Secrets of an Edwardian shopaholic

What happens when a debutante’s entire wardrobe ends up in a museum vault? As it turns out, it gives birth to one of the world’s great fashion collections.

An extraordinary personal collection of Edwardian couture clothing lies in the vaults of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, once worn by a debutante named Heather Firbank. When Heather’s maid persuaded the museum to accept her former mistress’s entire wardrobe, the V&A’s Fashion and Textile department was born.

In this lecture, author and journalist Tessa Boase draws an intimate portrait of shopping, high society, seduction and ruin in the years leading up to the Great War, asking: who was Heather, and what secrets do her clothes yield?

Boase is a freelance journalist, author and lecturer with a passion for uncovering the stories of invisible women from the 19th and early 20th centuries. She is the author of three books of social history: The Housekeeper’s Tale: The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House (2014); Etta Lemon: The Woman Who Saved the Birds (2018); and London’s Lost Department Stores: A Vanished World of Dazzle and Dreams (2022).

Social history at its most intimate and revealing.

When: Wednesday 26 August 2026
Location: Adelaide (SA) — visit the ArtsNational website for venue details and bookings

Find out more and book tickets: artsnational.au/event/secrets-of-an-edwardian-shopaholic