.
The Women Who Clothed the Stuart Queens with Dr Sarah Bendall
Preserved in surviving wardrobe accounts belonging to six English queens are the names and signatures of women who forged successful careers via their needles and scissors. Together, they offer an extraordinary window into the changing world of women’s work in the fashion trades in early modern England.
In the seventeenth century, London became a centre for luxury consumption, fuelled by global trade and the influence of French fashion. At this time, elite women’s patronage helped legitimise professional occupations such as milliner, mantua-maker, petticoat-maker, tirewoman and “Indian woman” for women.
In this talk, Sarah Bendall will discuss the lives of some of these remarkable women, who appear in her new book The Women Who Clothed the Stuart Queens, whose labour helped create the enduring image of royalty and fashions that defined the seventeenth century.
About the Speaker
Dr Sarah A. Bendall is an historian of fashion, material culture and women. Her work focuses on the production, trade and consumption of global commodities and fashionable consumer goods, particularly during the long 17th century. She also has expertise in historical dress recreation methodologies. She is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australia Catholic University and was appointed as a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2023. She is the author of Shaping Femininity (Bloomsbury, 2021) and The Women Who Clothed the Stuart Queens (Bloomsbury, 2026), and co-editor of Embodied Experiences of Making in Early Modern Europe (Amsterdam University Press, 2024).
On display as part of this event will be an 18th century Robe a l'Anglaise from Sovereign Hill’s Collection.
The Women Who Clothed the Stuart Queens with Dr Sarah Bendall
Preserved in surviving wardrobe accounts belonging to six English queens are the names and signatures of women who forged successful careers via their needles and scissors. Together, they offer an extraordinary window into the changing world of women’s work in the fashion trades in early modern England.
In the seventeenth century, London became a centre for luxury consumption, fuelled by global trade and the influence of French fashion. At this time, elite women’s patronage helped legitimise professional occupations such as milliner, mantua-maker, petticoat-maker, tirewoman and “Indian woman” for women.
In this talk, Sarah Bendall will discuss the lives of some of these remarkable women, who appear in her new book The Women Who Clothed the Stuart Queens, whose labour helped create the enduring image of royalty and fashions that defined the seventeenth century.
About the Speaker
Dr Sarah A. Bendall is an historian of fashion, material culture and women. Her work focuses on the production, trade and consumption of global commodities and fashionable consumer goods, particularly during the long 17th century. She also has expertise in historical dress recreation methodologies. She is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australia Catholic University and was appointed as a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2023. She is the author of Shaping Femininity (Bloomsbury, 2021) and The Women Who Clothed the Stuart Queens (Bloomsbury, 2026), and co-editor of Embodied Experiences of Making in Early Modern Europe (Amsterdam University Press, 2024).
On display as part of this event will be an 18th century Robe a l'Anglaise from Sovereign Hill’s Collection.
2026-09-11
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