Research

  • French and Italian silk industries in the early modern period
  • Production, circulation and consumption of Lyonnais silk fabrics in the 17th and 18th centuries
  • Fashion and its commercialisation in the early modern period
  • Garments and the ready-made production
  • Weaving techniques and knowledge transfer

Aktivitäten

Selected Talks

25 September 2025: “An Early-Modern Calendar of Fashion: The Race Against Time of the Lyonnais Silk Manufacture in the 18th Century” – 31st CIETA Congress, “New Directions in the Study of Historical Textiles”, Madrid.

29 May 2025: “From Venice to Lyon and Vice Versa: The Road to a New Trade in Fashionable Silk Fabrics at the Turn of the 18th Century” – Dressing the Early Modern Network Conference, Venice.

29 November 2024: “The Race Against Time of the Fashion Trade: The Case of 18th-Century Lyonnais Silk Fabrics” – International conference “Crafting Fashion and Dress in the «Longue Durée»”, Paris, 28-30 November.

4 October 2023: “The “Continuous Revival”, or when Fashion Faces Tradition: Lyonnais and Italian Silks in the 18th Century” – 30th CIETA Congress, “Renaissances and Revivals”, Krakow.

11 May 2021: “Lyonnais Silks «ad uttimo gusto»: Fashion and Commercial Strategies between France and Italy in the 18th Century. The Case of the Male Waistcoat“, with Pascale Gorguet-Ballesteros (Palais Galliera) – LII Study Week “Fashion as an Economic Engine: process and product innovation, commercial strategies, consumer behavior”, online conference organised by the Istituto di Storia Economica F. Datini, Prato.

25 June 2020: “Le marché des soieries lyonnaises et italiennes au XVIIIe siècle : des stratégies de développement entre concurrence et adaptation” – Online doctoral conference part of the seminar “Entreprises, marchés et régulations”, organised by the TRIANGLE and LARHRA research centres.

18 October 2019: “Les soieries de la Couronne au XVIIIe siècle : entre prestige de l’Etiquette et goût de la mode. Le cas lyonnais” – International conference “L’Histoire du Garde-Meuble en Europe (XVIe-XXIe)”, organised by the Mobilier National, Paris.

9 October 2019: “La mode de la couleur et des fils métalliques dans l’habillement entre 1740 et 1750 – enseignements d’une étude pluridisciplinaire“, with Pascale Gorguet-Ballesteros – 28th CIETA Congress, “Dyestuffs and Colours in Textiles – Materiality and Significance”, Krefeld.

5 April 2019: “La nature au service de la mode : la fleur et les soieries lyonnaises au XVIIIe siècle” – International conference “L’Industrie au royaume de Flore. Cultiver et créer des fleurs du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours”, Mulhouse, organised by the Centre de Recherches sur les Economies, les Sociétés, les Arts et les Techniques (CRESAT) of the Université de Haute-Alsace.

21 March 2019: “Trade, Competition and Espionage: Silks Between France and Italy in the 18th Century” – Joint EUI-SAGAS-SNS Annual Seminar of the “Translating Cultures” International Workshop, Florence.

30 November 2018: “Etat des lieux sur la question des rapports entre l’école de dessin et la Grande Fabrique de Lyon : les dessinateurs et marchands fabricants en étoffe d’or, d’argent et de soie” – Conference “Académies d’art et mondes sociaux (1740-1805)”, Rouen, organised by the ACA-RES research programme.

16 May 2018: “The Lyonnais Silks as Objects of Conspicuous Consumption in 18th-Century French Court” – Conference “Fashioning the Early Modern Courtier”, St John’s College, University of Cambridge.

2 March 2018: “The Commerce of Lyonnais Silks in Italy in the 18th Century: a Question of Methodology” – Joint Uppsala University-EUI Workshop, European University Institute, Florence.

11 December 2015: “Joubert’s Manual: A Path to Textiles Comprehension” – Workshop “Design in Translation: Joubert de l’Hiberderie and Le Dessinateur pour les Etoffes d’Or, d’Argent et de Soie”, London, organised by the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Courtauld Institute of Art.

Organisation of events and other academic activities

2026: Co-organiser of the international conference “A History of Textile Cleanliness: Washing and Perfuming Fabrics from the Medieval to the Modern Period”, with Prof. Érika Wicky (Université Grenoble Alpes), University of Bern and Abegg-Stiftung (Riggisberg), 27-29 May.

Since June 2025: Assistant Editor of the Bulletin du CIETA (textile history and art history; peer-reviewed since 2025).

2024: Co-organiser of the workshop “Échanges, mobilités et collaborations. Le monde de la soie entre la France et l’Italie, XVIe-XIXe siècles”, with Jean-Baptiste Vérot (Université de Franche-Comté), Besançon, 22 November.

2021: Organisation of the conference “Scandalous Feasts and Holy Meals: Food in Medieval and Early Modern Societies”, held via Zoom on 25th-26th May in the framework of the Visual and Material History Working Group (European University Institute, Florence).

2020: Organisation of the workshop “A Discussion on Fashion: Material and Visual Approaches”, held via Zoom on 16th June 2020 in the framework of the Visual and Material History Working Group (European University Institute, Florence) and in collaboration with Prof. Giorgio Riello.

2018-2021: Co-founder and coordinator of the Visual and Material History Working Group at the European University Institute, Florence.

2014-2017 and 2021-present: Co-founder and Member of the Board of the Groupe de Recherche en Histoire de l’Art Moderne (GRHAM).

Publikationen

Moïra Dato, The Fashion Trade of Lyonnais Silks in Eighteenth-Century Italy, London: Routledge, forthcoming.

Moïra Dato, “‘Made in France. Une histoire du textile’. Musée des Archives nationales, Paris, France, 16 October 2024-27 January 2025”, exhibition review, in Textile History, forthcoming.

Moïra Dato, Catalogue entry « Gilet d’homme, vers 1765-1775 », in the exhibition catalogue La Mode du XVIIIe siècle. Un héritage fantasmé, edited by Pascale Gorguet Ballesteros (Paris: Paris Musées, 2026), 78–79.

Moïra Dato, “Quality, Novelty and Price: The Holy Trinity of the Lyonnais Silk Fabrics in the 18th Century”, in Ricerche di Storia Economica e Sociale (RiSES), vol. VIII, 1-2 (2023): 13–45.

Moïra Dato, “Habiller les demeures de la Couronne : les soieries lyonnaises et le Garde-Meuble au XVIIIe siècle.” In Arts en cour. Les Garde-Meubles en Europe (XVIe-XXIe siècles), edited by Muriel Barbier et alt. (Paris: Mare & Martin, 2023), 403–417

Moïra Dato and Pascale Gorguet-Ballesteros, “Lyonnais Silks «ad uttimo gusto»: The Trade in Fashionable Waistcoats between France and Italy in the Second Half of the 18th Century”. In Fashion as an Economic Engine: Process and Product Innovation, Commercial Strategies, Consumer Behavior, Datini Studies in Economic History, ed. Giampiero Nigro. Florence: Florence University Press, 2022, p. 173-200.

Moïra Dato, “État des lieux sur la question des rapports entre l’école de dessin de la Grande Fabrique à Lyon : les dessinateurs et marchands fabricants en étoffe d’or, d’argent et de soie”, in Les papiers d’ACA-RES, Actes des journées d’étude, 29-30 novembre 2018, Rouen, Hôtel des Sociétés Savantes, published online June 2019.

Lebenslauf

From August 2023 Postdoctoral research assistant in the History of Textile Arts, Institute of Art History, University of Bern.
2022-2023 Teaching position in history and art history at Université Paris Sciences & Lettres and École Normale Supérieure, Paris.

June-August 2019

Internship in the Clothworker’s Centre for the Study and Conservation of Textiles and Fashion and in the Furniture, Textiles and Fashion Department, Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
2017-2022

Ph.D. from the Department of History and Civilization, European University Institute, Florence, with the thesis “Selling Fashionable Fabrics: The Market for Lyonnais Silks in 18th-Century Italy”, under the supervision of Prof. Stéphane Van Damme, Prof. Giorgio Riello and co-supervision of Prof. Natacha Coquery.

2015-2016

 Master of Research (1 year) in Dress and Textile History, School of Culture and Creative Arts, University of Glasgow, with the dissertation “Silks for the Crown: Five Partnerships of Merchant Manufacturers in Eighteenth-Century Lyon”, under the supervision of Prof. Lesley Miller.
11/2014-04/2015 Internship in the Documentation Department of the Palace of Versailles.
2013- 2015

Master of Research (2 years) in History of Art, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, with the dissertations “Les fabricants Jean Charton père et fils : des soyeux lyonnais héritiers du privilège au XVIIIe siècle” (first year) and “Les soieries d’ameublement au sein des demeures royales françaises au XVIIIe siècle” (second year), under the supervision of Stéphane Laurent.
June-July 2013

Internship in the Documentation Department of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
August 2012 Internship in the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris.
2010-2013 Bachelor in History of Art, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.