Dr Cheryl Roberts

Biography

I am a writer, maker and educator. My research focuses on the material culture of objects, in particular the consumption of dress and textiles, and how they acquire meaning through their relationship with specific acts in historical and cultural contexts. My work considers how the traditional approach to material culture has focused on the symbolic meanings of objects and has overlooked the tangible material and sensory qualities of ‘things’, and their impact on everyday life in contemporary culture.

My recently published monograph, Consuming Mass Fashion in 1930s England: Design, Manufacture and Retailing for Young Working-class Women (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) and book chapters “Synergy and Dissonance of the Senses: Negotiating Fashion through Second-hand Dealing, Seconds Trading, Jumble Sales and Street Markets” in Serena Dyer (ed). Shopping and the Senses: A Sensory History of Retail and Consumption since 1700 (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), and “Furland: Global Fur and Empires of Fashion Materialities” in Alex Burchmore (ed.) Material Selves: Object Biographies and Identities in Motion (London: Bloomsbury, 2024) are the historical starting point for my current research into the possibilities of human and animal waste in the fashion system that could inform our sustainable present and future fashion design thinking, education and industry.