Established in 2012, the National Museum of Roller Derby (NMRD) is the UK’s first permanent collection of ephemera and memorabilia relating to the sport of Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby. In 2016, to celebrate our new permanent home in Glasgow Women’s Library’s new Bridgeton HQ, we bring you an ‘Object of the Month’ from our ever expanding collections.
We want your old team shirts, flyers, zines and other paraphernalia to illustrate the remarkable development of the sport in the UK. Keep an eye on the Facebook page for future announcements on how to donate items to the Museum.
*Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions access to the collection, and consequently digitisation of the collection, is limited. Therefore, Object of the Month will become Sticker of the Month as these objects are already digitised online*
April 2022
This sticker shows a graphic of a Brighton Roller Derby player clad in blue dressed in what the roller derby community refers to as a ’boutfit’ (an outfit worn at roller derby bouts or games). Roller derby ’boutfits’ are made up of revealing clothes, fishnet tights, and make-up. This challenges gender binary assumptions and heteronormative roles.
For many who wear ‘boutfits’ on the track, the combination of playing a fierce and violent contact sport and wearing provocative outfits shows that women do not need to choose between being sexy and tough: they can be both.
However, many teams, in an effort to break the mould and transform from a fun league to a professional one, have ditched the ‘boutfits’.
