3. The Student Bursary

The Costume Society presents an annual three-day symposium on a specific aspect of the study of dress. A different theme and a different venue is selected for each year. The symposium is always a three-day event, from Friday through to Sunday.

The Bursary is open to UK full-time and part-time students at graduate and postgraduate level engaged in research directed towards the presentation of a dissertation or thesis. Ideally, the research should either reflect a theme of the Costume Society Symposium of that year or be an object-based research project on the history of dress.

The bursary offers full attendance at the annual symposium inclusive of accommodation, meals and all visits and activities included in the symposium programme. The bursary does not cover transport to and from the symposium.

'As you can see, both our bursary winners gained so much from being able to attend the symposium. Thank you all who were present for making them feel so welcome and being so generous with your time.' Liz Booty

Katy May Symposium Report 2007

What did I get out of attending the Costume Society Symposium 2007?

Being awarded a bursary for the symposium meant quite simply that I was able to attend. Writing this short report is such a small thing to give back considering the wonderful weekend I was treated to in Newcastle so I hope I am able to adequately express what I have taken away from the experience and how valuable it is too me. The symposium was a weekend of highlights from meeting and chatting to those who have worked with the most wonderful of museum collections, written the books and articles that have shaped dress history and inspired me; to visiting the North Country for the first time and seeing the work of the talented young designers and of course enjoying the series of lectures.

Whether using purely archival or object-based approaches or a combination of methodologies the lectures made clear that studying the dress of town and country is a rewarding and effective way of exploring changing cultural and social landscapes and of understanding changing perspectives. The interaction between town and country lives came across in all the lectures with the only fundamental difference between town and country dress appearing to be the importance of practicality in country clothing.

I applied for the bursary to attend the symposium because this year’s theme of town and country struck a cord with the research for my MA dissertation. I am looking at a collection of late C20th clothing and accessories that belonged to a married couple Hubert and Winifred Tobitt who after 55 years of marriage died within a month of each other in 1987. They farmed in the heart of the Surrey countryside and had a great love of and involvement with horse racing. Alongside this country life has been an ongoing interaction with London which is best characterised by the fact that they met through Hubert’s sister who worked with Winifred and her mother at Harrods. Winifred retained her Harrods discount and this connection to Harrods is found in the clothing and accessories that remain in the possession of the family.

There were many parallels to be found between the Tobitt material and the research being presented in the lectures. In particular the study of Frances Farquarson through her wardrobe presented by Christine Rew, this collection is contemporary to the items in the possession of the Tobitt family. Although the social background is very different many of the circumstances surrounding and issues related to its survival resonate within my research.

The connections to my dissertation are not all that I have taken away with me. I felt incredibly welcomed by everyone and discovered that it really is a very small world! Talking to as many people as possible while daunting was incredibly worthwhile and I feel as though I made connections which will continue to help me in my study of dress.

Charlotte Nicklas Symposium Report 2007

As a PhD student researching nineteenth-century dress at the University of Brighton, I was delighted to receive a student bursary to attend this year’s Costume Society Symposium, ‘Town and Country Style,’ held in Newcastle and County Durham. I decided to attend the add-on day at Bowes Museum, held the day before the official start of the conference. Although we departed from Newcastle for Bowes in truly miserable weather, by the afternoon the sun had appeared and we enjoyed breathtaking views of the countryside surrounding the museum. At the museum, we were luckily able to see part of ‘Fine and Fashionable: Lace from the Blackborne Collection,’ the recent exhibition which showcased one of the world’s most important collections of lace. We visited the conservation laboratory and were asked our opinions about treatment and display of objects in the future dress galleries. We also saw several objects from the museum’s excellent collection, including a bright green ‘croquet’ dress from the 1860s which featured an ingenious skirt-lifting mechanism. This piece was of special interest to me, as my research focuses on the development of new textile dyes in the mid-nineteenth-century.

The papers presented on Saturday and Sunday ranged widely across time, but all addressed issues of locality in dress, from Kay Staniland’s discussion of the advertisements and engravings presented to the eighteenth-century Newcastle readership of the Ladies’ Own Memorandum Book to Christine Rew’s presentation of bright (and warm!) mohair ensembles, variety of tartans, and tweed suits in the wardrobe of Frances Farquharson of Invercauld. The fashion design awards presentation on Saturday afternoon featured a fashion show of work by students at University of Northumbria’s School of Design. Using textiles provided by Barbour and inspired by ‘Tyne and Country’, the students presented innovative ensembles to an enthusiastic audience.

Leaving the town for the country once again on Sunday, we travelled to Beamish Open Air Museum. We visited the reconstructed 1913 town of Beamish and the nearby colliery village, as well as viewing objects from the museum’s collection. We saw fascinating early twentieth-century trade catalogues and mid- to late-nineteenth century dresses and workwear. Of particular interest to me were a black and bright purple striped dress trimmed with purple lace and a bright blue faille dress—the museum’s records indicate that the last was a dairymaid’s wedding dress, on which she spent five shillings. All the conference delegates were very friendly and encouraging, eager to share their knowledge and stories over meals and on coach journeys. Learning of the riches of the Beamish and Bowes collections in mid-nineteenth-century dress was happy news to me and I hope to make a return journey north soon!