Join fashion historian, lecturer, and author Cally Blackman in conversation with writer Rosalind Jana as we mark the publication of her new book The Colour of Clothes.
Through 370 exquisite images, the book celebrates the unique beauty of the autochrome, photography’s first widely accessible colour process as it evolved from the Edwardian era to the freedom of the 1920s. The colour process, invented by the Lumière brothers, not only transformed photography but also recorded the transition of fashion from Edwardian elegance toward a liberating modernity.
Hear how couturiers embraced the way the process showcased their exquisite designs to luminous perfection—among them Fortuny, Poiret, Doucet, Vionnet, Lucile, Chanel, and Lanvin. And how both famous and lesser-known photographers helped to immortalize one of photography’s historic moments, when the camera first revealed the world of fashion in full colour!
About the speakers
Cally Blackman is a fashion historian, lecturer, and author. Her research into autochromes is both original and extensive, with a large number of images she has sourced that have either never or very rarely been published since they were taken more than one hundred years ago. She has written several books including 100 Years of Fashion Illustration (2007), 100 Years of Menswear (2009), 100 Years of Fashion (2012) and co-author of A Portrait of Fashion (2015).
Rosalind Jana writes about art, fashion and culture. Her work regularly appears in the BBC, Vogue, ArtReview, Frieze, Apollo and The Guardian. She also works communications, copywriting, editorial work and scriptwriting for Loewe, Olivia von Halle, The Financial Times, Margaret Howell and Netflix, and texts for galleries. Rosalind has lectured, delivered workshops and hosted panels and conversations for places including London College of Fashion, City University, Oxford University, Soho House and Waterstones.
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