The Salon Series V

Exploring the impact of 18th century issues today and beyond.

We are so excited to announce our next Salon Series guest ~ Hilary Davidson.

Kicking Off Their Heels: The Revolution in Regency Footwear

Great changes in politics and culture at the end of the eighteenth century also extended to fashion. While waists rose and stiff gowns gave way to soft cotton simplicity, shoes also kicked off their heels to usher in the flat sole with the turn of the nineteenth century. This talk explores the world of footwear in the extraordinary transitional period between 1790-1820, and how new ideas were expressed through fashionable feet.

ABOUT THE GUEST SPEAKER

Hilary Davidson trained as a bespoke shoemaker before becoming a dress historian and curator, and is now based between Sydney and London. She was curator of fashion and decorative arts at the Museum of London between 2007-2012 and has lectured and taught extensively across fashion history and theory, archaeology and curation. Her MA History of Textiles and Dress thesis was on the cultural power of red shoes and developed into work on magical footwear, including for the V&A exhibition catalogue of Shoes: Pleasure and Pain (2015). Hilary is an honorary associate at the University of Sydney, on the editorial board of Fashion Studies, and in 2019 published Dress in the Age of Jane Austen (Yale University Press).

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