If you haven’t visited the Fashioning Our World exhibition yet, there is still time. And my experience has been that one visit isn’t enough. It is full of surprises, interesting ideas and an enjoyable mix of History and fashion.
My favourite exhibit is below, though choosing just one was difficult..
It was, of course, the eye-catching garment on the right which drew me to this display, but it is war which is the link between them. On the right is a dressing gown from the Second World War, now more than eighty years old. Made from scraps garnered from anywhere and anything, including a piece of parachute, this became, at a time of strict rationing, someone’s pride and joy.
On the left is an overall worn by female workers in munitions factories. I think the one on display is also eighty years old but it is very similar to those also worn twenty-five years before, in the First World War.
Both, very different, items of clothing seem to me to say so much about the resilience, determination, ingenuity and make-do and get on with it attitude of women of that generation.
Sustainable fashion funding success for The Salisbury Museum
The Salisbury Museum has been awarded £87,828 from The Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund – delivered by the Museums Association, for a project to work with its fashion collection.
Fashioning Our World aims to work with young people to explore sustainability through the museum’s fashion collection, and has just started.
“Many of the items in our fashion collection have been repaired, re-worn and re-fashioned and this is part of their story. These examples of sustainability in the past can inspire us to look at our own clothes differently,” said Project Manager Katy England.
“Other items, such as those made from coral or feathers show us that not everything was more sustainable in the past, but these can also help us look at whether things have improved,” added Katy.
This ambitious initiative aims to work alongside local young people to use the stories that the collection tells to inspire others in the community to think differently about fashion sustainability.
“The young people taking part in the project will be able to learn about the collection, try out new skills and then decide on their own ways to inspire the community supported by museum volunteers, staff and a team of experts. I can’t wait to see the ideas the young people come up with,” said Katy.
Once the scheme is underway The Salisbury Museum will work with Dorset Museum, who also have an important collection of fashion and textile items. Both museums are part of Wessex Museums, a thriving museum partnership across Wiltshire and Dorset. Wessex Museums has made a financial contribution to the initiative as well.
Fashioning Our World builds on the work that the museum has undertaken with its fashion collection over the last four years, including the redesign of the museum’s Fashion Gallery. This was opened in August 2021 by British fashion icon Dame Zandra Rhodes. The project means that the museum can continue its work with this important resource.
The Salisbury Museum fashion collection contains over 3,500 items dating from the last 300 years. The garments are from all aspects of life including weddings and christenings, formal occasions and occupations such as farming and the military.
Accessories also form a large part of the collection and these include fans, brooches, parasols, buttons, gloves, hats and shoes.
If you are interested in taking part in the project, please contact Katy England at The Salisbury Museum via email: katyengland@salisburymuseum.org.uk.
The Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund – delivered by the Museums Association funds projects that demonstrate the significance, distinctiveness and power of collections to people. The fund has awarded over £11m to 162 projects since it launched in 1961. For more information visit https://www.museumsassociation.org/funding/esmee-fairbairn-collections-fund/
It is a long time since we have had an item from one of our visiting students. Over the last couple of years, placements of students has, for obvious reasons, been limited, but we are now getting back to normal with this important part of museum life. Katy England currently has a University of Brighton student working with her (more later) and Bridget Telfer has passed us this from Helen:
Hi, my name is Helen, and I am currently studying Costume and Performance Design at Arts University Bournemouth. I have been completing my placement at Salisbury Museum over the course of the last few months, working within the costume collections. Throughout my placement I have been compiling a list of historic garments and accessories, which would be appropriate to display as part of the new redevelopment at the museum.
Working within Salisbury Museum has not only given me a better insight to the local history of the area but has allowed me to explore, in much more detail, what people used to wear and why, over the centuries. I have particularly enjoyed the freedom to explore various collections and trying to understand the materials and construction techniques used, something I find very valuable as a costume maker!
Overall, my time at the museum has been incredibly interesting, and I look forward to seeing all the collections a come together within the new redevelopment in the next few years!
17th century gauntlet gloves in the museum collection
This mystery comes from the Look Again Project and the redisplaying of the costume gallery.
One of the items I handled when helping with the decant of the display cases was a pair of mid 17thC gauntlet gloves. Made from cream leather the gauntlets are decorated with silver metal fringe and embroidery. The edges of the fingers are also accentuated with a line of silver chain stitch.
Close up of stitching
I’d been admiring these gloves through the glass of the case for many years so to handle them was a real treat. Imagine my surprise and excitement when I inspected the insides to find the gauntlets lined with a document.
Beautiful clear Latin script on fine (I presume) parchment. Sadly, I don’t read Latin. My mind raced – was this subversive religious text or just 17thC up-cycling? I still don’t know, so if anyone is able to translate the text for me, I’d be very grateful, and I can provide more photos to help.
Does anyone know of other gloves lined with a document?
Pompi Parry
Does anyone wonder why we Volunteers love our work?? What a story! If you can read the Latin, please help. Thank you Pompi for bringing this one to our attention.
A reminder, that a new Salisbury Museum blog, all about the changes to the costume gallery and the work being done by Katy England and her team, is available here. Well worth a look!
At this time of year it is always very busy at the museum, as we welcome students from a variety of institutions – school, colleges and Universities – who opt to join us for a while as part of their on-going experiential education…
Here is another, Olivia…
Before the summer holiday, I spent a week working with the Salisbury Museum. As an ambitious art history student, this was the perfect place where I wanted my work placement to be. I was assigned to do a variety of tasks working with different people during the week, which allowed me to learn a lot about the way that a museum works ‘backstage’.
I started my week at the museum by cataloguing ceramics collections with the friendly volunteer Roy Wilde. I was immersed in the tranquil atmosphere of the ceramics gallery and all the beautifully crafted potteries. To begin with, Roy showed me several types of jugs and bough pots with different modelling. We discussed how a museum person would describe pottery in a professional manner and I learned the way to measure each item accurately. Roy then introduced Modes, which is the software that the museum uses to catalogue the archives, giving me a taste of how the cataloging of collections works in such an organised and logical way. In the afternoon I was given an informative spotlight tour of the museum, which deepened my understanding of the history of the museum and each gallery.
Other assignments included lending a helping hand to visitors. On Tuesday, I assisted with a primary school visit to the museum. As the theme of the day was ‘surviving the Stone Age’, I helped set up the lecture hall and the game for the children. It was a fabulous chance to get involved with an educational and interesting programme that the museum designs to introduce basic skills of archaeology to the next generation. Apart from this, I had a lot of fun working with kids!
I also enjoyed the costume cataloguing, and was shown some precious male court dress and an intricate hand-embroidered skirt. It has given me an opportunity to learn about the historical context of the costume and the significance of the materials. Beyond my expectations, I found cataloguing the social history collections immensely absorbing, which I hadn’t realised before. We examined a large number of fascinating collections dating from centuries ago. For instance, we looked at some extremely exquisite English seals from the 18th century, including one of Shakespeare! We also catalogued a set of roundels with incredibly detailed and ornamental printings that represents each month. Besides being intrigued by these magnificent curios, I was taught how to wrap and label each item properly.
It has been an absolutely amazing week. I’ve had a chance to work in different areas of the museum and have definitely learnt various aspects about a museum workplace. Salisbury Museum has such a lovely team working in a relaxed and friendly environment, where everyone is so accommodating and helpful. All I can say to the museum is a huge thank you.
We have another gem from the Costume Collection. A group of Volunteers from the Arts Society (formerly NADFAS) who come along most weeks to check and re-catalogue out fabulous costumes, have uncovered this…
Photo for cataloguing purposes only
This is estimated to have been made around 1750 or a little earlier. The Volunteers describe it thus:
“Blue silk brocade coat trimmed with sliver braid – high round neck, braid made from silver thread around neck and down both fronts to side slits. Also on two shaped pockets with flap fastened with two buttons, plus one for show. Twelve buttons of silver thread and blue velvet centre. Long shank for button holes extended for design. Curved, fitted sleeves fastened with eight buttons and trimmed with silver braid.. All in blue silk brocade, skirted shape with 220mm slit each side. Centre vent at back. Lined throughout with cream calico…”
And just look what was inside the pocket….
Confetti!
It certainly looks like a coat that a young man might get married in c 1750, but confetti??
The Volunteers describe it as paper confetti, some of it chopped up newspaper. Well, that wouldn’t rule out 1750…
Having used a well known internet search engine, I discover that ‘confetti’ is Italian for almond sweets which the Italians liked to throw at one another at the time of festivals, etc. Sometimes it was also mud balls, eggs or coins…This is a tradition going back to Medieval times when it was also common, at weddings, to throw seeds and grains, representing fertility. I think this has become popular again as vicars try to discourage the littering of their churchyards with paper, or worse still, small bits of plastic.
So, throwing things at people has been ‘fun’ for a long time, but apparently it wasn’t until the end of the nineteenth century that paper confetti was used at weddings in Britain. The confetti in the photograph is not contemporary with the coat.
Did someone wear it to a much later wedding? Was the coat worn in a play where confetti was used? Was it worn to an up-market fancy dress party where confetti played a part?
Whatever the case, it is a great coat to get married in…..
Thank you Sue Alleby, Muriel Reading, Joan Moore and Helen Carlett