A BRAND new hands-on display at Bath’s Museum of Costume aims to
give visitors a unique insight into their great great grandmother’s
most essential item of clothing.
Corsets Uncovered opens at the Bath & North East Somerset
Council-run museum at the Assembly Rooms today (Monday, March
21)
As well as finding out more about the history of the corset – or
stays (the term for a corset before the beginning of the 19th
century) – visitors will get the chance to try on some replica
corsets, giving them a unique experience of what it must have been
like for those ladies of the past.
There are also replica corsets for children to try on, copied
from a red Victorian child’s corset which is on display in the
museum gallery.
The display of original pieces from the museum collection also
includes a rare pair of late 18th century stays, worn by a woman at
the same date when the Assembly Rooms were in their heyday.
But it is the 19th century corsets which should be of particular
interest to visitors, enabling them to muse and reflect
on their own family history.
A selection of carte de visite photographs of real women (taken
in various photographers studios throughout England, from Deptford
to Basingstoke and Hull to Liverpool), all of which are part
of the museum collection, provides this link.
Many people will have similar photographs in their own family
archives and by studying the photos on display alongside the
corsets, visitors will get an idea of the garments which their own
great great grandmothers might have worn everyday.
The Museum of Costume is open every day from 11am to 5pm and in
addition to Corsets Uncovered, visitors can enjoy the current
special exhibition which runs until the end of 2005 – Jane Austen:
Film and Fashion.
This features costumes worn by the stars of television and film
adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels alongside original examples of
Regency dress from the Museum of Costume’s collection.
For more information about the Museum of Costume call Tel: 01225
477789 or log on to www.museumofcostume.co.uk
