Name: Locating Men’s Underwear (On Campus)
Start: 2026-02-04T16:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-02-04T17:00:00+00:00
Location: SODA (School of Digital Arts), Room 1.07

$Locating Men\u2019s Underwear (On Campus)$

What secrets lurk in museum drawers? Uncovering men's underwear collections and reassessing how we archive intimate fashion
About this Event

This is a hybrid event. To join online, access tickets here.

There has been an increasing academic interest in men’s underwear over the past 15 years redressing a balance of interest in women’s underwear (Cole 2010; Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion 2014 and 2022). Underwear is held across a variety of UK museum and archive collections from well-known such as V&A in London and Manchester Art Gallery to lesser known such as within National Trust and within Falmouth University’s Textiles and Dress Collection. This seminar presentation will outline his recent AHRC Catalyst funding bid that aims to record extant men’s underwear held in UK museum and private collections, to understand what is held, how it is defined, catalogued and accessed and how can a common terminology and open access record can be created? It will outline some of the work with collections of men’s underwear that Shaun has undertaken prior to submitting the bid.

Dr Shaun Cole (University of Southampton) is a writer, lecturer and curator, specialising in sexuality, gender and fashion and style. He is Associate Professor in Fashion and Co-Director of the ‘Intersectionalities: Politics – Identities – Cultures’ research group at University of Southampton. His most recent exhibitions are ‘Dandy Style’ (Manchester Art Gallery, 2022-3) and ‘Collecting Sue Clowes’ (Winchester Gallery, 2024-5). His publications include ‘Don We Now Our Gay Apparel’: Gay Men’s Dress in the Twentieth Century (2000), The Story of Men's Underwear (2010), Dandy Style: 250 Years of British Men’s Fashion and Gay Men’s Style: Fashion, Dress and Sexuality in the 21st Century (2023).

The Talking Through F/fashion seminar series provides a collaborative and intellectually rigorous forum for interdisciplinary researchers to explore how fashion shapes the narratives through which individuals and communities construct their personal and collective identities. These seminars showcase both established and emerging scholarship, encompassing diverse historical periods, geographical contexts, and methodological approaches—from empirical studies to theoretical frameworks and practice-based research. Our goal is to foster international dialogue and partnership among scholars interested in examining and critically engaging with fashion's role in identity formation and storytelling. The seminar is hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University’s .