Migrant Dress Archive Project

Community

The Migrant Dress Archive and Leicester Museums & Galleries co-organised a series of engagement activities on the themes of dress and migration (2024-25). The Migrant Dress Archive was set up by Dr. Svenja Bethke and Jessica Amoako-Acheampong from the University of Leicester, as part of Bethke’s research project on ‘Jewish Dress, Migration and Belonging’, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The Migrant Dress Archive is a collaborative initiative that brings together people and projects interested in the intersection of dress and migration in history and contemporary times. 

For our first workshop, we invited community groups across Leicester to share their families’ migration stories using an item of dress or a photograph. Hosted in the Leicester Stories Gallery Community Space, diverse migrant groups presented their stories and listened to the experiences of others. Dress items, photographs of outfits and pieces of jewellery stood at the centre of these conversations.

Cold Weather

From Jamaica, to Poland, Italy and India, together we explored dress items and images from across the world. With over 16 participants, we discussed questions of identity, family histories and heritage. A fur coat revealed a migration story of adapting to the cold weather of Britain. Photographs of a traditional Indian wedding showed colourful saris, still visible in many cultural events in Leicester today. Pieces of jewellery also revealed stories about romance, family ties and the courage to move to Leicester as a new city.

Conversations

Through conversations arising from the dress items, we discovered different cultures and shared experiences across generations. Participants praised how the workshop allowed them to learn about the histories of diverse migrant communities in Leicester.

The second online workshop on ‘Global Dress and Migration in History’, co-organised with Dr. Eliza McKee from the National Archives London, brought together international scholars working on topics of dress and migration globally across different time periods. The workshop was opened by Mark Simmons from Leicester Museums & Galleries, who introduced the museum’s rich textile collections that shed light on the diverse local and global cultures in Leicester. The online workshop was open to the public and attended by a large international and interdisciplinary audience.

Both workshops were funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council as part of Dr. Bethke’s research project under the grant number AH/X002950/1. They were kindly supported by Leicester Museums & Galleries and the Stanley Burton for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Leicester.

Photographs kindly taken by Sadé Okayla Roache.

To stay updated with the Migrant Dress Archive’s activities, follow their Instagram at @migrantdressarchive or email them at migrantdressarchive@gmail.com.