Unsuitable: The History of Lesbian Fashion with Eleanor Medhurst

Fashion has always been about more than clothes. It can signal identity, belonging and resistance. Yet the history of lesbian style has often been overlooked or erased.

Join historian and writer Eleanor Medhurst for an in-conversation event exploring her acclaimed book Unsuitable: A History of Lesbian Fashion. Drawing on figures such as Anne Lister and tracing stories from Sappho and the Suffragettes to butch and femme bar culture and contemporary queer style, Medhurst uncovers a rich history of coded dress, defiance and self-expression.

Unsuitable restores lesbian fashion to the centre of cultural history, recognising the diversity of Black lesbian style, trans lesbian histories and gender nonconformity across centuries.

‘While Unsuitable painstakingly traces the style aspect, it also examines the reasons lesbian fashion has been lost to history. While homophobia against women is nothing new, Medhurst underscores how it even permeates the fashion world.’ - Vogue

The event will take the form of a live conversation, followed by an audience Q&A. Expect insight, honesty and a fresh way of looking at fashion as a powerful archive of lesbian life.

About the author

Eleanor Medhurst is a historian of queer fashion and culture and author of the blog Dressing Dykes. She has worked on Brighton Museum’s exhibitions Queer Looks and Queer the Pier, and is pursuing a PhD in lesbian craft history at the University of Brighton.