Sophie Oliver for What the dresses know

Author Sophie Oliver discusses her book What the dresses know, a history of modernism told through the clothes of its female artists.

Sophie Oliver visits Topping & Company Booksellers in Bath to talk about What the dresses know, her new account of modernism through the lives and clothes of its pioneering women artists. The book explores objects such as a dress Vanessa Bell rescued from the Blitz, Frida Kahlo's huipiles and a waistcoat embroidered for Gertrude Stein, using them to examine how modernist women navigated industrialisation, fascism and new forms of art. Oliver is a critic, curator and academic at the University of Liverpool and an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker. Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start.