Dialogues on Dress: Cora Harrington

February 28, 2025

This edition of Dialogues on Dress features Cora Harrington. From her tenure as The Lingerie Addict to her return to studies at FIT's Fashion and Textiles program, Harrington exemplifies lifelong learning and passion for all the varied facets of fashion.


The history of dress and the future of fashion act in dialogue, always interfacing to inform our present moment. The Costume Society of America’s diverse members exemplify this reality like no other; through the constant connections across time and disciplines they draw, our membership of costume curators, designers, artists, and so much more embody fashion’s ubiquitous presence - and dress’ daily power to teach us all something new.

 

We hope you will join us for CSA’s new Dialogues on Dress series, interviews now available monthly in our e-News and website.

 

Interested in getting in touch? Email  enews@costumesocietyamerica.com


Images clockwise from upper left: press tour and opening day of the exhibit; Cora’s book, In Intimate Detail; Cora at a lingerie trade show, where she curated a gallery of independent designers and hosted a book signing; a page from the book. Photos courtesy of Cora Harrington.


Dialogues on Dress: Cora Harrington


While currently in her second year at FIT’s Fashion and Textile Studies Master’s Program, Cora Harrington may already be a household name for you. From 2008 - 2022, Cora was otherwise known as The Lingerie Addict, an alias so recognizable that The New York Times reported on its end, and her book, In Intimate Detail, was born of it. While her background in Sociology and Anthropology as an undergraduate no doubt provided solid underpinnings (just like lingerie to an ensemble, as Cora reminded me) for a foundational approach to lingerie in a sociological context, Cora is self-taught. Her beginnings in dress were guided by genuine curiosity, a desire for a community of like-minded learners, and generous industry professionals. Just hearing its origin story will likely make you nostalgic for the time of “free information from passionate people” in the blogosphere's early years, or perhaps its sentiment will herald a new future for fashion. One that returns to thoughtful, long form content, reflecting our collective desire to learn and broaden our knowledge, something that Cora is a particular proponent of. From her early career with crisis clients at a nonprofit, to her tenure as The Lingerie Addict, to just this week writing for FIT Museum & Graduate Program’s All That Glitters… exhibition, Cora exemplifies multidisciplinary, lifelong learning and a passion for all the varied facets of fashion.

 

Read our conversation below. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 


Please paint a brief sketch of your background, personal & professional.

 

I grew up in central Georgia, definitely a southern girl. My first career was in the nonprofit industry. I started my site on a lark, the first iteration called Stockings Addict - I was really into tights and hosiery. It was a way to decompress; my job was so serious, but stockings, not so much. This was when pinup photography had a resurgance and burlesque was taking off, so naturally my interest grew beyond hosiery and I started talking more about intimate apparel in general [in the early 2010s]. I found there were people who wanted a site that discussed lingerie in a way that wasn’t about sex or eroticism. Somewhat unexpectedly, I found my niche here, and became a lot more interested in the technical, cultural, and historical aspects of intimate apparel. Things like what a certain bra shape said about the time we were living in. I ran The Lingerie Addict from 2008-2022, wrote a book, and now I’m going back to school to learn more about fashion in a formal setting for the first time. It’s been a gift to be able to go back to school at this time in my life.

 

What was the experience of building your blog and public presence like?

 

I think so much about how information was in a lot of ways easier to find then… if you remember those early iterations of blogging, there was so much free information out there and forums for people passionate about these micro niches. I often wish I had saved more from that time, especially as Google has made it almost impossible to organically discover things like that anymore. There has always been a repository of self-taught scholars and those doing work outside of formal settings, and their work should be just as respected. I think as more people grow tired of social media and algorithms dictating what they see, tired of the general noise, folks are looking to just read cool stuff again! But how do you discover things organically now? [Something like Substack] is great, but it still is siloed. Looking back, so much of [building the Lingerie Addict] was impromptu and without strategy. I wasn’t originally thinking about building a ‘brand.’ But what I tried to do on all of my platforms was provide a space for learning and exploration. I created a space on Facebook that was a body snark-free zone, allowing for people to approach the topic of lingerie without the baggage that can come with it. The blog and brand were really born authentically from that desire to create this kind of space.


I would love to hear how you would characterize your relationship to dress over the years. How has fashion influenced your work as well as personal journey?

 

For so long, what I wore was so essential to my public face; it’s been interesting these past couple years in graduate school to not have that component when I move through the world. I don’t think of myself as a brand anymore, so my thoughts around dress over the last few years have shifted away from my personal style to dress as a study. It’s funny because [FIT] is a fashion school, but there is zero judgement around what you wear, perhaps because it’s such an intensive program.

 

How have your graduate studies influenced your trajectory or interests in the field of fashion?

 

I think I hit the ceiling on what I could learn on my own before I went back to school. You can be self-taught, but at a certain point you need outside professionals to learn from. The educators at FIT think about and treat their students like future colleagues - it is an extremely collaborative environment.

 

My thesis, centered around fairtyales in fashion using the lens of standpoint theory, explores how things would have been interpreted at different points in history. Stories have different meanings depending on when you are hearing them. How do we get people to understand things that they’ve already heard before differently? That’s something I’m getting to explore a lot in my graduate studies.

 

I love the dual curation and conservation focus of the program - you have to take intro level classes in both. There’s a science component, you all get basic lab work and training! Everyone knows basic textile repair, how to analyze fibers microscopically, how to dress mannequins, etc. Every graduating class puts on an exhibition - from pitching the concept, to curating, and beyond. This year’s exhibition has both an in-person and online component, and for the first time it’s using garments from the study collection. My role was as a writer; the challenge, but also excitement, around it is how do you take all the stories and history behind one garment and condense it to just 5o words? My favorite description I wrote was for a velvet Oscar de la Renta gown with jeweled cuffs.

 

[All that Glitters… is on view at the FIT Museum from February 26 - March 23, 2025]


~ The challenge, but also excitement, around it is how do you take all the stories and history behind one garment and condense it to just 50 words? ~

 

As those in creative industries will relate to, juggling many projects at once comes with the territory of this work. How do you stay balanced, and how do you stay inspired?

 

These last few years, I’ve had to re-learn how to learn. Going back to school has a ramp up period. Staying balanced is something I’m absolutely still negotiating. One direction will lead to another, and priorities arae always changing. Things are getting done, because they have to, but I’m still figuring it out!

 

Favorite fashion fact, or piece of dress - lingerie or otherwise!

 

I do a lot of research into the history of the bra, understanding underpinnings is essential to understanding outwear. We see examples of bras in sculptures and mosaics from antiquity; there’s the famous one of athletes wearing bandeaus, but there are other examples with a huge variety of this type of garment, even though there’s this idea that bras are a newer invention. And if you knew that, would that change how you see these sculptures or visual touchpoints?

 

Over the next five years, how do you see your work evolving? Tell me about a dream project, a vision, or general directional mood…

 

I would love to write more books. A great thing about social media is the democratization of fashion, but unfortunately a downside is less room for in-depth research. A lot of extensive and interesting research, by necessity, can only be found in books. I would like to contribute to that body of knowledge, there are always more books from different perspectives to be written.

I would also love to do more work curating an exhibit. I’m hoping to partner with The Underpinnings Museum in the UK. It’s an exclusively online museum, and the Director is an excellent example of someone who is outside of academia but intensely knowledgeable, bringing something to the world of fashion that hasn’t been done before and fulfilling a niche outside of traditional channels.

 

What does the future of fashion look like to you?

 

Such a complicated question… fashion will always be relevant, that’s a given, but I could not have predicted where we are now. But I do hope to see a return to more thoughtful, more long-form content. Right now, there is a constant churn and spectacle, so that by the time you’ve formulated a thought it’s old news. This is really to the detriment of all fashion. I hope we see a slowing down in the way we share and digest in the next few years.

 

Final thoughts?

 

It’s never too late to go back to school. And I will always reinforce that there are so many different ways to acquire knowledge. There are people doing really amazing work outside of academic spaces, so don’t discount their knowledge.

 

~ Right now, there is a constant churn and spectacle, so that by the time you’ve formulated a thought it’s old news. This is really to the detriment of all fashion. I hope we see a slowing down in the way we share and digest in the next few years. ~

 

 

Thank you so much to Cora Harrington for having this conversation with me! I hope you will check out her work, and make a visit to see All that Glitters… this month.


~Madison Brito Taylor



By Kristen Zohn April 15, 2025
C ostume Society of America (CSA) is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2025 grants, projects, awards, and honors . "We are excited to celebrate this year’s awardees, honorees, and grant recipients. We could not do this without the dedication and effort of our committees,” says Colleen Pokorny, CSA Vice President for Awards and Honors. Patricia Edmonson, Vice President for Grants and Projects adds, “Our dedicated committee members and chairs have worked hard this year to give each submission the attention it deserves. I also want to thank members who applied for their efforts in the process and hope more continue to engage with us!” All awards, grants, and projects are funded through the generosity of donors to the CSA Endowment . Two Costume Society of America Fellows have been chosen this year to honor their significant contributions to the field of costume, including their work as editors of the organization’s publications: Christina Bates and Kelly L. Reddy-Best. Bates, costume historian and longtime curator at the Canadian Museum of History, has been the recipient of numerous CSA awards and honors, including the Scholar’s Roundtable Honor (2008), the Betty Kirke Excellence in Research Award (2023) and the Millia Davenport Publication Award (2013). Her most notable service to CSA was as Editor-in-Chief of Dress from 2014 to 2022. Reddy-Best is Morrill Professor in the Fashion Design and Merchandising program at Iowa State University, and starting July 2025, she will be Professor and Chair of Family and Consumer Sciences at Illinois State University. Her service to CSA includes guest editing the first special issue of Dress on LGBTQ+ fashions and developing and leading CSA’s first diversity committee. She has served as the editor for the Costume Society of America book series with Kent State University Press since 2023. In addition to this esteemed recognition, CSA annually celebrates its members by presenting a variety of awards to honor their accomplishments. For example, this year’s Betty Kirke Excellence in Research Award is given to Hilary Davidson for her research titled Digital Clothing Reconstruction as a Fashion History Methodology. The Millia Davenport Publication Award goes to Beyond Vanity: The History and Power of Hairdressing by Elizabeth L. Block. This year’s Mary D. Doering Guardian Honor goes to Megan Osborne, Collections Manager and Assistant Curator at the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising, Colorado State University. The Costume Design Award is given to Dennis Wright for his work on House of Desires at Brigham Young University and The Howard Vincent Kurtz Emerging Theatre Artist Award is given to Henry Cawood for the designs for Once Upon a Mattress at Stage West Theatre, Fort Worth, Texas. This year, three Richard Martin Exhibition Awards were given: Gilding Northeast Ohio: Fashion and Fortune, 1870-1900, curated by Brian Centrone for The Massillon Museum (large exhibition); Fashion After Dark, curated by Patty Edmonson at the Western Reserve Historical Society (small exhibition); and Harlem Noire: Fashion Movement, Moment, & Memory, curated by Dyese L. Matthews for Cornell University (student exhibition). The recipient of the new Creative Work Honor will be chosen at this year’s symposium in Los Angeles, and the Presidential Award Winner(s) will be announced, as well. As well as presenting honors and awards, CSA provides grant funding to support individuals and organizations within the field. These include theCSA Travel Research Grant , which has been given this year to Rachel Silberstein for her research International Diplomacy and Industrial Collecting: Charting Qing Dynasty Chinese Dress and Textile History in the Collections of National Museums Scotland. The 2025 Angels Project Grant is given to Flight Path Museum in Los Angeles. Two Adele Filene Student Presenter Grants go to LaDyra Lyte and Mfon-Abasi Obong. A full list of all of CSA’s grants, honors, and awards can be found below. They will be celebrated on Monday, June 2, 2025, during CSA’s 51 st Annual National Meeting and Symposium in Los Angeles . Costume Society of America Fellow Honor: Christina Bates, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Kelly L. Reddy-Best, Ames, Iowa Mary D. Doering Guardian Honor: Megan Osborne, Collections Manager and Assistant Curator, Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising, Colorado State University CSA Creative Work Honor: to be determined CSA Costume Design Award: Dennis Wright, House of Desires , Brigham Young University CSA Richard Martin Exhibition Award, Large Exhibition: Gilding Northeast Ohio: Fashion and Fortune, 1870-1900 , Brian Centrone, The Massillon Museum, Ohio CSA Richard Martin Exhibition Award, Small Exhibition: Fashion After Dark , Patty Edmonson, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio CSA Richard Martin Exhibition Award, Student Exhibition: Harlem Noire: Fashion Movement, Moment, & Memory , Student Curator: Dyese L. Matthews, Faculty Advisors: Denise N. Green and Catherine Blumenkamp, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York Millia Davenport Publication Award: Beyond Vanity: The History and Power of Hairdressing by Elizabeth L. Block (The MIT Press) Millia Davenport Publication Honorable Mention: Shopping All the Way to the Woods: How the Outdoor Industry Sold Nature to America by Rachel S. Gross (Yale University Press) CSA Howard Vincent Kurtz Emerging Theatre Artist Award: Henry Cawood, Once Upon a Mattress , Stage West Theatre, Fort Worth, Texas Betty Kirke Excellence in Research Award: Hilary Davidson for her research titled Digital Clothing Reconstruction as a Fashion History Methodology Scholars’ Roundtable: From Zoom to Lectra: The Tools, Theories, and Technologies That Move Dress Forward ; Laura Camerlengo, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Daniel Drak, Parsons School of Design; Alyssa Ridder, Metropolitan State University of Denver; and Dina Smith-Glaviana, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University CSA Travel Research Grant: Rachel Silberstein, International Diplomacy and Industrial Collecting: Charting Qing Dynasty Chinese Dress and Textile History in the Collections of National Museums Scotland College and University Collection Care Grant: Alabama A&M University, Huntsville, Alabama CSA Small Museum Collection Care Grant: Coastal Mississippi Mardis Gras Museum, Biloxi, Mississippi CSA Dependent Care Grant: Nadia Abdallah Adele Filene Student Presenter Grants: LaDyra Lyte, Louisiana State University; Mfon-Abasi Obong, Louisiana State University CSA Angels Project: Flight Path Museum, Los Angeles, California Presidential Award Winner(s): announcement forthcoming Pictured above from left to right: Detail of ensemble loaned by Lana Turner to the Richard Martin Exhibition Award winning exhibition H arlem Noire: Fashion Movement, Moment, & Memory , curated by Dyese Matthews (Parsons, The New School) at Cornell University (Photo by Ryan Issa for Cornell University, 2024); cover of Beyond Vanity: The History and Power of Hairdressing by Elizabeth L. Block (The MIT Press), recipient of the Millia Davenport Publication Award; “Final Costume 2 – Castano,” a costume for House of Desires at Brigham Young University by Dennis Wright, recipient of the CSA Costume Design Award.
March 28, 2025
This edition of Dialogues on Dress features Emily Stoehrer of MFA Boston. Sartorial story detective and pillar in the dress community, Stoehrer occupies the sole Senior Curator of Jewelry position at US fine arts museums. The history of dress and the future of fashion act in dialogue, always interfacing to inform our present moment. The Costume Society of America’s diverse members exemplify this reality like no other; through the constant connections across time and disciplines they draw, our membership of costume curators, designers, artists, and so much more embody fashion’s ubiquitous presence - and dress’ daily power to teach us all something new. We hope you will join us for CSA’s new Dialogues on Dress series, interviews now available monthly in our e-News and here on our website. Interested in getting in touch? Email enews@costumesocietyamerica.com
By Kristen Zohn June 5, 2024
It’s a wrap! Our 50th annual symposium in Washington, DC, has now become part of our history. The Grand Hyatt, in the heart of the city, was a fitting venue for this grand occasion. The hotel conference staff was enthusiastic about hosting our golden anniversary and was a pleasure to work with. The Board of Directors met Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Participant events began Wednesday morning with a trip to Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens. Onsite workshops allowed participants to learn about sewing for museums, teaching zero waste to design students, doing restorative research, examining Chanel suits and copies close-up, and doing hands-on fabric design. The George Washington Museum and The Textile Museum also hosted a workshop, the first of three events at that institution. Founding members Elizabeth Ann Coleman and Elizabeth Jachimowicz led off the evening celebrations with the keynote beginning with “The Dark Ages” of the founding and how the Society grew. Grants, awards, and honors recipients were recognized (a full list can be found here ), and then the group adjourned to food, beverages, music, and dancing. Presentations began Thursday morning. Each day led off one of the grants, awards, and honors presentations in plenary session to bring us all together before we split up to visit one of four or five concurrent sessions. Thursday afternoon, attendees left the hotel for organized tours to Arena Stage, the DAR Museum, Ford’s Theatre, the Library of Congress, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Textile Museum, and a special added treat at the National Museum of American History. Our hosts and hostesses extended warm hospitality. Some stayed behind to meet CSA’s editors, while others went on their own to some of the many other museums in the area. Meanwhile, the silent auction, ably directed by symposium co-chair Debbie Farthing and a crew of volunteers, got the massive donations organized in order for us to start bidding at noon. As usual, there were many treasures. A new feature was the cash and carry dollar table. We are pleased to say that these efforts yielded over $5,500—thanks go to all those who donated and purchased items. Later that day, student members met and then went out to dinner. Registrants were also invited to the Textile Museum for an evening lecture, “Three Centuries of Europe’s ‘Clouded’ Ikat Textiles,” by Martina D’Amato. Friday featured the Creative Works Exhibition in addition to plenary and concurrent research sessions. In the evening, former First Lady Dolley Madison (aka living history interpreter Katherine Spivey) came to dine with a small group at the fundraising dinner. Saturday morning, the Town Hall gave attendees a chance to express their concerns with newly installed President Leon Wiebers. As a result of this discussion, a task force is being assembled to review the DEAB language in symposium rubrics before the next call for abstracts is released this summer. If you have an interest in serving or a concern to add to this review, please let the national office know as soon as possible by sending an email to national.office@costumesocietyamerica.com . The symposium came to a close at 3:00 on Saturday afternoon. However, some attendees remained to get in one last museum visit or enjoy some of the vibrant nightlife. Abstracts of this 50 th Annual Meeting and Symposium can be downloaded on the members-only site . You can see some of the action as participants shared photos on social media with the hashtag, #CSA50th. If you attended and haven’t shared your photos yet, please take a moment to do so. We want to hear from you! Whether you attended this year’s symposium or not, please give us your thoughts by clicking here . Your feedback is valuable to us as we plan for the future. We extend our sincere appreciation to our sponsors, Bloomsbury Publishing, DittoForm LLC Michigan, and UOVO Fashion all at the Silver Level; Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum and Zephyr Preservation Studio, LLC at the Bronze Level; 2024 Angels Project sponsors University Products, Talas, Gaylord Archival, and Archival Methods; Creative Works Exhibition sponsors Marymount University, Arlington, VA, and Fashion Archives and Museum of Shippensburg University, PA. Thanks also to our marketplace participants and advertisers: Intellect Books, Past Crafts, Yale University Press, and Cora Ginsburg. Attendees also showed their individual support through sponsorships named after First Ladies’ Gowns. At the $500, Dolley Payne Todd Madison Level: Annie Pacious, Anne Sullivan Waskom, and Ann Wass. At the $200, Mary Todd Lincoln Level: Lalon Alexander, Theresa Alexander, Jennifer Tracz, and Polly Willman. At the $100, Lou Henry Hoover Level: June Burns Bové; Debbie Farthing; Margaret Ordoñez; and Sarah Stevens. At the $50, Mamie Doud Eisenhower Level: Elizabeth Ann Coleman, Mary Gibson, Marjorie Jonas, and Leigh Southward. At the $25, Rosalyn Smith Carter Level: Ann Braaten, Deborah Brothers, Jennifer Brown, Judi Dawainis, Michaele Haynes, Erin Howell-Gritsch, Deborah Miller, Nan H. Mutnick, Susan Picinich, Colleen Pokorny, Elizabeth Potter, Danielle Reeves, Claire Shaeffer, Arlesa Shephard, Constance Spotts, and Susan Yanofsky. At the $10, Nancy Davis Reagan Level: Heidi Cochran, Arti Sandhu, Jenise Sileo, and Michelle Tarantina. We would like to express our immense gratitude for the hard work of our fantastic local arrangements team, led by the dynamic duo Co-Chairs: Ann Wass, Debbie Farthing; Hotel Site Visits: Tanya Wetenhall; Abstracts Co-Administrators: Theresa Alexander, Karin Bohleke; Abstracts Editor: Gail Alterman; Angels Project: Martha Grimm, Margaret Ordoñez; Keynote: Alden O’Brien, Ann Wass; First Timers/Member-to-Member Meet and Greet: Monica Sklar, Petra Slinkard; Student Meet and Greet: Dyese Matthews, Paige Tomfohrde; Reception Dance Leader: Jim Wass; Professional Development Workshops: Brian Centrone, Angel DuBose, Katrina Orsini; Scholars’ Roundtable: Jaleesa Reed, Ginger Stanciel; Creative Works Exhibition: Jean Parsons, Julia Ravindran; Tours: Howard Vincent Kurtz, Katherine Hill McIntyre, Megan Martinelli, Alden O’Brien, Katrina Orsini, Shelly Foote, Laura Johnson; Marketplace: Deborah Miller, Debbie Farthing; Silent Auction: Debbie Farthing, Heidi Cochrane, Charlene Gross, Polly Willman ; Fundraiser Event: Katherine Spivey, Ann Wass; Social Media: Katrina Orsini, Frank Gabriel New; Evaluations: Ann Wass; Volunteers: Mid-Atlantic Members and Friends. Special thanks go to the more than 30 abstract reviewers who made our symposium possible. Next Year’s Plans Next year, we will convene across the country in Los Angeles. CSA's Western Region will host the 51 st National Annual Meeting and Symposium at Loyola Marymount University. Hope to see you there! Images top row left to right: The record number of Fellows who joined us for the festivities; Symposium Co-Chair Ann Wass in character as Ann Brodeau with Katherine Spivey as Dolley Madison at the Friday night fundraiser; Symposium Co-Chair Debbie Farthing, queen of the Silent Auction; Jeremy M. Bernardoni shows his work in the Creative Design Exhibition; attendees view rare books on the Library of Congress Tour Images bottom row left to right: Nadege Pierre, her mother, Sarah Hixson, Talia Spielholz, Monica Sklar, and Charlene Gross during their trip to the Library of Congress during the Thursday afternoon tours; Angels Project participants at The Howard County Historical Society in Ellicott City, Maryland; Howard Vincent Kurtz with the winners of the award that bears his name: Yee Lin Elaine Yuen (2022 winner), Mona Jahani (2023 winner), Kessler Jones (2024 winner)
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