2025 Spring Speaker Series | Posture, Motion, Poise: Fashion & Appearance

Fashion is as much about the body as it is about clothes. The right garments, made from the right materials and trimmings that were accessorized smartly, had to be worn, used, and displayed in a manner that confirmed your status, or else hid your attempts at aspiration. As a result, restraint in how the body traveled in motion and posed at rest often became a determining factor in measuring one’s dressed appearance, with disastrous (and sometimes humorous) consequences for those who failed.

This illustrated, 40-minute talk takes the topic of deportment – how a person carried themselves and held their bodies – and applies it to fashionably dressed bodies of the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. This period saw a proliferation of fashion goods produced, and a growing media to sell them. Corresponding advice on correct deportment – including posture, motion, and poise – continued earlier advice that advocated for restraint and “an easy air.”

About the Speaker

David E. (Ned) Lazaro is the Associate Curator of Costume and Textiles at The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut. He holds a master’s degree in fashion and textile history from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Ned has researched, lectured, published, and taught on various aspects of Western clothing and textiles from the 17^th through 20^th centuries. His general interests focus on design history, the aesthetics of fashion, and identity formation.

About the 2025 Spring Speaker Series – Dressed to Impress

Join the Fairfield Museum for the Spring 2025 Speaker Series inspired by our new exhibition Dressed to Impress, which will open on May 3, 2025. Throughout the Spring 2025 Speaker Series, costume experts and curators will unveil the fascinating stories behind the fashions of different time periods, exploring how people dressed from high society to presidential looks to extravagant dress balls.

Additional Lectures in the Series:

February 9 | Styles of the First Ladies | Susan J. Jerome

April 6 | What to Wear to the Fancy Dress Ball? | Karen DePauw

Light refreshments provided. Registration is required. $15 per talk | $45 for the series, $40 for Members