Dr Bethan Bide

Profile

Biography

Bethan Bide has an interdisciplinary academic background that encompasses cultural geography, design history and English literature. She is a Lecturer in Fashion History and the Director of the Pasold Research Fund, a charitable organisation that supports the study of textile and dress history. After completing an AHRC CDA funded PhD with the Museum of London in 2017, which explored the rebuilding of London as a fashion city after the Second World War, she was Lecturer in Design and Cultural Theory at the University of Leeds. Prior to her academic career Bethan worked as a producer and production co-ordinator, making comedy programs for BBC Radio and comedy theatre tours.

Bethan works primarily on the cultural, social, and business histories of fashion. Her research focuses on material objects and explores how these can reveal historic relationships between production and consumption, the development of fashion cities and the relationship between materiality, memory, and fashion as biography. Bethan has collaborated extensively with museum curators to produce exhibitions and public and educational content. Most recently this has included work on the 2023 ‘Cotton Connections’ exhibition at Lotherton Hall and ‘Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners shaped global style’ at the Museum of London (October 2023–July 2024).

Research

Overview

Publications

Selected publications

Teaching

External activities