

Dressed: The History of Fashion
Dressed Media
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.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 1, 2025 • 58min
Dress, Dreams, and Desire: Fashion and Psychoanalysis: an interview with Dr. Valerie Steele
It's Freud x fashion this week as Dr. Valerie Steele joins us to speak about her exhibition Dress, Dreams, and Desire: Fashion and Psychoanalysis which is currently on view at The Museum at FIT through January 4, 2026. The exhibition--which is the first of its kind--explores "key psychoanalytic concepts about the body, sexuality, and the unconscious," by way of 100 items of dress spanning more than 130 years of fashion history.
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Sep 26, 2025 • 35min
Fashion Fads from History: Live on or Leave to the Past? (Dressed Classic)
In the wonderful and often bizarre world of fashion fads from history, we ask the question: which should live on to wear another day and which should be left to history?
Recommended resources:• Bedazzled Beetles• Hobble Skirt• Painted knees
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Sep 24, 2025 • 50min
Dressed Diaries: Harper’s Bazar’s “The Follies of Fashion,” August 30th, 1884
This week, we investigate the historical fashion trends written about in an 1884 Harper’s Bazar article entitled “The Follies of Fashion.” Covering everything from Ancient Roman curling irons to Cleopatra’s donkey milk baths to “barbarous” steel corsets, we decipher fashion fact from fashion fiction.
Primary Sources
Box for rouge and patches, 1750-55
Jean de la Bruyère’s translation of The Characters of Theophrastus
Memoirs of Madame de la Tour de Pin
Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia
Secondary Sources:
Sarah Bendall’s Shaping Femininity: Foundation Garments, the Body and Women in Early Modern England
Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell’s Fashion Victims: Dress at the Court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
Donkey Milk article in Beverages
Micaela Higgs’s “The Entirely False History of Tricking Men with Makeup”
Kelly Olson’s “Fashion and Adornment,” in A Cultural History of Hair in Antiquity
Valerie Steele’s The Corset: A Cultural History
Caroline Weber’s Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution
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Sep 19, 2025 • 49min
Fashioning the Guinness World Records with Benjamin Hollingum (Dressed Classic)
From the most toxic makeup in history to the world's first sunglasses, in this 2023 episode, we discuss all things fashion and Guinness World Records with Senior Editor Ben Hollingum.
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Sep 17, 2025 • 33min
Fashion History Now #69
From clothes curtains to computer microchips to calico doll dresses, in the latest edition of Fashion History Now, we explore the fascinating--and surprising-- stories quite literally woven into the clothes we wear and the technology we use. Other things we love in this episode: Catherine Martin X Upcycled by Miu Miu. Check out Catherine's directorial debut fashion film here. Sarah Espeute's incredible clothes curtains: @sarahespeute and Oeuvres Sensibles for pre-order. Dressed happenings: Cassidy's Vintage Fashion History 101 and What Women Wore to the Revolution class, April's Fashion History Tours of the MET
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Sep 12, 2025 • 35min
Klimt's Muse: The Fashions of Emilie Flöge (Dressed Classic)
Emilie Flöge may best be remembered as the long-time companion of artist Gustav Klimt, but in this week's Dressed Classic episode from 2022, we explore her work as a fashion designer and dress reformer in early 20th century Vienna.
Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion?
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Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles
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Sep 10, 2025 • 1h 10min
Getting Dressed in Paris 2025, Part II
For years, you have heard us singing the praises of today's guest! Haute couture embroiderer, textile expert, and our dear friend Rebecca Devaney joins us to talk about her many contributions to our annual fashion history tours of Paris, which features behind the seams experiences of Paris's most treasured ateliers including UltraMod, Acaba, Annie Bouquet, Au Ver à Soie, and Atelier Caraco.
Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion?
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Sep 5, 2025 • 34min
18th Century Fashion and Etiquette at Versailles (Dressed Classic)
The palace of Versailles during the 18th century was one of the most extravagant locales in the world. This week we break down some of the basics of fashion and etiquette at the French court.
Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion?
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Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles
Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network
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Sep 3, 2025 • 53min
Getting Dressed in Paris 2025, Part I
A spectacular summer in Paris for fashion lovers, in part I of this two-part episode, we walk you through some of the fashion exhibitions we visited this year on our 7 day fashion history tours of the City of Lights. You still have time through the end of 2025 to catch the shows at the Palais Galliera and the Musée des arts décoratifs!
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.
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Aug 29, 2025 • 32min
Catherine Dior, an Interview with Justine Picardie, Part II (Dressed Classic)
In part two of our 2022 conversation with Justine Picardie, we learn about Catherine Dior's courageous resistance efforts during WWII and the continuance of her legacy at the House of Dior to this very day.
Recommended reading: Justine Picardie's Miss Dior: A Story of Courage and Couture
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