Ruff Stuff

Each year I work with Year 11 and 12 students from Parliament Hill School at Lauderdale House as part of the Mad, Bad and Dangerous project, delivering a fashion session that uses the Tudor period as a starting point for contemporary design thinking. Students explore how clothing communicated power, status, and identity in Tudor society, and look at the role fashion history plays in shaping the work of designers today, examining how the Tudor ruff in particular has inspired contemporary collections and creative practice. They then make their own accessories using the folding, pleating, and construction techniques used to craft ruffs, experimenting with structure, scale, and material to develop something entirely their own. Being in a historic space like Lauderdale House brings this kind of learning to life in a way a classroom rarely can, and the excitement of leaving the formality of the classroom, surrounded physically by the history of the time through the architecture of the building, brings a sense of play and enthusiasm to the creative process.