Fashion at The Salisbury Museum
The Salisbury Museum fashion collection contains over 3,500 items dating from the last 300 years.
The garments are from all aspects of life including weddings and christenings, formal occasions and occupations such as farming and the military. Accessories also form a large part of the collection and these include fans, brooches, parasols, buttons, gloves, hats and shoes.
The Look Again project
Between 2018 - 2021 the museum developed its work with the fashion collection alongside local young people.
In 2018, the museum started Look Again: Discovering Centuries of Fashion and worked alongside young people, experts and volunteers to redisplay the fashion collection.
The Look Again project was funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund – delivered by the Museums Association.
Learn more about the Look Again project here.
The end result of this project was a redesigned Fashion Gallery at the museum. This display explored how we interact with clothes and told the stories of some of the items in the museum’s collection. It was opened in 2021 by British fashion icon Dame Zandra Rhodes.
The Fashion Gallery was removed in 2023 and some of the items were redisplayed in the museums new Salisbury History galleries.
The Fashioning Our World project
2022 - 2024
Fashioning Our World worked with young people (aged 11 – 25) to discover hidden stories of sustainability told by clothes and accessories in the past. The project worked in a collaborative way to share these powerful stories with the community, change attitudes to fashion in the future and help fight the climate crisis.
Young people working on the project organised a Sustainable Fashion Show and co-curated the Fashioning Our World Exhibition at The Salisbury Museum.
Find out more about Fashioning Our World here.