The Secret Lives of Clothes

Clothes are holders of memories and mysteries. Through each stain and rip, wear and tear, pull and mend, they record our stories. But more than just the sentimental keepers of family and personal lore, they tell us who we are and what we want to be.

Through a series of fascinating vignettes, fashion historian and historical dress-maker Serena Dyer shares a cultural history of clothes in sixty enduring relics. From the elaborate vestments of famous leaders like Catherine the Great to some of the oldest tunics from ancient Egyptian and even a wool coat that survived the sinking of the Titanic, Dyer reveals how clothes have been imbued with significance throughout the world in the ways we make, mend, preserve and wear them. Deciphering every fibre and stitch, we discover how the materials of our ancestors’ clothes connected them to their environments and what they say about major historical innovations in technology and engineering.

In The Secret History of Clothes, Dyer brings us closer to what it feels like to live, breathe and move in the past than ever before.