With over 8 billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common. Every day we all get dressed. Join Dressed as we explore the social and cultural histories behind the who, what, when of why we wear.
Donate to Dressed: The History of Fashion
Listeners of Dressed: The History of Fashion that love the show mention: fashion history, history of fashion, amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing, charm school, dressed, cassidy, reading from a script, booker, don't forget, vocal fry, pronunciation, april, historian, interesting content, love history, french, repetitive, designers, enjoying this podcast, looking forward to future.

In this bonus minisode from Halloween 2020, we "dissected" the iconic flapper look from head to toe. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To celebrate our 100th episode in 2020, we were joined by the one and only Mary Wilson, founding member of The Supremes and author of the book Supreme Glamour. Ms. Wilson joined us to discuss the integral role that fashion--and supreme glamour--played in the success of one of the greatest singing trios of all time. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All new episodes of Dressed launching May 6th! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Based on her one-woman show, WHat I wORE to Work, Jo Weldon joins us for the second half of our Dressed Classic episode from 2024 to explore the "intersection of fashion, culture and sex work." In part II, we hear about the laws governing what strippers can and cannot wear, what Jo herself wore in her many roles within the sex industry and her ongoing work as a sex worker activist. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For this week's Dressed Classics episoes, this week Jo Weldon joins us for a two-part 2024 episode to speak about her one-woman show, WHat I wORE to Work, which explores the "intersection of fashion, culture and sex work." From the brothels of Ancient Greece to Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's, part I explores sex worker style throughout history and its centuries-long influence on high fashion. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In part II of this week's Dressed Classics, our favorite vedette, Dita Von Teese, joins us to continue our conversation about being the first-ever guest star at Paris' legendary cabaret, the Crazy House and her current residency in Las Vegas. Her show Dita Las Vegas: A Jubilant Revue is onstage now at the Jubilee Theater, formerly home to iconic acts including Frank Sinatra as well as the showgirl review Jubilee, which ran for 40 years. Dita chats with us about reviving many of the original Jubilee costumes which were designed by Bob Mackie in the 1970s. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our two-part Dressed Classic episodes this week revisit our spectacularly stylish 2024 conversation with the one and only Dita Von Teese! A longtime vintage collector and star of the neo-burlesque scene, Dita's impact on contemporary visual culture cannot be underestimated. In part one of this two-part episode, we chat about her relationship with vintage style on and off stage and some of the amazing designers she works with to create her unique brand of unparalleled glamour. Past Dressed episodes of interest: The Origin of the Poodle Skirt The Incredible Origin of Cat-Eye Glasses Fashion and the Showgirl, part 1 Fashion and the Showgirl, part 2 Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marcellas Reynolds made his third appearance on Dressed in 2024 to talk about the final book in his fashion forward Supreme Women series: Supreme Sirens: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Music. Want more Supreme Women? • Supreme Actresses: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Hollywood• Supreme Models: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Fashion Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marcellas Reynolds made his third appearance on Dressed in 2024 to talk about the final book in his fashion forward Supreme Women series: Supreme Sirens: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Music. Want more Supreme Women? • Supreme Actresses: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Hollywood• Supreme Models: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Fashion Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Following up on our wildly popular 2022 episode on obscure fashion terms from history, we brought you an all new two-part episode from A to Z in 2024! Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Following up on our wildly popular 2022 episode on obscure fashion terms from history, we brought you an all new two-part episode from A to Z in 2024! Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to part 2 of our 2024 conversation with embroidery historian Isabella Rosner who joined us to discuss her book/zine Stitching Freedom: Embroidery and Incarceration which explores the embroidery made in prisons and mental health hospitals through the surviving works of twelve individuals. Each of which stand as a testament to the triumphs and sorrows of the human spirit and a reminder of "what can be created when freedom is out of reach." Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Embroidery historian Isabella Rosner joined us in 2024 to discuss her book/zine Stitching Freedom: Embroidery and Incarcerationwhich explores the embroidery made in prisons and mental health hospitals through the surviving works of twelve individuals who are a testament to the triumphs and sorrows of the human spirit and a reminder of "what can be created when freedom is out of reach." Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever pondered, 'but, what would Jane Austen wear?' Join us for this week's Dressed Classic episode from have all the answers for you in this episode, as Dr. Hilary Davidson joins us to talk about her two books: Dress in the Age of Jane Austen and Jane Austen's Wardrobe. Her new book, A Guide to Regency Dress , was released in late 2025. Check it out! Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this 2020 interview from the Dressed archive, we learn all about the art of historical hatmaking with Rachel Frost, one of only a handful of hatmakers in the entire world using sixteenth century European techniques. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephen Jones is one of the most prolific and celebrated milliners of the late twentieth and tweny-first centuries. We revisit our 2022 interview where he joined us to discuss his incredible forty plus year career adorning the heads of everyone from royalty to rock stars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week 's Dressed Classic episodes from 2024 revisit a two-part conversation with Waleria Dorogova, co-curator of the exhibition Sonia Delaunay: Living Art. Mounted in 2024 at the Bard Graduate Center in New York City, the ground breaking exhibition by Dorogova and co-curator Laura Microulis, explored Delaunay's work beyond painting and revealed her significant creative output as a fashion and textile designer. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week 's Dressed Classic episodes from 2024 revisit a two-part conversation with Waleria Dorogova, co-curator of the exhibition Sonia Delaunay: Living Art. Mounted in 2024 at the Bard Graduate Center in New York City, the ground breaking exhibition by Dorogova and co-curator Laura Microulis, explored Delaunay's work beyond painting and revealed her significant creative output as a fashion and textile designer. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In part II of our 2021 conversation with Laura Beltrán-Rubio on Spain's Imperio de la Moda or Empire of Fashion, we focus on the symbolism and significance of dress in eighteenth century Colombia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We revisit our 2021 interview with art and fashion historian Laura Beltrán-Rubio who joined us to share her expertise on the sartorial practices and symbolisms in Spain's Imperio de la Moda or Empire of Fashion, beginning in the sixteenth century. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's Dressed Classic episode revisits a 2021 episode with Dr. Eugenia Paulicelli, who joined us to discuss her book Fashion Under Fascism: Beyond the Black Shirt which examines how fashion functioned under Mussolini's fascist regime in Italy during the period between WWI and WWII. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's we answer several listeners' requests for an episode on the American womenswear brand Lilli Ann. One of the great runaway success stories of American 20th century fashion, the backstory of the brand takes some twists and turns from its early years in San Francisco's Chinatown, to Lilli Ann's founder's fisticuffs with New York mobsters and his surprising relationship with the French textile industry which garnered Adolph Schuman the prestigious Legion d'Honneur award. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We revisit our 2024 two-part interview with Rebecca Seaver, the Director of Museum & Archive Services for Dolly Parton, and the person responsible for the curated selection of special pieces on view in Dolly's recently published memoir Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones. And thanks to the book's audio companion, we even hear from Dolly herself! A special thank you to Rebecca and the Penguin Random House Audio team for the sound bytes featured in today's episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We revisit our 2024 two-part interview with Rebecca Seaver, the Director of Museum & Archive Services for Dolly Parton, and the person responsible for the curated selection of special pieces on view in Dolly's recently published memoir Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones. And thanks to the book's audio companion, we even hear from Dolly herself! A special thank you to Rebecca and the Penguin Random House Audio team for the sound bytes featured in today's episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Your great-grandmother enjoyed a dickie. Join us in our exploration of a wildly popular garment, now lost to fashion history. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we revisit a past episode with Lucy Clayton and Dr. Benjamin Wild about the Victoria & Albert Museum's 2021 exhibition Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser, which explored how fashion has found inspiration in the Alice in Wonderland series. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

London's famed Savile Row comes with a long and prestigious tailoring history and today's guest, Jihae An, undeniably represents its future. In this 2022 episode, Savile Row tailor Jihae An takes us behind the scenes of her work at London's oldest tailoring house, Ede and Ravenscroft. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this 2022 episode, we talked to David Wolfe (1941-2023) about his sixty plus year career in fashion working as a groundbreaking trend forecaster, fashion illustrator, and paper doll artist. More David Wolfe: David's paper doll work David's interview on The Decorder Ring podcast Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's Dressed Classic episodes revisit a 2021 two-part interview with Ilise S. Carter joined us to discuss her book The Red Menace: How Lipstick Changed the Face of American History, which uses lipstick as a lens to examine the hopes, dreams and anxieties of American society. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's Dressed Classic episodes revisit a 2021 two-part interview with Ilise S. Carter who joined us to discuss her book The Red Menace: How Lipstick Changed the Face of American History, which uses lipstick as a lens to examine the hopes, dreams and anxieties of American society. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Halstonette" Chris Royer joins us for to discuss her life working alongside the legendary designer Halston and her instrumental role in keeping his legacy alive to this very day. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Halstonette" Chris Royer joins us for to discuss her life working alongside the legendary designer Halston and her instrumental role in keeping his legacy alive to this very day. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we revisit a 2019 episode were we discuss the 'shadiest' company around, the world's leading authority on color intelligence, Pantone. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we revisit our third annual 'gift giving' episode from 2023. We continue to explore and exchange holiday 'It' gifts of yesteryear, but also introduce our dream ensembles culled from the entirety of fashion history. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oh the perils of being a Medieval, tassel loving peasant in the 21st century! In this episode from 2023, we meet Tyler Gunther, the peasant behind Greedy Peasant, the queer, Medieval-era fashion influencer, pageant planner, and unlikely social media star who has taken the world by storm. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From 1520 to 1560, the style-conscious accountant Matthäus Schwarz and his son Veit Konrad immortalized their adventures in dressing in a series of stunning, hand-painted portraits that provide a window into the period within which they lived. In this 2023 episode, historians Ulinka Rublack and Maria Hayward join us to discuss this extraordinary primary source which was published in full color in the The First Book of Fashion: The Book of Clothes of Matthaeus and Veit Konrad Schwarz of Augsburg. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we revisit our second annual 'gift giving' episode from 2022 where we continue to explore and exchange holiday 'It' gifts of yesteryear. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we revisit our very first 'gift giving' episode from 2021 where we explore and exchange holiday 'It' gifts of yesteryear. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time for our favorite episode of the year! Now five years in the making, we make dreams come true by gifting (and wearing) fantasy items from fashion's past. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From Freudian fashion to sumptuous saris, courtly courtesans to iconic opera costumes, we take you "behind the seams" of our recent fashion history-packed day tours of New York City spent at the Fashion Institute of Technology, The New York Historical Society, The Metropolitan Opera and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Further learning: Valerie Steele's Dress, Dreams, and Desire at the Museum at FIT The New York Sari and The Gay Harlem Renaissance at the New York Historical Discounted tickets for The Metropolitan Opera Antonio Ratti Center Noel Catherine Vorlée 1783 and ca. 1804 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Man's Jama with Poppies Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Historian Amanda Wunder joins us in a two-part episode that illuminates the remarkable life and work of Mateo Aguado, royal court tailor to the Queens of Spain from 1630 to 1672. Aguado is the subject at the heart of Wunder's award-winning book Spanish Fashion in the Age of Velázquez: A Tailor at the Court of Philip IV. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Historian Amanda Wunder joins us in a two-part episode that illuminates the remarkable life and work of Mateo Aguado, royal court tailor to the Queens of Spain from 1630 to 1672. Aguado is the subject at the heart of Wunder's award-winning book Spanish Fashion in the Age of Velázquez: A Tailor at the Court of Philip IV. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Historian Amanda Wunder joins us to discuss her new exhibition Spanish Style: Fashion Illuminated, 1550-1770, on view at The Hispanic Society Museum & Library until March 22nd, 2026. In addition to royal portraits, life-size sculptures, and sumptuous textiles and jewelry, the exhibition centers around sixteen rarely seen illuminated manuscripts known as cartas ejecutorias or “letters of nobility. Collectively, these objects reveal how upwardly mobile men and women used fashion as a reflection of status, identity, and power in sixteenth and seventeenth century Spain. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our Dressed Classic episode this week revisits our 2020 deep dive into etiquette manuals, we explore the complex codes of introductions and calling during the 19th century. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our third installment of our on-going series on historic etiquette practices, we acerbically attempt to solve the 'male loneliness epidemic' with tips for 'gentlemen' on how to interact with ladies on the street, in conversation and when dining. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week's Dressed Classic episode, we revisit our 2019 conversation with Timothy Long as he takes us inside the multi-tiered genius of Charles James, the self-taught fashion designer behind some of the most innovative and breathtakingly beautiful designs of the 20th century. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A query from a listener about a recent vintage purchase has us on the trail of the British/American couturier Charles James in our latest--and most bizarre--episode exploring What's in Your Closet. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Get an exclusive 15% discount on your first Saily data plans! Use code dressed at checkout. Download Saily app or go to https://saily.com/dressed Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In honor of the 30th anniversary of the iconic fashion flick Clueless, we bring you our 2020 interview with the film's costume designer Mona May. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oscar-Award winning costume designer Paul Tazewell is back to take us behind the seams and into the magical and textural world of the new film Wicked for Good. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The work of Oscar and Tony award-winning costume designer Paul Tazewell spans four decades and is a masterclass in the art of visual storytelling. In this episode from 2024, he takes us behind the seams and into the magical world of the blockbuster sensation Wicked. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices