B&B Exhibition, Performance & Automaton

Bikes & Bloomers research project was first launched (in 2014) with a sewing, cycling and suffrage story telling event at Look Mum No Hands (the very popular central London bike cafe/workshop).

The event included talks by the research team and volunteers in costume, each performing in character,  the lives of these inventive women, bringing to life their influences, social context in which they lived and challenges they attempted to address through their designs.

There were refreshments, costumes to try on and live screen printing on t-shirts of Victorian cycling culture imagery.

The exhibition also featured an automaton – a full sized woman cyclist in costume who cycled when you cranked a handle connected to her bicycle pedals.

The terrific pics are by Charlotte Barnes