2010 SYMPOSIUM WEEKEND IN LEEDS Friday 9 – Sunday 11 JULY 2010

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The theme of the 2010 Symposium is The Price of Fashion focusing on the cost of production, whether it be clothes produced for wealthy individual clients or the phenomenon of mass production for a world market.
 
 We return to Yorkshire for the first time in more than ten years and Leeds is a particularly appropriate venue for the Symposium theme, as it was the place where the mass-production of men's tailoring was developed in the mid 19th century, as well as the home of many women's ready-to-wear fashion labels in the 20th century, and has recently re-invented itself as a sophisticated shopping venue for fashion at all levels.

Keynote speakers will be Katrina Honeyman, Professor, School of History, University of Leeds. John Styles, Research Professor in History at the University of Hertfordshire and Lou Taylor, Professor of Dress & Textile History, University of Brighton Our venue is the 4* Met Hotel, two minutes from Leeds Central Station and ten miles from Leeds/Bradford International Airport. Manchester International Airport is 90 minutes away by car and there is a direct train service to Leeds. On site parking is available for a charge and an alternative NCP car park is available at Leeds station.

Our collections visit on Saturday will be to Leeds Discovery Centre where all of Leeds museums' collections are stored. Curator Natalie Raw will show delegates a selection of items from the costume collection. This collection of historical costume has its roots in the Sanderson collection bought by Leeds City Art Galleries in 1949. Especially rich in eighteenth-century dresses and fine suits, the collection has been extended to include work by leading modern designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Zandra Rhodes.


Add-on day Monday 12 July

On Monday 12 July, we offer a visit (by coach) to one of Britain’s leading museums of everyday life - York Castle. It shows how people used to live by displaying thousands of household objects and by recreating rooms, shops, streets - and even prison cells. The museum’s costume collection is one of the largest in Britain. Among the wide range of garments are grand 18th century wedding clothes, sombre Victorian mourning garments, and wartime Utility clothing, as well as everyday separates from modern chain stores.

The textile collection includes examples of the many different craft skills which were popular among ladies in the 19th century. There are patchwork quilts, samplers, lace and embroidery.
Our weekend in Leeds is sure to produce some very interesting talks on the cost, both monetary and human, of clothes production over the centuries as well as interesting visits – all in comfortable surroundings with stimulating company.