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Textile History is the leading journal in the field of the economic and social history of textiles.

Dr O'Connor's winning paper The Ladybird, the Dressing Gown and Pasolds: Cultural Icons of the 'Golden Age' of British Childhood grew out of a conference called Clothing Childhood, Fashioning Society, which was organised by Dr O'Connor and was the first conference looking at children's clothing in the modern period.

The twentieth century witnessed unprecedented social, economic and technological change resulting in dramatic changes of fashion, which have been the subject of intensive interdisciplinary study. The premise of the conference, and of Dr O'Connor's paper, is the key anthropological principle that social forms are mirrored in material culture, in this case clothing.

Dr O'Connor focused on Ladybird dressing gowns and showed how the popularity of the dressing gown and then its disappearance mirrored fundamental changes in childhood, family and domestic life in Britain from World War II to the present day.

The Pasold Prize is sponsored by The Pasold Research Fund, which supports research into the social and economic history of textiles and also assists with conferences and workshops.

There is an on going Materials group in the Department of Anthropology in which textiles play a prominent part and they invite contact from other ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº departments with a view to collaboration.

Image: Ladybird advertisement

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