Charlotte Nicklas

Dr Charlotte Nicklas is a Senior Lecturer in the History of Art and Design. Her main research interest is the history of dress, fashion, and textiles in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but she is interested in all aspects of the history of dress and textiles and, more broadly, material culture and the history of design. She approaches these histories through objects, images, and texts. At the centre of her research is the way in which dress and fashion both influence and reflect the cultural concerns of a particular historical period. Particular interests include the history of colour in clothing and fashion and fictional representations of dress and fashion.

Charlotte has supervised one PhD student to completion and has two current PhD students. She is eager to supervise PhD projects on 19th- and 20th-century dress, fashion, and textile history topics and welcomes enquiries.

Charlotte received a BA in History and Literature from Harvard University and an MA in Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture from the Bard Graduate Center (New York). She was awarded her PhD from the University of Brighton, supervised by Professor Lou Taylor. Her PhD thesis examined the cultural contexts of the transition from natural to artificial textile dyes in the mid-nineteenth century.

Charlotte worked in the Exhibitions Department at the Bard Graduate Center, helping to organise exhibitions on a wide variety of design history topics, including Marimekko: Fabrics, Fashion, Architecture (2003-2004) and Sheila Hicks: Weaving as Metaphor (2006). She also worked in the Department of Textile and Fashion Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.