The appearance of The Journal of Dress History is very welcome in the context of a subject which has expanded enormously over the past two decades. CHODA (The Courtauld History of Dress Association) was founded in 1991 to be a mouthpiece for The Courtauld History of Dress Department, (established in 1965), which was, at that time, the only place for academic study and research in this area. As a result of the growth in dress studies by the beginning of this century, it was decided to create a successor to CHODA, which would widen the constituency and scope of the subject, the aim of The Association of Dress Historians (ADH) when it was set up in 2011. The success of the conference, Out of the Dark and into the Light? Dress in the Early Modern Period and the Age of Enlightenment, 1400–1800 (2016) reflected the international remit of the history of dress and its popularity in academia and elsewhere. In particular, it revealed the importance of research and study in the history of dress before the twentieth century, and of a variety of approaches to the subject. I am confident that the content of The Journal of Dress History will embrace a wide time span, from classical antiquity (and before) to the present day, covering all aspects of clothing (including fashion as one strand of a multifaceted discipline), and enlarge our knowledge not just of the detail of dress (there is still a great deal to discover), but the significance of what we wear.

Professor Emeritus Aileen Ribeiro, PhD
The Courtauld Institute of Art, London
May 2017