Our New Exhibition Opened today!

Jonathan

Jonathan

VFG Member
We just finished installing "Waist Management: A History of Unmentionables" at the Guelph Museum in Guelph Ontario. This is the Fashion History Museum's debut of the exhibition and when the doors opened there were 45 people waiting to get in! Here's a view of corsets and girdles from the 1880s to the 1960s - there are more images on my blog: http://kickshawproductions.com/blog/
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Jonathan and Ken, that is fantastic. I especially love the way the displays are varied in style, adding interest, and the clothesline with the camisole and petticoats is fun! Are the whites in the basket for hands-on?

I am so impressed, and certainly wish I could go to Canada to see it. Looks like a very beautiful and intriguing mix of undies, that covers a wide range.

B :drinkingtoast:
 
Yes the basket of whites are hands-on -- I am not normally a fan of 'hands-on' items in a museum setting but this was the education person's idea, so we are giving it a whirl - everything in the basket is THOROUGHLY darned and redarned, plus there is a repro corset, and a couple of petticoats made up from old flounces -- all expendable.
 
great set up....love your title and also love the blush colored boxes you've utilized with the manequins...

would LOVE to see those socks up close....:wub:

congratulations, having 45 waiting in line is wonderful!
 
Having been recently to another corset exhibition (just part of the Symmington collection) I have to say I like your display methods much better - particularly showing the corsets with the other undergarments they would have been worn with - and on period shaped body forms - to give some idea of proportion to the body and how much a corset covered. Decent lighting is so nice to see too.
I distinctly remember going to a museum when I was a child (indeed possibly the same one), and there being a box of corsets/undergarments for people to handle (I'm pretty sure they were original vintage - not sure what they thinking then!) It's stuck with me so maybe they were onto something!
I agree with Barbara the washing line is fun - it takes something of the stuffiness out of the set format the public can have with the idea of an exhibition.
Overall it's a really nice set-up; not too crowded either. I would love to see this in person.
 
Thanks Melanie for your observations. I have to tell you THE hardest part of this exhibition was finding mannequins that fit the corsets - because the corsets may alter the shape of a woman with love handles, but a cast plastic, plaster, or paper mache body form is not budging! I utilized all the vintage mannequins I had that were already in period-specific shapes, otherwise I had to pad them out, which if the dress forms have underwear on, disguises the padding.
 
Beautifully done, from the exhibition title (brilliant!) to the display. I love the idea of having a box of touchables. There is nothing like inspecting a garment from the inside out, feeling the lightness or heft and seeing what boning must have felt like against your body. As long as those items were previously damaged and darned, play away! I'm sure the attendees are having great fun with that. Congrats on a job well done!:drinkingtoast:
 
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