About
Sarah A. Bendall FRHistS is an historian of fashion, material culture and women. Her work focuses on the production, trade and consumption of global commodities and fashionable consumer goods, particularly during the long 17th century. She also has expertise in recreative methodologies, such as historical dress reconstruction. She is a Senior Lecturer at ACU and was appointed as a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2023.
Her first book, Shaping Femininity, was published with Bloomsbury in 2021. It was shortlisted for the Society of Renaissance Studies (UK) biannual book prize in 2022 and awarded highly commended. It was also profiled in media outlets such as the Australian Financial Review, The Conversation and Daily Mail Online.
Her second book, The Women Who Clothed the Stuart Queens, will be published by Bloomsbury in mid-2026. It uncovers the elite fashion cultures of the Stuart courts and London streets by exploring the lives, work and skills of the women who made, sold, managed and cared for the clothing of six Stuart queens between the years 1603 and 1714.
She is also co-investigator on the AHRC-funded Making Historical Dress Network (PI: Serena Dyer, De Montfort University) examining recreative and experimental methods in dress history.
Other current research projects examine the widespread use of whaling products in fashion between the years 1500-1800 and the influence of French migrants on London’s fashion marketplace during the seventeenth century.
On this website you will find blog posts and tutorials that feature her research and recreative practice, as well as information about her latest projects and publications.