Hilary Davidson

Co-Editor

FASHION INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
 

Hilary Davidson is a dress and textile historian, curator and archaeologist. She is currently Associate Professor and Chair of the MA Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory and Museum Practice in the School of Graduate Studies at FIT, New York. She is also an Honorary Associate in the Medieval and Early Modern Centre at the University of Sydney. After training as a shoemaker, she completed an MA in the History of Textiles and Dress at Winchester School of Art (2004). Hilary was curator of fashion and decorative arts at the Museum of London (2007-2012) and network facilitator of the AHRC Early Modern Dress and Textile Research Network (2007-2009). She is finishing a PhD at La Trobe, Melbourne. Hilary lectures at universities and institutions internationally, and has presented on radio, podcasts and television. Her research and publications encompass clothing cultures of the medieval, early modern and Regency periods; archaeological textiles; magical shoes; material culture and emotions history; cultural myth narratives; experiential knowledges; and experimental history. Her book Dress in the Age of Jane Austen: Regency Fashion was published in 2019, followed by Jane Austen’s Wardrobe in 2023. A Guide To Regency Dress: From Corsets and Breeches to Bonnets and Muslins is forthcoming in October 2025, all with with Yale University Press.