Accessorising the past

We've added accoutrements to our outfits for centuries, from buckles to buttons - but they aren't just important for fashion's sake. Cordula van Wyhe and Susan Vincent reveal what six accessories can tell us about historical attitudes to gender, empire and more

- Cordula van Wyhe and Susan Vincent

Categorising accessories is tricky. Is the belt that holds up your jeans an accessory? What about your sunglasses, or your jewellery? We define the dress accessory as something that a person carries or wears, which supplements their garments. Accessories are often small and they can be highly decorative, but they have a practical function too.

These add-ons to our outfits work with the entire body from top to toe. Some, like buckles, have been with us unchanged for thousands of years. Others, like the phone case, appeared almost yesterday. Some were elite must-haves, but many were carried, manipulated, admired, and enjoyed by the masses.

Accessories are the Cinderella of dress history, too often forgotten while their fancier sisters go to the ball. But in their own time these objects did influential things, and they connect with much broader ideas. Picking up an accessory reveals aspects of history in exciting new ways. Their raw materials show us global trade and sometimes global exploitation. Some accessories had the stamp of empire or were used to commemorate political ideas, like the patch box that featured the famous "Am I Not a Man and a Brother" anti-slavery design.

Enterprising manufacturers used the widespread circulation of other items as an opportunity for mass advertising. The accessory, though small in size, also gave form to gender roles and expectations, and new items - like the powder compact for instance - show these changing over time.

To modern eyes they are sometimes mystifying, but these once common objects have fascinating and important stories to tell.

FACING THE FUTURE