Addressing Alice: The Emergence of a Style Icon, 1865-1890

It is almost 150 years since the first publication of Lewis Carroll's 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' in 1865. Yet what has recently been referred to as the 'allure' of Alice goes on unabated in diverse spheres across the world. The books in which she appears continue to be widely read, studied, researched and adapted to an eclectic range of media. In addition, a vast array of people - young and old, world-famous and unknown - design clothes for her, wear clothes which she adorns and dress like her. As such, she constitutes an ideal case for an examination of the interconnections between fashion and fiction. This project explores the many different ways in which Alice was dressed in the books themselves and in the wide array of related articles, from wallpaper to biscuits tins, produced in Carroll's lifetime. It also traces the adoption of Alice as a character to be embodied by real children in the context of dramatic adaptations of the stories (professional and amateur) and also in the hugely popular fancy dress balls and parties of the period. Alice is thus placed within both a literary and artistic context, in relation to writers, illustrators, performers and playwrights, but also in the everyday experiences and activities of ordinary children, providing insight into the ripple effect of literary works in the lives of young readers.

Through its innovative dress-based approach, the project aims to contribute to ongoing critical debates about Alice's character and to contextualise, historicise and thereby defamiliarise a character whose image is now so firmly fixed. It traces the evolution of her visual identity in unprecedented detail, pinpointing the emergence of specific features, such as her association with the colour blue, and of her iconicity more generally. Drawing attention to her multiplicity from the first, it challenges received critical ideas which have placed the proliferation of her visual identity in the early twentieth century. By focusing on dress not only in illustration, material culture and professional adaptation, but also in amateur productions and fancy dress, the project will extend study of the reception, transmission and evolution of the Alice books into the wider world - both beyond the UK, and beyond the textual. A more detailed understanding of Alice in the nineteenth century provides the foundations for studies moving into later periods and their associated media, and examining alternative cultural contexts. But the project also aims to open up possible avenues and approaches for academics other than Carroll specialists, bringing dress within the purview of children's literature researchers and the realm of childhood within that of fashion(/fiction) scholars. Crucially, in addition, the project's methodology which focuses on dress and combines a diverse range of source materials, especially relating to the distinctly understudied form of fancy dress, will be eminently transferable and can be used to chart the afterlife of any character across time and space.

The project will involve close-reading of the Alice corpus and extensive archival research, predominantly undertaken in London in conjunction with a RA. In addition, I will work closely with a pattern cutter to produce a garment for display in order to better understand the processes involved in transferring a 2-d illustration of Alice into 3 dimensions. Collaborations with project partners, the V&A Museum of Childhood and the Lewis Carroll Society, will produce further outputs and activities (an exhibition and symposium) coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the first publication of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' in 2015.

The research will reach a broad range of audiences beyond academia thanks to collaborations leading to specific outputs with the V&A Museum of Childhood and the Lewis Carroll Society, the production of articles for mass media outlets and the creation of a website as follows:

- A website hosted by QM presenting the digital outputs produced (digital images, video and a spreadsheet) (Autumn 2014)- 'The Alice Look' Exhibition in the V&A Museum of Childhood [MoC hereafter] (May-Sept 2015)
- Production of garment for 'The Alice Look'
- 'Alice & Fashion' Symposium with the Lewis Carroll Society, UK, held at the MoC (May 2015)
- Two feature articles for fashion magazines/style supplements (Spring/Summer 2015)

These outputs, in conjunction with a detailed communications strategy, ensure that members of i) the cultural and creative industries, and ii) the general public will be brought directly into contact with the research. The project will have impact through both cultural enrichment and wealth creation.

i) Organisations and specific individuals within the cultural and creative industries will benefit from the research. It helps fulfil some of the key strategic aims of the MoC: it diversifies the focus beyond toys, providing a distinctive new approach to and extension of its collection, and contributes to raising the intellectual profile of the institution. The exhibition and symposium combine two subjects of perennial appeal - Alice/Carroll and fashion/dress. They therefore stand to attract new visitors to the Museum, including academics, Carroll enthusiasts (such as the c.1000 members of the various Lewis Carroll societies across the world) and literary/cultural tourists more generally. This should increase footfall and consequently enhance revenue via frequentation of the shop (average spend per transaction: £7.06 [current financial year (Apr 2013 - Mar 2013)] - all revenue from which is returned to the Museum) and café (average spend per transaction: £5.67 [2012 calendar year]). Given that reception of Alice in Japan will be foregrounded, the exhibition is likely to be of particular interest to Japanese visitors. Pattern cutter Josie Smith will benefit from the visibility brought to her work and from the opportunity to bring together the academic and practical strands of her career.

ii) The exhibition, feature articles and website will enhance and enrich the general public's awareness of Alice, Carroll and elements of the Victorian age as well as contemporary practices. These outputs will place Alice in her historical context and invite interrogation of key features of her contemporary image (e.g. the colour blue, stripy tights and Alice band). The feature articles will be pitched to publications with readerships in excess of 1 million per issue: Vogue (ABC Jan-June 2012); and the Guardian (NRS Jan-June 2012), while the exhibition and symposium will take place in a venue which attracted 443,302 visitors in 2011-12. The exhibition and website will both diversify the image of Alice. The exhibition will consequently reflect and embrace the MoC's diverse family audience (black and ethnic minority visitors make up 25% of the total). The extensive involvement with the MoC means that research which is so closely concerned with children and childhood is also extended to a young audience (189,877 of the figure above were aged under 16), thereby helping to keep Alice relevant for another generation.

All of the outputs will come to fruition in 2015 which marks the 150th anniversary of the first publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, when interest in Carroll and Alice is likely to be intense. The timing of the project ensures that I will be ideally placed to contribute to the anniversary celebrations, and indeed to influence the shape they take.