Dr Kate Strasdin

Senior Lecturer

I joined Falmouth in 2009 as an Associate Lecturer, teaching across the fashion and textile undergraduate programmes. As Senior Lecturer, I now cover Cultural Studies modules for all undergraduate students in the Fashion and Textile Institute as well as supervising doctoral projects. For thirty years I have worked with various South West based historic dress collections on both a curatorial and consultation basis, contributing to exhibitions such as Royal Women at the Fashion Museum, Bath.

I have contributed papers to journals including The Journal of Design History and Costume and I have written chapters for edited book collections. In 2016 my doctoral thesis, Inside the Royal Wardrobe - A Dress History of Queen Alexandra was published by Bloomsbury Academic. In 2023, my second book, The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes was published by Chatto & Windus.

Contact details

Telephone 07799 260167
Email kate.strasdin@falmouth.ac.uk

    Qualifications

    Qualifications

    Year Qualification Awarding body
    1997 BA (Hons) History University of Wales, Cardiff
    2000 MA History of Textiles and Dress Winchester School of Art
    2013 PhD Southampton University

    Honors and awards

    Year Description
    2011 The Gervers Fellowship, an annual award given to further study in Canada

    Membership of external committees

    The Costume Society, Dress and Textile Specialists (DATs), The Court Studies Society

    Research Interests

    Research interests and expertise

    My PhD was a study of the surviving garments of Queen Alexandra, now scattered around the world in different museums. It was an object based project taking garments as the central point of departure and using material culture to inform other narratives. My research interests arising from this are 19th and early 20th century female dress, haute couture, couture embroidery and dress practices.

    Research Topics

    • Royal dress
    • court studies
    • 19th century dress
    • haute couture
    • Embroidery

    Research Outputs

    Publications and research outputs

    • Strasdin, Kate

      (2019), Rediscovering Queen Alexandra’s Wardrobe: The Challenges and Rewards of Object-Based Research, In: The Court Historian, Taylor & Francis, Online, 24 (2), pp. 181-196, ISSN: 1462-9712

    • Strasdin, Kate

      (2018), Pattern As Memento - the Case of the 19thc Dress Diary, In: British Association of Victorian Studies, NA, NA, ISSN: NA, (Unpublished)

    • Strasdin, Kate and The Fashion Museum, Bath

      (2018), Royal Women, In: Royal Women, February 18 2018-April 28 2019, The Fashion Museum, Assembly Rooms, Bath

    • Strasdin, Kate

      (2023), The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes: Secrets of a Victorian Woman's Wardrobe, Chatto & Windus, London, ISBN: 9781784743819, Item availability may be restricted.

    • Strasdin, Kate

      (2017), Inside the Royal Wardrobe - A Dress History of Queen Alexandra, Bloomsbury Academic, London, ISBN: 978-1350102347

    • Strasdin, Kate

      (2023), Alexandra of Denmark: Fashioning the Modern Consort, In: Hanoverian to Windsor Consorts, Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp. 165-187, ISBN: 978-3-031-12828-8

    • Strasdin, Kate

      (2022), Reporting Royal Dress: Queen Alexandra and Royal Image Making, In: Disseminating Dress: British Fashion Networks 1600-1970, Bloomsbury Academic, London, pp. 251-271, ISBN: 9781350181021

    • Strasdin, Kate

      (2016), 'Gold and Silver by Night' Queen Alexandra - A Life in Colour, In: Colours in Fashion, Bloomsbury Academic, London, ISBN: 9781474273695

    • Strasdin, Kate

      (2016), Fashion and Democracy

    • Strasdin, Kate

      (2015), Foundations of Fashion - The History of Underwear, Various around the UK, (Unpublished)

    • Strasdin, Kate

      (2014), ‘A Working Royal Wardrobe – The Public Persona of Queen Alexandra’, In: Tailored Trades Network Conference, September 2014, Bishopsgate Institute

    • Strasdin, Kate

      (2012), ‘Think of me as I was now I am breaking up’ Queen Alexandra and the Art of Royal Camouflage 1863-1925, In: Royal Bodies Conference, April 2012, Royal Holloway

    • Strasdin, Kate

      (2014), It's All in the Detail - Couture's Best Kept Secret

    Events

    2010 CHORD Conference paper - 'Royal Retail - Queen Alexandra and her Acquisition of Dress'

    Events

    2011 Keynote speaker - Interdisciplinary Approaches to Fashion at Ryerson University, Toronto

    Events

    2011 Annual Gervers Lecture - Kate Strasdin Gervers Fellow - lecture on the dress of Queen Alexandra in the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

    Events

    2012 Royal Bodies Conference paper at Royal Holloway - 'Think of me as I was now I am breaking up - Queen Alexandra and the Art of Royal Camouflage'

    Events

    2012 The Making of a Modern Monarchy conference paper at Kensington Palace - 'Clothes Maketh the Monarchy - power dressing in the life of Alexandra, Princess of Wales

    Events

    2014 Tailored Trades Network Conference Paper at the Bishopsgate Institute, London - 'A Working Royal Wardrobe: The Public Persona of Queen Alexandra

    Events

    2014 The Costume Colloquium IV - Colors in Fashion paper in Florence - 'Gold and Silver by Night - Queen Alexandra and the Colours of Power'

    Events

    2015 Disseminating Dress conference, University of York, working title 'Reporting Royal Dress - Queen Alexandra and the Court Circular'

    Events

    2014 A panel of papers accepted for the 84th Anglo-American Conference at the Institute of Historical Research, working title ‘Provenance Guaranteed’ – Between Bath and Los Angeles, the Transatlantic Dissemination of Queen Alexandra’s Wardrobe.

    Events

    2018 Historical consultant for the exhibition Royal Women at the Fashion Museum in Bath, named as one of Vogue's top 12 international exhibitions of 2018

    Research Students

    Current research students

    Paul Reynolds is a practice based PhD student looking at devoré lace as a means of expressing the limits and existence of holes. Dr Simon Clarke is director of studies and I am co-supervisor, advising on the contextual element of the research.

    Research degrees examined

    I examined one of Professor Lou Taylor's PhD students at the University of Brighton in 2016.

    Number of research degree examinations

    1

    Teaching

    Areas of teaching

    • Histories & Theories of Dress and Textiles

    Courses taught

    • Fashion Design
    • Performance Sportswear Design
    • Fashion Photography
    • Fashion Marketing
    • Textile Design

    Policy engagement within Cornwall

    Engagement with organisations which contribute to the development of educational, cultural or socio-economic policies in Cornwall

    Along with my colleague Julie Ripley we are beginning to expand on the Falmouth Fashion Archive, starting to engage with the local community to encourage the donation of garments to the collection and the dissemination of some of the stories from within it. There is no dedicated collection of textiles and dress in Cornwall - the closest is Exeter - and so this fills a gap within the county.

    Professional Engagement

    Independent professional practice

    I lecture for the Arts Society both around the UK and internationally. In 2017 I undertook a month long lecture tour of the East Coast of Australia talking about dress history and under the title of Senior Lecturer at Falmouth University. 

    Social, community and cultural engagement

    Fashion and Textiles Institute Research Lecture series Revisiting a Royal Wardrobe: The Research and Display of Queen Alexandra's Surviving Garments, Monday 10 November 2014.
    Twilight Talks lecture series at the Fashion Museum Bath in 2016 and 2018.

    Engagement with professional associations and societies

    Accredited lecturer for the Arts Society
    International Conference co-ordinator for The Costume Society (2016-2018)

    Professional esteem indicators

    Year Description
    2011 Gervers Fellow, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
    2018 Historical Consultant for the Fashion Museum, Bath for Royal Women