Dilwyn Porter and Jean Williams

Kit: Selling Sports Clothing in Britain c1870

to 1950

Beginning with the object seems obvious (but involves processes of production, dissemination, sale, use, recycling, collection and disposal)

What is the object’s function and who produced it? How was it made available, marketed and distributed? How and for whom was it made affordable? Has it been treasured, collected or displayed?

This implies also using a full range of written material – manufacturers

catalogues, institutional archives, household inventories, newspaper advertisements, shipping and merchants records, artisans account books, storekeepers ledgers, personal diaries and letters.

A recent shift in sportswear as an object of interest in high fashion and a wider nostalgia industry around retro designs e.g. the Charles Buchan revival.

V & A Museum, London ‘Sport and Fashion’ exhibition indicates a significance to those interested in cultural history in its widest sense.