Paula Hohti Erichsen follows the trail of 500-year-old fashion
This professor of art and culture history appreciates joy and comfort and experienced the finest moment of her career during a funding interview.
Paula Hohti Erichsen awarded the Roland H. Bainton Prize for Art History
The Bainton prize for art history is a prestigious book award, given each year for the best book published in English in the field of early modern art history.
Aalto University Professor Paula Hohti Erichsen has been chosen as the recipient of the 2021 Roland H. Bainton Prize for Art History for her book Artisans, Objects and Everyday Life in Renaissance Italy: The Material Culture of the Middling Class.
The book received the prize based on quality and originality of research, methodological skill and/or innovation, development of fresh and stimulating interpretations or insights, and literary quality.
‘I am thrilled and extremely honoured to have received this prestigious book award. It provides great support and encouragement for my work as a historian of early modern material culture and fashion’, rejoices Hohti Erichsen.
The book presents the first in depth exploration of how artisans and small local traders experienced the material and cultural Renaissance. Drawing on a rich blend of sixteenth-century visual, material and archival evidence, it examines how individuals and families at artisanal levels lived and worked, managed their household economies and consumption, socialised and engaged with the arts and the markets for luxury goods.
Professor Hohti Erichsen is specialized in the study of early modern dress, textiles, fashion and decorative arts, with a special focus on their role and function within the lower artisanal classes. During the past five years, she has led an ERC-funded research project, titled ‘Refashioning the Renaissance’, focusing on everyday clothing and fashion dissemination among artisanal groups in early modern Europe.
The Roland H. Bainton Prize was announced during a ceremony at the Sixteenth Century Society's Annual Conference in San Diego, California, 29 October, 2021.
Read more:
Professor Paula Hohti receives two million euros of ERC funding for research into renaissance fashion and culture
Experimental processing of materials from fashion history opens up new interpretations of daily life in bygone times.
Read more news
Viivi Prokofjev is Graphic Designer of the Year 2026
Art director, illustrator, and book designer Prokofjev's work combines tradition and craftsmanship with intuition and bold carnivalism.
Register for the Unite! Training Programme on Sustainability for Prospective Leaders
A transnational online programme for students, faculty, and leaders who want to advance sustainability initiatives within their institutions. Register by 13 February 2026.
Nikolai Ponomarev, Hossein Baniasadi and Jorge Velasco start as Data Agents at the School of Chemical Engineering
Aalto Open Research Network has new members, Nikolai Ponomarev, Hossein Baniasadi and Jorge Velasco. Their aim is to support data management practices at the School of Chemical Engineering along with existing CHEM Data Agent, Pedro Silva.