Old and very old children’s clothing is hard to come by. Most of the items in the MSU Museum’s collection, even special occasion pieces like christening gowns, are in rough shape. This girls dress suit from 1871, however, is an exception. Both the dress and the jacket are in nearly perfect condition. There are no […]
Every once in a while, when I’m researching an object, I find something entirely unexpected. That’s certainly what happened recently with a pair of early 20th century shoes. Made of off-white leather with beautiful beading and curved heel, I wanted to get a sense of who and when the shoes might have been worn. All […]
Before and after being assessed as part of our condition survey project, this dress spent about a day hanging on a rack with a dozen other garments next to my workspace. Without fail, everyone who passed by ignored the other pieces on the rack and went straight to this distracting suit. It’s not hard to see why […]
The idea of “personal style” is something that gets thrown around quite often these days. The woman responsible for this c1963 collection of items most likely had some very strong ideas about what she liked. All eight items were made with or covered with the same charming blue fabric, making for a perfectly matched set. […]
… more tissue paper, more boxes, more padded hangers, and more cabinets! On January 7, the MSU Museum’s Cultural Collections Education and Resource Center received 42 rolling racks and hundreds of boxes containing the Apparel and Textile Design Program’s (ATD) clothing collection. The collection’s move, funded by the College of Arts and Letters, inaugurates a […]
At present, the catalog records for the Historic Fashion Collection are less than perfect. Most of the records from the past 20 years or so are fine, but that only makes up a small fraction of the collection. Most of the records were originally created as part of a physical card catalog. These were then […]
MSU Museum’s historic fashion collection will be growing in the next year! The Apparel and Textile Design Program’s collection will be merged into the Museum’s holdings, creating a larger, more representative collection housed in optimum storage conditions. The collection will be made more widely available for research, teaching, and exhibition. The history of the Apparel […]
Today, in spite of the hard election season, I’m feeling rather patriotic! Voting always brings that out in me. For those of you who need a little more inspiration, I’ve dug out this fantastic pair of boots (5691.1.1 and 5691.1.2)! Bought in 1972.
Curator Shirley Wajda will be offering the last public tour of “Up Cloche: Fashion, Feminism, Modernity” this Saturday, 22 October, at 2:30 pm. Don your cloche and join the fun one last time!!!
This summer we started a condition survey of the Historic Costume Collection. Our aim was to get a clear picture of what we have in the collection and how much of that is in exhibitable condition. An inventory of this sort has been needed for a while. It became a priority, however, when learned that […]
Past Fashion Not Fast Fashion 