Dressing Dangerously: Historical fashion and the museum

In 1957, the BBC broadcast a colour television series ‘Men, Women and Clothes’ narrated by historian and collector Doris Langley Moore, showcasing her extensive collection of historical fashion. What is striking about the series is that live models, many of them leading society figures of the day, are seen wearing the historical garments. This approach reflects a markedly different attitude to the care, interpretation, and use of historic fashion than is common in museums today.

Many historical garments in museum collections were accessioned after years spent languishing in dressing-up boxes or used as artists’ props in studios. However, once a garment enters a museum today, it is expected that it will never be worn again, instead carefully preserved in layers of tissue within a specialist box. This has not always been the case, as the Doris Langley Moore example is testament to. In the twentieth century, private collectors and museums alike allowed historical garments to be worn and animated through use.

Using several key case studies from the twentieth century, this paper asks what was learnt from these experiences and how can museums might attempt to recreate or communicate the experience of wearing historical clothing within the contemporary gallery space, without compromising conservation standards. Overall, it aims to consider the embodied experience of wearing historical clothing alongside the relationship between bodies and fashion within the museum.