The graveyard of fashion: towards an archaeology of the wardrobe: Denise Poiret’s robe de minute

Buried in archives, museums and graveyards, durable fragments of people’s wardrobes often outlive the fragile bodies of those who wore them. By weaving together a variety of scholarly approaches, this discussion session explores different ways to unearth and interpret the material evidence left behind by the dead. The papers in this session consider 19th-century burial dress in the collections of the Museum of London, relic-like fragments of garments which actually killed the dancers who wore them, and an archaeological exploration of a garment in the couture wardrobe of Denise Poiret.