Order in the House: students stitch up Parliament

Portcullis House was opened in 2001 to provide additional office space and public Committee rooms for members of parliament and their staff.  A number of contemporary artworks were commissioned for the building and it now houses one of the UK’s largest contemporary textile collections.  Many of the early works were consigned by the architect as …

Conservation of the Manchester smoking jacket

Treatment is now complete on a decadent aubergine silk man’s smoking jacket from Manchester Art Gallery for their exhibition Dandy Style opening on 4th February 2021.  The conservation was undertaken by Jamie Robinson and was generously funded by the Costume Society’s own Elizabeth Hammond Conservation Grant to ensure the jacket’s longevity on and after display. …

Royal Courts of Justice Legal and Judicial Costume Collection

This article by our former administrator Victoria Haddock was first published in the Costume Society Newsletter, Autumn 2019 – you can follow our progress on Instagram @legallydressed_rcj. In 2018, Zenzie Tinker was delighted to be appointed as the Advisor for Conservation and Display of the Legal Costume Collection at the Royal Courts of Justice in …

Charleston: Orlando at the Present Time

Charleston’s inaugural exhibition held in the Wolfson Galleries opened in September 2018 with ‘Orlando at the Present Time’, marking the 90 years since the first publication of Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando: A Biography.  The exhibition included contemporary interpretations alongside rarely seen letters, photographs and objects connected to the original publication of the novel.  Also on …

Brighton Museum: a magnetic display

Brighton Museum & Art Gallery has a truly exceptional world cultures collection. Following the success of the multi-platformed Fashioning Africa project, a national programme aimed at supporting community partners to research and explore museum collections, the museum has continued to work cross-continent to display objects from the collection within in their indigenous communities. The ZTC …