Hilary Davidson

Education

MA, University of Southampton
PhD, La Trobe University

 

Biography

Hilary Davidson is a dress, textiles and fashion historian and curator, associate professor, and chair of the MA Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice in the School of Graduate Studies at FIT. Her work encompasses making and knowing, things and theory, with an extraordinary understanding of how historic clothing objects come to be and how they function in culture.

Hilary trained as a bespoke shoemaker in her native Australia before completing a Master's degree in the History of Textiles and Dress at Winchester School of Art (University of Southampton) in 2004. Since graduating, Hilary’s practice has concerned the relationship between theoretical and highly material approaches to dress history, especially in the early modern and medieval periods. As a skilled and meticulous hand-sewer, she has created replica clothing projects for a number of institutions, including a ground-breaking copy of Jane Austen’s pelisse.

In 2007, Hilary became curator of fashion and decorative arts at the Museum of London. She contributed to the £20 million permanent gallery redevelopment opening in 2010, and curated an exhibition on pirates, while continuing to publish, teach, and lecture in the UK and internationally. In collaboration with Museum of London Archaeology  MOLA), Hilary began analyzing archaeological textiles and continues to cross disciplines by consulting for in this area in England and Australia. She also worked on the AHRC 5-star rated Early Modern Dress and Textiles Network (2007-2009) and from 2011 appeared as an expert on a number of BBC historical television programs. From 2012 Hilary worked between Sydney and London for a decade as a freelance curator, historian, broadcaster, teacher, lecturer, consultant and designer while completing a PhD by publication at La Trobe University, Melbourne, on knowledge making and materiality in pre-modern dress. Her first book was Dress in the Age of Jane Austen (Yale University Press, 2019), and it will be followed by Jane Austen’s Wardrobe in September 2023. Her academic publications are extensive.

Hilary has taught and lectured on fashion history, theory and culture, on semiotics, and cultural mythologies, especially red and magical shoes, including at the University of Southampton, Central St Martins, the University of Cambridge, the University of Glasgow, New York University London, The American University Paris, Fashion Design Studio TAFE Sydney and the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Sydney. She speaks regularly at academic conferences and to the public, and is an Honorary Associate, School of Arts, Letters and Media, at the University of Sydney, a consultant in historic textiles for the Oxford English Dictionary, and a Freeman of the City of London.