Costume Society of America

A Costume Society of America membership is a strategic investment in scholarship, connection, and professional growth. It also gives you access to a wide range of member benefits designed to support your work, expand your network, and deepen your engagement within the field.

🔗Become a member today: https://www.costumesocietyamerica.com/membership-benefits

"The Material Lives of Ordinary People: Rare 19th Century Chinese Cotton" by CSA member Dr. Rachel Silberstein was recently published on the National Museums Scotland website.

The article examines a group of printed cotton textiles in the museum’s collection, and the initial research trip for this project was made possible through a travel grant awarded by the Costume Society of America.

🔗Read the article here: https://www.nms.ac.uk/discover-catalogue/the-material-lives-of-ordinary-people-rare-19th-century-chinese-cotton

Image: Three samples of printed cotton clothes, collected in Shanghai in the 1850s to illustrate cotton manufacture in China. Museum reference A.129.D1 series.

✨THANK YOU!!! ✨

Thank you to everyone who attended our 2026 National Symposium. “Re-Cycles of Dress” was truly one to remember with dynamic scholarship and deep community conversations about sustainability. Thank you all for an engaging week, and we can’t wait to get together again for the 2027 Symposium.

🔗Read a full recap of the symposium at the link: https://www.costumesocietyamerica.com/renewing-ideas-practices-and-community-in-charlotte

🗞️This edition of Dialogues on Dress features Laura McLaws Helms.

Laura McLaws Helms is a modern Renaissance woman of freelance fashion, her career as “diverse as styling actresses in vintage for the red carpet, building an archive for a famous band, editing a magazine, and running a clothing company,” all before her current focus of history-related work.

As a freelancer from the get-go of her career, Laura’s experience is extensive but also focused; she is a lifelong vintage lover & collector and brilliant writer, from her book on Thea Porter published in 2015 to her current Substack column on fashion and cultural history.

Below, she discusses enjoying the ride – where “somewhere along the way of trying out different tasks, you end up discovering your unique purpose and message” – how becoming a mother has affected her relationship to fashion, collecting in the pre-eBay years, and much more.

🔗Read the full interview at the link in bio.

Photo Credit:
Image 1: Photo by Jung Kim for The Wildest
Image 2: Photo by Madison McGraw for Bienen David
Image 3: Photo courtesy of Laura
Image 4: Book cover of Thea Porter: Bohemian Chic by Laura McLaws Helms and Venetia Porter, V&A Publishing

🌈For this Pride Month, we are highlighting an article written for Dress, the journal of the Costume Society of America, titled “Visibly Q***r- and Trans-Fashion Brands and Retailers in the Twenty-First Century: The Production and Distribution of Binders, Packers, Underwear, Lingerie, and Bras.”

With the rise of socially conscious fashion entrepreneurs in the twenty-first century, the authors Kelly Reddy-Best, Kyra Streck, and Jennifer Farley Gordon examine nine of these visibly q***r- and trans-focused fashion brands. They consider the interconnected complexity of fashioning q***r and trans identities, fashion commodities, and fashion activist philosophies in a capitalist marketplace.

🔗CSA members can read the full article and the entire archive of Dress at the link: https://doi.org/10.1080/03612112.2021.1967606

Not a member yet? Make the commitment today: https://www.costumesocietyamerica.com/membership-benefits

Image:
Erika Hart, who had a mastectomy without reconstructive surgery, walking topless on the runway while modeling TomboyX briefs during the fourth annual dapperQ New York Fashion Week at the Brooklyn Museum. 2017. Photo courtesy of TomboyX.

✨It’s Wednesday, June 3rd and here is the schedule for today and tomorrow at the 2026 National Symposium for the Costume Society of America in Charlotte, North Carolina! ✨

📸Make sure to tag us and use the hashtag with your photos. See you soon!

✨It’s Tuesday, June 2nd and here is the schedule for today at the 2026 National Symposium for the Costume Society of America in Charlotte, North Carolina! ✨

📸Make sure to tag us and use the hashtag with your photos. See you soon!

✨It’s Monday, June 1st and here is the schedule for today at the 2026 National Symposium for the Costume Society of America in Charlotte, North Carolina! ✨
📸Make sure to tag us and use the hashtag with your photos. See you soon!

✨It’s Saturday, May 30th and here is the schedule for today and tomorrow at the 2026 National Symposium for the Costume Society of America in Charlotte, North Carolina! ✨
📸Make sure to tag us and use the hashtag with your photos. See you soon!

Headed to the CSA Symposium but missed online registration? We’ve got you! On‑site registration will be available. Please note: lunches and the reception can’t be added for on‑site registrants (our catering numbers are already locked in). Questions or rate info? Email [email protected].