About

I’m Laura McLaws Helms, a fashion and cultural historian based in New York.

For more than twenty years I’ve researched, written about and checked the history of fashion, design and popular culture. I curated Thea Porter: 70s Bohemian Chic at the Fashion & Textile Museum in London and wrote the accompanying book for V&A Publishing. I also co-founded the arts and fashion magazine LADY.

I’ve worked on projects for Chanel, Cartier, Fendi, Bloomingdale’s, Gap, Hachette and Melcher Media, among others.

I have a master’s in Fashion History, Theory and Museum Practice from the Fashion Institute of Technology. I carried out doctoral research at London College of Fashion.

My first degree is in photography, from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. That’s why photo research is a specialty: I know how to read an image, date it and trace it.

Aeternitas History is my research practice. When you hire it, you work with me directly.

I also write Sighs & Whispers, a newsletter on fashion, design and cultural history with more than 3,000 subscribers.