Janet Arnold

Janet Arnold (6 October 1932 – 2 November 1998) was a British clothing historian, costume designer, teacher, conservator, and author. She is best known for her series of works called Patterns of Fashion, which included accurate scale sewing patterns, used by museums and theatres alike. She went on to write A Handbook of Costume, a book on the primary sources on costume study, and Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd, as well as many other books.

Arnold was awarded the inaugural Sam Wanamaker Award in 1998. After her death, the Society of Antiquaries of London who had previously made her a fellow, created a grant in her name, as did The Costume Society, which she helped to found.

Biography Janet Arnold was born at Duncan House, Clifton Down Road in Bristol on 6 October 1932. Her father, Frederick Charles Arnold was an ironmonger, whilst her mother, Adeline Arnold, was a nurse. She was educated at The Red Maids' School and took a keen interest in clothes based on the school's uniform for orphans. Arnold went to study at West of England College of Art, where she achieved a National Diploma, before obtaining her art teacher's diploma from Bristol University in 1954.

Arnold took on the role of lecturer at Hammersmith Day College in 1955 and remained there until 1962 when she moved to a senior lecturer role at Avery Hill College of Education, where she remained until 1970. In 1971, she took on a part-time role of research lecturer at West Surrey School of Art and Design. Arnold went on to start working with the department of drama and theatre studies at Royal Holloway College in 1978. During the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Arnold worked on her opus Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd. Arnold died of lymphoma at her home in London on 2 November 1998; she had been working on costumes for Theatre Royal, Bristol and Mermaid Theatre just two days earlier. The Costume Society, which Arnold helped to found, gives out an annual award of £500 in her memory to a student who has produced a reconstructed garment from one of her books.

In May 2020, the rights to the out-of-print Patterns of Fashions 1-4 books reverted from Macmillan Publishing to The School of Historical Dress. The School is republishing the collected works as well as previously planned but incomplete volumes.