Time Travel in Costume.

I have never seen anything like it. No display cases. No gallery of costume. No shop. No guidebooks. No Book Of The Exhibition. This house is simply full of beautifully dressed people socialising. Sadly all the sumptuously dressed people are wax and plastic, but the clothes glow and shimmer with life….

I am in Avallon in France and the building is a town house dating from the 17^th century. Each year the sisters who own this treasure chest mount a completely new exhibition. This year’s theme is ‘Le pouvoir des fleurs dans la mode’ …Flower power in fashion.

You ring the bell at the gate and an elegant lady opens a door across the courtyard and beckons you inside. The house takes your breath away before you see as much as a ruffle. This is what history looks like..never mind Alice and her rabbit hole..I feel as if I have just stepped back hundreds of years. Stone flagged floors, paintings, maps, drawings all struggle for space on the walls and the sweeping marble staircase (oh to be wearing a ball gown and walk down that in candlelight). Doorways have heavy curtaining swagged and draped round them. There are internal small paned windows from the corridors into the rooms.
Antique cabinets line the corridor walls. These are packed with snuff boxes, smelling salt bottles and the like. To show you their contents Madame retrieves a torch from the drawer of a magnificent sideboard and shines it in to the cabinet, pointing out a chain hung with silver seals.

Then into the rooms. Oh the rooms. Needs must the light levels are low. The lights are switched on in each room as you go through the door and Madame switches them off as you exit. Each room transports you to a different time. All the rooms are lavishly furnished and crammed full of paintings and ornaments.

Some rooms have huge cupboards that are opened to show you a wealth of bodices, shoes, fans, hats 

and bags tucked inside. A single strip of cellophane lies across the bottom shelf for protection…. 

And of course there are the clothes. Each room is dressed and set as a different social occasion. At the end of the downstairs corridor we climb a second marble staircase…to more of the same upstairs. The rooms have high ceilings and wooden panelling.

             

           

     

                                             

One door leads onto a gallery overlooking a chapel. All trompe d’oeil Madame says …built in the mediaeval style in the 19^th century when this house was a boy’s school. 

      

Down the grand front staircase and back to the hall. And that is it.

But of course the costumes. I did not make notes of age, material or provenance…My jaw had dropped so far I couldn’t have written if I had tried. Besides, I was trying to take as many photos as I could and translate the 1001 questions I had into French. My photos are not wonderful, no flash obviously, but there are other better photos to be found online, if you so wish.

So here is a selection of what I saw. Never before have I felt so strongly that I was actually there, part of the tea parties and receptions and cocktail party tableaux of beautifully dressed people enjoying themselves, me being simply a time travelling mouche on the wall…..

Museum of Costume

6 rue Belgrand

89200 Avallon

Yonne. France

Tel 03 86 34 19 95

Open every day 15^th April to 1^st November, from 1030 to 1230 and 1300 to 1730.  

Leather, Chiffon, Pleats and a Manx Label

A behind the scenes visit to the costume store

Thie Tashtee Vannin  Doolish  Ellan Vannin

Manx Museum  Douglas  Isle of Man

To be made welcome is always a treat.

To feel as if you are a colleague and not a stranger is a rare treat.

And this is exactly what happened when I visited the Manx Museum in July.

First port of call was the costume cases. Showing at the moment are a selection of late Georgian and Victorian dresses. My favourite was a blue wedding dress which was worn by a Miss Harrison when she became Mrs John Brooke on June 6^th 1866. The close local and personal links these clothes have to the island make them even more special in a Manx Museum.

My host at the museum was Assistant Curator Nicola. She is in the midst of reorganising the costume store, but was generous enough to welcome me behind the scenes and to let me look through the reserve costume stock as she worked. I also got to take photos and ask as many questions as I wished.

 The museum textile collection has many interesting and intriguing items. And none more intriguing (and unique to the IOM), than motorcycle leathers as worn in the World famous IOM TT races. For those of you with a passion for motorcycle racing Carl Fogarty and Connor Cummings are two of the riders who have literally left their impressions in the leathers.

Faced with an embarrassment of riches, I selected garments at random, which after I quelled my chronological habit, was great fun. 

So here are a few highlights of my day.

 

 A late 19^th century carriage cloak in heavyweight  wool, festooned with tassels and duffle fastenings in old gold. Heavy (and warm) and very imposing.

A war time air force blue dress that glittered with a sun ray design on the neck and the ends of the short sleeves. 

 Turning the sleeve inside out showed the gold fixings for the diamante design. This must have been a very scratchy dress to wear.      

The svelte lines of a full length pale lavender crepe evening dress swirled and sparkled at me. Not only did this dress have a gorgeous girdle of glittering bead flowers, it carried a fairly special label too. Harrods.

A beige chiffon dropped waist 20s frock. Long sleeves and a loose belt between top and skirt. The colour was lovely; the contrasting bodice insert with small collar and tie detail was chic. Standout for me was the finely pleated skirt. This was bandbox fresh (only the front panel was pleated) looking after this must have required a very high calibre ladies maid.

The Fifties. Lots of skirt and lots of petticoats. This blue sprigged delight caught my eye. Boned bodice, four layers in the skirts…buckram, rayon, net and chiffon. It only needs white stilettos and a white cardigan to get through summer. Labelled ‘Alma Leigh’, these dresses command a high price on vintage sites.

The gem I have saved for last. The thing I was hoping to find was a garment labelled from an Island shop. And voila. A wonderful two piece silver threaded damask evening ensemble. Floor length dress and short jacket.

Labelled  RC CAIN Duke Street Douglas.

  

                                          
This garment was designed for a glamorous evening. The dress had a classic wide strap bodice and the matching jacket was lined in grey chiffon, with finely made silver button fastenings. Closer examination revealed that some pink artificial flowers had once been sewn to the bodice and had come to rest in the accompanying handbag. Why I don’t know. But Nicola suggested perhaps a carnival makeover in its history and I agree. I had a  look at the (excellent) online Manx Museum newspaper archive and found in the Isle of Man Examiner an RC Cain advertisement from 1934 for their shop in Duke Street for ‘frocks, jumpers, gloves and hosiery’. In 1959 their ad was for ‘pretty dresses’. I believe the shop opened in 1883 and closed in the 1970s, but would be glad to have more details if anyone has them?                          

This was a perfect way to spend a day.

Nicola could not have been more welcoming and ‘her’ Museum is a delight.

Grateful thanks for permission to use the photographs.

A visit to the Isle of Man definitely leaves a person with a warm glow.

Gura mie ayd Nicola.

Manx Museum

http://www.manxnationalheritage.im/

A Hemming Bird, Love Letters and a Tennis Raquet

The Grove Museum of Victorian Life

Ramsey Isle of Man

Visit Grove house to slip back in time. The Victorian rooms are crammed full of bibelots, furniture, heavy curtains and there are even bobbles on the shelf covers. Cases display fans and trinkets used in every day life by the people who lived in the house. I saw my first hemming bird in one of the cases. (Yes, hemming, not humming). Upstairs you can visit a bedroom, sewing room, nursery and maid’s quarters.

           


And there is a costume room, showing examples of the type of clothes worn during the life of the house. These outfits are presented in well placed glass cases so that a good view of each dress is possible. The oldest outfits provide a glimpse of tightly corseted figures. There is a beautiful cream carriage cloak with fringe detail. An unusual thing to see is what the well dressed Edwardian lady tennis player wore. From her boater to her plimsolls, via a floor length skirt and belted jacket you can see how women suffered for their sport. One gorgeous terracotta coloured suit from the 30s had an embroidered pattern on the jacket front, with the same on the jacket cuffs. Closer inspection showed this to be hand done and it livens up the suit a lot. My favourite dress was a plum frock with a cream neck drape and falling scarf effect, edged with self covered button detail. 1930s I should think.
                                         

        
                         


                                                                                    
                                                           

This house has a fascinating history. There are photographs of the family who lived here and a picture of three of the ladies seated in the front parlour. When you stand in the room and look to the corner the likeness was taken, not much has changed. You can listen to spoken memories from one of the ‘girls’ who lived her life in the house. And then there are the love letters on the bedroom mantelpiece. What happen to Ned? Why did she not marry him? We shall never know. 

This is a lovely house, with a warm family feeling and comfortable red carpeted stairs with shiny brass stair rods. A gorgeous bunch of fresh flowers sat on the hall table next to the calling cards on the silver tray.  Definitely worth a visit.

Ps the loos are spotless and the staff are welcoming and really know their stuff.

 

http://www.manxnationalheritage.im/attractions/grove-museum-of-victorian-life/