What the
dresses
Know
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Pioneering women were at the heart of the movement known as modernism. In What the dresses know, Sophie Oliver offers a new account of their radical experiments and extraordinary lives, told through the clothes they made and wore.
‘Sophie Oliver not only writes brilliantly about the history of garments, she writes about the bodies in them and the narratives that made and unmade them, dressed and undressed them. This is an essential work of scholarship and insight and heart and care.’
-Hilton Als, author of The Women
‘Extraordinary, profound and inspiring... every chapter felt like a form of magic’
-Claire Wilcox, author of Patch Work: A Life Amongst Clothes
Work
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Exhibitions

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Writing

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Media & Talks

News and
Upcoming
Events
2 November, 6.30 pm
Hatchards, London, in conversation with Shahidha Bari
6 November, 6 pm
Tenderbooks, London
10 November, 1 pm
House of Books & Friends, Manchester
10 November, 6 pm
books on the walls, Chester
14 November, 2 pm
Morrab Library, Penzance
17 November, 7 pm
Gloucester Road Books, Bristol, in conversation with Sian Norris
23 November, 7 pm
Topping & Co., Bath
10 January
Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin
26 January
Oxford Centre for Life Writing, in conversation with Claire Wilcox
3 February
Juno Books, Sheffield, in conversation with Amber Regis
17 June
One More Chapter, Radcliffe-on-Trent
About
Sophie
Oliver
Sophie Oliver is a critic, curator and academic at the University of Liverpool, where she teaches modernism and feminism. A BBC New Generation Thinker, she writes regularly for the Times Literary Supplement and Literary Review and has curated exhibitions at the British Library, the National Poetry Library and the Harry Ransom Center.