HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2026-03-13T17:31:05.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: What did Anne Boleyn REALLY look like? Our new research could change everything
items: "She was like an angel – albeit one with claws": Zandra Rhodes chooses Adel Rootstein (1930–62) as her history hero
items: Fashion and folly | Alice Loxton on the world of the Georgians
items: How to dress like a ROMAN woman in ancient Britain
items: The wrong moustache in the Battle of Hastings
items: Designs for life: the lasting impact of Art Deco
items: Zoot suits, mashers & New Romantics: the evolution of the dandy
items: Flower power: how plants transformed the lives of 17th-century women
items: Why did Georgian dresses cost as much as a townhouse?!
items: Bear fat, false rumps and arsenic makeup: 7 of the most bizarre beauty trends from the past

What did Anne Boleyn REALLY look like? Our new research could change everything
type: item
date: 2026-03-13T17:30:55.000Z
creator: Dr Owen Emmerson
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Tudor
subject: British queens
subject: Henry VIII's wives
subject: Royal weddings
subject: Tudor kings and queens
description: Dark or brunette? Fair or swarthy? A paragon of beauty or a refined charmer? Our picture of Henry VIII’s ill-fated second queen has become distorted over five centuries – but new research by Owen Emmerson and others comes closer to revealing her true appearance
encoded: Close your eyes and picture Anne Boleyn. Chances are you can conjure up a pretty clear and detailed image in your imagination – because few figures in English history seem as visually familiar as Henry VIII’s second queen. Representations of her face appear everywhere: in films, television dramas and novels, in museum gift shops and digital reconstructions. She is often depicted in popular culture as an elegant brunette whose sophistication distinguishes her from others at court. Over time, this image has hardened into something close to fact. Anne Boleyn, we are told, was devastatingly beautiful. Yet this certainty is built on fragile foundations, and surviving evidence provides a less concrete understanding of Anne’s appearance. No formal painted portraits from life survive today, though images in a number of smaller, more intimate formats – particularly miniatures – are candidates for having captured her true likeness based on contemporary encounters. The more-familiar portraits featuring the now-iconic ‘B’ pendant necklace, meanwhile, were likely created decades later, influenced by politics, artistic convention and hindsight. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/03/DXFXNM-38bec64-e1773309603951.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="A woman with long dark braids, wearing a white period-style gown, sits on a cushioned bed and gently holds a baby wrapped in richly patterned blue and gold fabric. Dark wooden furniture and white bedding frame the intimate, historical-feeling scene" title="Natalie Dormer played Anne Boleyn in the television series The Tudors, which perpetuated modern ideas of the ill-fated queen as a dark-haired beauty (Image by Alamy)" /> For generations, historians assumed that any accurate representations created during Anne’s life had been lost altogether, erased after her execution in 1536 on the orders of Henry VIII. That story is compelling, but it is wrong. My research – which underpins Capturing a Queen: T…

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"She was like an angel – albeit one with claws": Zandra Rhodes chooses Adel Rootstein (1930–62) as her history hero
type: item
date: 2026-02-26T09:31:30.000Z
creator: York Membery
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Historical people
description: Fashion designer Zandra Rhodes chooses Adel Rootstein as her history hero
encoded: In profile Born in South Africa to Russian parents, Adel Rootstein became arguably the leading British mannequin designer from the late 1950s onwards. She revolutionised mannequin design and played a key behind-the-scenes role in the London fashion scene of the 'swinging sixties', founding the successful mannequin company Rootstein with her husband, industrial designer Richard Hopkins. She died in London at the age of 62. When did you first hear about Adel Rootstein? When she turned up at the front door of my little design studio near Paddington Station in London in 1969, following my first fashion collection. She’d tracked me down, wanting some dresses of mine for the mannequins in the showroom she’d just opened in Golden Square, Soho. It was the start of a lifelong friendship. What kind of woman was she? She was a petite, mousy-looking woman, wore her brown hair in a bob, and spoke with a slight South African accent. But for all her sweetness, she was incredibly tough – you crossed her at your peril. She’d been a window dresser in the West End, but back then there was nothing much to show dresses on, just ordinary dummies – lumps of plaster – which looked awful. So she decided to make her own mannequins. Her father was a rabbi, but I don’t think she was a practising Jew. However, when she died she left money to a Sephardic cemetery on the Fulham Road. Read more | Beauty before durability: the interwar beginnings of fast fashion What made her a hero? She was the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. She had the strength of Frida Kahlo and was one of those people who just make things happen. She and her husband started producing their handcrafted mannequins, using the latest fibreglass technology, in a small Soho workshop before moving to bigger premises. She was a great talent-spotter, too – she immediately realised the potential in Twiggy’s elfin look – and could identify a trend before it hit the streets. She also supported me through thick and thin when my business …

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Fashion and folly | Alice Loxton on the world of the Georgians
type: item
date: 2026-02-02T09:05:32.000Z
subject: Georgian
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: HistoryExtra Academy
subject: The world of the Georgians
description: In episode five of the World of the Georgians, Alice Loxton explores Georgian fashion, celebrity and excess – and how caricature delighted in cutting vanity down to size
encoded: In Georgian Britain, clothing was never just about style – it was a public performance of wealth, status and ambition. In this episode, Alice Loxton examines the extravagant fashions of the 18th century, from towering wigs and vast hoop skirts to the scandalously sheer dresses of the Regency era. She also explores early celebrity culture through figures such as opera singer Elizabeth Billington, whose fame made her a magnet for gossip and, of course, satire. View Green Video on the source website Want more from Alice? Find more episodes of the World of the Georgians. Alice Loxton is a historian, presenter and Sunday Times bestselling author with over three million followers on social media.

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How to dress like a ROMAN woman in ancient Britain
type: item
date: 2026-01-16T08:04:03.000Z
creator: Emily Briffett
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Roman
description: What would an elite Roman woman have worn on the frontiers of the empire? Join us at Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire as we recreate an authentic hairstyle and makeup look of a wealthy Roman woman living in Britain from the early fourth century
encoded: Join us at Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire, one of Britain's most impressive Roman sites now in the care of the National Trust, as we recreate an authentic hairstyle and makeup look of a wealthy Roman woman living in Britain from the early fourth century. HistoryExtra's Rachel Dinning joins expert Aimee Williams, visitor experience officer at Chedworth, as she transforms our model Emily with intricate braids, bold blue eyeshadow, and traditional Roman attire. Learn about the fascinating and often bizarre beauty rituals of Roman women, from using rotted leeches in red wine as hair dye, to the rituals of ancient cosmetics grinders. View Green Video on the source website

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The wrong moustache in the Battle of Hastings
type: item
date: 2025-09-03T13:00:50.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Historical events
subject: Medieval battles
subject: Medieval kings and queens
subject: Trends-Entertainment
description: What's going on with the facial hair in King and Conqueror, have we been suckered in by an overly literal understanding of the Bayeux Tapestry, and what did a Viking beard really look like?
encoded: How and why did they get the facial hair so wrong in the new BBC 1066 drama King and Conqueror, and what did an actual Viking look like on the hair and beard front? Find out in my in-depth analysis of moustache-gate, framed, as is my wont, in the context of the Bayeux Tapestry. The new 1066 drama King and Conqueror has been accused by numerous commentators of playing fast and loose with the historical narrative of the Norman Conquest. That’s a reasonable criticism, but on my assessment of the critiques of the series, the deepest opprobrium has been reserved for the facial hair fantasy. Dad tache or bad tache? The problem is that Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, as Duke William of Normandy, sports a bristling tache (memorably described by Lucy Mangan in the Guardian as a ‘1970s dad tache’ and in the Daily Mail as an Asterix look), while the upper lip of James Norton’s Harold Godwinson is unequivocally hairless. That, as many experts have pointed out, is directly at odds with the Bayeux Tapestry. The famous 11th-century embroidery, which provides the earliest visual representation of the 1066 story, quite clearly shows a moustachioed Harold and a clean-shaven William. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/09/528361-7b9d210.jpg" width="6224" height="4672" alt="A man with shaggy hair and a moustache stands on a beach, dressed in a dark cloak and holding a sword. Behind him, a small group of people gather around a wooden boat on the shoreline" title="William bosses the beach with his 1970s dad tache in King and Conqueror (Image by BBC/CBS Studios)" /> Harold’s facial hair in the Tapestry is in line with that of his Anglo-Saxon compatriots: they tend to (but don’t always) boast moustaches, some of which are thin and straggly, while others are impressive handlebar efforts. The Normans, on the other hand, lack upper lip action. The embroiderers were clearly following a style guide to try to offer a visual prompt to the viewer about which side the r…

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Designs for life: the lasting impact of Art Deco
type: item
date: 2025-08-13T08:00:27.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: In the interwar era, artists and designers embraced a sleek modern style that embodied the optimism and elegance of the age. On the centenary of the Paris expo that launched Art Deco on the international stage, Emma Bastin explores its origins and lasting impacts
encoded: On a cold, wintry December day in 1935, the Duke and Duchess of York arrived in Bexhill-on-Sea to open a new public venue. Lining the route were well-wishers of all ages, from Brownies and Cubs to war veterans wearing campaign medals. By the time the royal couple reached their destination, the crowd numbered in their thousands; no doubt the duke and duchess found it difficult to fully appreciate the building. With its unadorned cream walls, acres of glass and sleek lines, the De La Warr Pavilion did not so much proclaim its modernity but shout it out loud. The stylish façade hid a welded steel frame, the first of its kind in Britain. Inside were an auditorium seating 1,300, a restaurant and a library, all for “the common enjoyment of the people”. Quickly dubbed ‘The People’s Palace’, it was – and still is – an iconic embodiment of Art Deco style. Art Deco – a shortened, anglicised version of arts décoratifs – was never referred to as such in its heyday in the 1920s and 30s. Like most art movements, it gained its name long after its popularity had waned. The first use of the term as we use it now was by art historian Bevis Hillier in 1968. Facade of the Folies Bergère, Paris Maurice Pico, 1926 The dancer Lila Nikolska was the model for the gold bas-relief facade of the most famous cabaret in Paris – the Folies Bergère. Dancers were important to Art Deco sculptors, their bodies epitomising fluidity and strength. Here, movement is emphasised by the sequences of lines that surround the model, which also suggest that strident, modern music is playing. As with many other forms of art and design before and since, Art Deco was a response to the social, cultural and economic climate in which it emerged. It drew inspiration from a diverse range of sources, from ancient Egypt to the avant-garde, incorporating motifs from nature as well as concepts of mass-production using artificial materials. As a result, defining Art Deco is notoriously difficult. Some art historians have pr…

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Zoot suits, mashers & New Romantics: the evolution of the dandy
type: item
date: 2025-08-13T06:30:12.000Z
creator: Ellie Cawthorne
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Peter Andersson delves into various dandy subcultures that saw men dressing immaculately, from the early 19th century to the 1980s
encoded: From zoot suiters and mods, to mashers and Congolese sapeurs, since the early 19th century, fashionable male subcultures have popped up across the globe. Speaking to Ellie Cawthorne, Peter Andersson examines how the idea of the 'dandy' has evolved over time, and argues that the idea of dressing well was not limited to the elites. Peter Andersson is the author of The Dandy: A People's History of Sartorial Splendour (Oxford University Press, 2025) Buy now on Bookshop.org Buy now on Amazon <a href="https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?id=489797&clickref=historyextra-288194&awinmid=3787&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.waterstones.com%2Fbook%2Fthe-dandy%2Fpeter-k-andersson%2F9780198882435%23%3A%7E%3Atext%3DThe%2520Dandy%253A%2520A%2520People%27s%2520History%2520constitutes%2520the%2520first%2520ever%2520history%2Cstyle%252Dconscious%2520men%2520about%2520town.#:~:text=The%20Dandy%3A%20A%20People's%20History%20constitutes%20the%20first%20ever%20history,style%2Dconscious%20men%20about%20town." rel="sponsored" target="_blank">Buy now on Waterstones

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Flower power: how plants transformed the lives of 17th-century women
type: item
date: 2025-06-19T08:00:34.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Few 17th-century women could travel the world. But the world could visit them in their gardens. Susannah Lyon-Whaley reveals how exotic plants – from Chinese rhubarb to South American passionfruit – opened new horizons in fashion, food and science
encoded: Anna Buckett had never seen a pineapple. Undeterred, on 12 July 1656, she took the bold move of stitching one. While the fine stitches on her sampler show dexterity, the result is more artistic than realistic. The red pineapple looks a little like a monstrous jelly with beetle legs. Amid Anna’s stitched pinks, pansies and honeysuckles, the pineapple – a native of countries like Brazil and Suriname that would not grow successfully in English gardens until the 1700s – was out of place. She had never seen a pineapple, but Anna may have seen pictures. The first printed depiction of a pineapple in Europe was in black and white in Gonzalo de Oviedo’s Historia General de las Indias (1535). Another herbal text (1641) claimed that the fruit tasted “as if wine, rosewater and sugar were mixed together”. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/06/2HHR700cmyk-ce191d2.jpg" width="1545" height="1030" alt="A detailed and colourful piece of needlework shows a scene with two people, a lion and a horse at the top, with several plants, leaves and red pineapples across the bottom" title="A needlework sampler stitched by Anna Buckett in 1656, including her depiction of a red pineapple, resembling a “monstrous jelly with beetle legs” (Image by Alamy)" /> Anna may have been the Anne Buckett baptised in May 1643 in Middlesex, or the Ann Becket baptised in December 1644 in Surrey, though neither is certain. Like other daughters of merchants or gentlemen learning the gentler arts, she stitched both gardens she saw and those she imagined. Needlework creations of the time swarmed with peacocks, parrots, lions, leopards and sunflowers from foreign lands. In the 17th century, voyages to new colonies in North America, the Caribbean, Africa and India turned plants like tobacco and sugarcane into profits. They also sent waves of plants rippling back across the sea. For women at home, gardens made the wider world a material reality. Dainties for a queen In 1629, John…

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Why did Georgian dresses cost as much as a townhouse?!
type: item
date: 2025-06-03T09:50:40.000Z
creator: Ellie Cawthorne
subject: Georgian
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: HistoryExtra’s Ellie Cawthorne met Professor Serena Dyer and her team of experts who are attempting to get up close and personal with the fine stitches of Georgian society by recreating a traditional mantua sacque dress – from scratch
encoded: Could you call a dress radical? The rise of the 18th-century mantua certainly marked a societal shift that went well beyond a fashion trend. As the popularity of this style grew, so too did the role of women in an industry previously dominated by men. Forget tailors – if you wanted to keep up with the Georgians, the mantua maker is where you’d go. To find out more about this generation of trend-setting women, HistoryExtra’s Ellie Cawthorne met Professor Serena Dyer and her team of experts who are attempting to get up close and personal with the fine stitches of Georgian society by recreating a traditional mantua sacque dress – from scratch. View Green Video on the source website

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Bear fat, false rumps and arsenic makeup: 7 of the most bizarre beauty trends from the past
type: item
date: 2025-01-17T10:53:04.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Ideas about beauty change all the time and, over the years, British women have done strange things to achieve a desired look. Here Margarette Lincoln explores some bizarre beauty rituals from the past 400 years, from larding hair with bear fat to eating arsenic
encoded: Personal appearance is linked to power, status, and self-identity so women have always tried to look their best. Before makeup and toiletries became mega industries, beauty products were limited, and women resorted to inventions that seem truly weird today… Hair looking lacklustre? Try bear fat For centuries, bear fat was touted to promote hair growth. Cleopatra is said to have been an early fan. Bears have strong, thick coats, so people reasoned that their fat would make tresses luxuriant – and even prevent hair loss. Britain imported tons of bear fat from France each year. Russian bears were thought to yield the best. The fat was refined, mixed with beef marrow, and then perfumed to make ‘Bear’s Grease’. But the genuine article was in short supply, so was routinely adulterated with pig fat or lard. To prevent doubt, canny retailers proudly invited customers to view the fat cut from recently slaughtered bears. In the 1790s, Reeves’s Perfumery Warehouse and Ornamental Hair Manufactory, based in Holborn, London advertised that it killed one bear each month for the purpose. Bear’s Grease was also used in pomade, the waxy substance used to keep hair in place. Persian Rose Pomatum, for instance, claimed to be made from “clarified Bear’s Grease, Buffalo’s Marrow, and Odour of Roses”. Such products attracted hungry pests, as did the powder used to bulk up a hairstyle. One 18th-century woman recalled seeing a mouse peep out of the curls of a lady in front of her at church, “no doubt well fed with so much powder and pomatum”. Women combated such unwelcome pests in their hair with head-scratchers and carefully placed flea traps (tiny boxes filled with blood and glue). <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/01/GettyImages-90743543-e8f3323.jpg" width="734" height="1024" alt="UNITED KINGDOM - JANUARY 31: Vignette from a lithographic plate showing a shop exterior and a sign advertising 'Bear�s Grease' which was supposed to stimulate the growth …

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