THE LIVES OF AN 18TH CENTURY MAN'S COAT with Paola di Trocchio

In the 18th century, clothing was an incredibly valuable form of currency traded across classes at second hand markets. Beverly Lemire writes, ‘Much of the value in garments was founded on the quality of the fabrics used in their construction, the weight, weave, finish and substance of the cloth, plus the presence or absence of braid, lace, buttons or accessories. A related but less tangible aspect was the element of style - cut, colour, pattern, form and texture – which added cachet to commodities sold in certain markets, with certain buyers, within a finite time frame.’*

This lecture will chart the transformations of a figured silk coat in the National Gallery of Victoria’s collection which was remade into a circa 1800 coat from a circa 1785 style, other remakes in the NGV collection, and the clothing trade, providing a study of material culture, self-representation and textiles and dress in the 18th century.

*Old Clothes, New Looks: Secondhand Fashion, p. 41, Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2004

Paola Di Trocchio is Assistant Curator, International Fashion and Textiles at the NGV, Melbourne. She has worked on numerous exhibitions that have recently included ManStyle, Lace in Fashion, Drape: classical mode to contemporary dress, Black in Fashion: Mourning to Night and Remaking Fashion. She has recently completed her MA at RMIT University on curatorial practice, which incorporated research from internships at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

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