The Fashion and Textile Gallery at The Bowes Museum 2.82

The new Fashion and Textile Gallery at the Bowes Museum showcases the best of fashion design, exhibiting beautiful garments from the seventeenth century to the 1960s.

Combining historic collections with contemporary design, the gallery provides temporary exhibition space, a permanent chronological display of dress, and a central ‘glass cube’, giving visitors the unique opportunity to be invited into the curators’ work-space for talks and demonstrations.

Using cutting-edge methods of display, garments are mounted on invisible mannequins, allowing them to be viewed from 360 degrees. Embroidery, lace and quilts are stored in new units in The Glass Cube allowing them to be accessed easily by curators.

Spectacularly lit, and placed in innovative free-standing glass structures, the dresses in the gallery provide an exquisite visual timeline of fashion, and serve to illustrate perfectly this collection of national and international importance.

The collection includes three stunning gowns by Vionnet, dresses by Victor Stiebel and Belinda Bellville, as well as bodices and shoes which belonged to the Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III. Other exhibits include wedding dresses, Victorian crinoline gowns, 1960s miniskirts and dresses dating from the eighteenth century.