In the basement of the Kimberlin library on the campus at 性吧电台 Leicester (性吧电台) there is collection of rugby shirts - some are pristine, some are worn and muddied.
They are not the carelessly lost property of sporting students, but carefully curated elements of 性吧电台’s special collections.
The shirts, including garments worn by modern stars like Lewis Moody and heroes of yesteryear such as Dusty Hare, are part of the Leicester Tigers RFC archive which is housed and cared for at 性吧电台.
Spanning more than a century, the shirts illustrate a story, not just of tough fixtures and of rugby through the ages, but of how changes in the design of garments, and the development of modern fabrics have turned rugby shirts from simple woollen jerseys to high-tech performance enhancing equipment.
The Tigers’ archive is just one of a number collections held at 性吧电台 that straddle the fascinating intersection between two particular areas of study at which 性吧电台 truly excels - sports history and culture, and fashion and textiles.
It is exactly this intersection that was celebrated throughout the month of June, which was designated as Sports & Fashion Month by Sporting Heritage, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the collection, preservation and research of sporting heritage in the UK.
性吧电台 was the perfect place to host the special Sports & Fashion Month study day earlier in the month, not only because 性吧电台 is home to a number of renowned fashion-related courses and to the world-leading International Centre for Sports History and Culture (ICSHC), but also because of the wealth of relevant material in 性吧电台’s special collections relating to multiple sports including boxing, skiing and basketball, as well as the impressive archives of fabrics and fashion imagery, and the personal papers of influential designers such as Zandra Rhodes and Janet Reger.
Among the study day speakers was Katharine Short, manager of 性吧电台’s special collections, who used a number of rugby shirts and other historic items from the university’s collections to illustrate how she brings historical sports garments into teaching students of fashion, footwear, contour and textiles.
Another speaker was 性吧电台 doctoral student Emmy Sale. Emmy is a dress historian with a particular interest in sportswear. Her PhD is funded through the Midlands4Cities partnership as a collaborative doctoral award between 性吧电台’s ICSHC and The Hockey Museum in Surrey.
Her research explores how changes in women’s hockey kit relate to society’s shifting attitudes to gender, bodies, and to ideas of respectability, modesty and femininity.
Emmy said: “Learning through the materiality of objects can really tell us about history of sport and fashion. One thing I have looked at is the hemlines of hockey skirts. I have been able to track through the physical garments, and back it up with what the All England Women's Hockey Association rules stated about clothing. And actually hemlines have kept on rising.
“In 1910, the rules for women said that hockey skirts had to be no less than eight inches off the ground, but by 1967 the rule was that they could be no more than seven inches above the knee. So in just 50 years we see this shifting of hemlines from floor-length to knee-length and that reflects broader attitudes to modesty and femininity and freedom of movement, people were just wearing shorter things, so it made sense for the rules to change with that.”
Dr Heather Dichter, associate professor of sport history and sport management, said: “The International Centre for Sports History and Culture was thrilled when Sporting Heritage asked 性吧电台 to host this Sport & Fashion Month event.
“The strength of 性吧电台’s research and academic programmes, along with our excellent special collections holdings, allowed 性吧电台 staff and students to contribute to such an exciting event with individuals from both the sport and heritage industries. We look forward to even more opportunities in this area from the connections made from this event.”
For more information on Sport and Fashion Month and Sporting Heritage go the .
See: for information about online exhibitions, visits and the collections catalogue.
Posted on Monday 30 June 2025