News of Totnes Fashion and Textiles Museum Summer exhibition 2015 - Totnes Fashion and Textiles Museum

By: Alison Alexander
Added: 09 April 2015

CORSETS AND CRINOLINES – NEWS OF TOTNES FASHION AND TEXTILES MUSEUM SUMMER EXHIBITION 2015

All will be revealed when the Totnes Fashion and Textiles Museum opens its doors again in mid-May for the summer season. This year’s exhibition will show how the fashionable silhouette for women and men has changed over time, and will also feature the undergarments that were worn to create those shapes.

The exhibition is called ‘Corsets and Crinolines: the changing shape of fashion from 1780’. It will feature bustle pads, crinoline frames, corsets and stays alongside the glorious gowns that were worn on top. How pleased women in the 1920s must have been to be released from all that tight lacing!

Although we only go back to the eighteenth century in our collection, we know that both men and women’s fashions changed in shape at least from Roman times. Every era has its own style. Many of us will have recently been looking at Tudor clothes with the televising of ‘Wolf Hall’, and will have noticed the extravagantly wide shoulders of Henry VIII’s outfits and the hose with ballooning trunk hose. Many men wore calf pads under their stockings in the eighteenth century to give themselves a more manly and elegant shape. No age is without its vanities.

The Fashion and Textiles Museum always displays a range of accessories in its exhibitions. You will see how the fashionable shoe shapes also changed. Those who were young in the 1950s and 1960s will remember the thick crepe soled shoes that Teddy Boys wore with their long draped jackets and then the fashion for ‘winklepickers’ with the elongated toes. Many women will remember jiving and spinning round in their circular skirts, revealing layers and layers of net petticoat underneath.

All these memories will be rekindled when you visit this year’s exhibition. The Fashion and Textiles Museum is in Bogan House on Totnes High Street, directly opposite the market square. Look out for our new signage and for the many textile related items on sale in our shop.

The exhibition will be open from May 19^th, Tuesdays to Fridays from 11.00 a.m. to 5.00p.m., until the end of September. We hope to see you there.