About

Deborah is a freelance historian, author, lecturer, media contributor and consultant. She is Professor Emerita of Design History at the University of Portsmouth where she worked from 2016-24. In her academic career Deborah taught design history to Architecture, Interior Design, Fashion, Textiles and Product Design students, as well as providing strategic leadership on research.

Having begun her career in as a curator at the V&A Museum, London, in 1987, Deborah’s curatorial credits include Ideal Homes for the Design Museum, a retrospective of the Ideal Home Show. She has also served on advisory boards and written catalogue essays for exhibitions, including the Yale Center for British Art’s The Edwardian Sense and the V&A’s British Design: Innovation in the Modern Age and Food: Bigger Than the Plate.

Deborah followed her PhD, The Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition and Suburban Modernity, 1908-51, with a postdoctoral project on 20th century historical pageants. She subsequently focused her research on the design, material culture and social history of the interwar housebuilding boom and the ordinary suburban semi in Britain. She is currently writing a history of the modern kitchen from 1850, which will be published by Reaktion Books. She is also working on the design and material culture of communal ‘British Restaurants’ in World War 2.

Putting her interest in the history of housing into practical use, Deborah is currently renovating a late 1960s Midcentury Modern house and has previously restored 6 houses, including a Grade II listed Georgian terrace, and an interwar ‘time capsule’ semi. She loves to attend vintage events and collects and wears 1940s-1970s fashion and accessories and has worked as a judge of the Best Dressed competitions at Goodwood Revival and Southwick Revival.

A close-up photo of a woman with curly blonde hair, wearing black glasses with decorative embellishments and red lipstick. She is dressed in a red and white outfit with embroidery and a white scarf around her neck. The background shows a plaid curtain and part of a room.
A close-up photo of a woman with curly blonde hair, wearing black glasses with decorative embellishments and red lipstick. She is dressed in a red and white outfit with embroidery and a white scarf around her neck. The background shows a plaid curtain and part of a room.