NEWS RELEASES
Revealing Layers: From petticoats to bustles at Horsham Museum
13th December 2006
Petticoats and corsets, crinoline and bustles; the elegant dresses and gowns of the Victorian and Edwardian periods fascinate today because of the many layers worn underneath and the exaggerated shapes they produced. It is often said that the Victorians were so prudish that they covered the legs of pianos, and the crinolines often covered a multitude of sins. Underwear fashions have gone from an abundance of layers to the briefest of briefs, and how we got there is explored in a fascinating and unusual exhibition called "Revealing Layers" at Horsham Museum.
In the “Good old days” underwear didn’t really exist as we know it, so the modern day “cutting edge” fashion for “going commando,” or wearing nothing, is in fact centuries old. Just look at the Scots with their kilt jokes. But by the mid-Victorian era underwear became the norm. What is more, underwear that provided support and structure to make the body beautiful was all important. If God or diet didn’t provide you with an hour-glass figure, whale bone, yards of material and stitching would. Such fashion reflected the status of women where they were physically, morally, socially and economically restricted.
From then on, as women’s political influence grew, and with it freedom, so the bindings fell away. Gradually, instead of the underwear providing the structure, the outer garment did that with the underwear providing support. There was also the whole issue of the erotic nature of underwear, a fascination with it because it remained unseen, hidden from sight but known to exist.
'Revealing Layers' though is not an exhibition that delves in to the world of the erotic. It explores the fascinating world of underwear through the most unromantic of settings - the laundry or wash day, rather than the boudoir. This enables the visitor to look at the shape, cut and cloth used in the undergarments, to see the craftsmanship and design. It enables the visitor to see if more is less, or less is more. The visitor decides.
Along with a range of underwear drawn from the Museum’s extensive collection there are notes to guide the uninitiated as well as the paraphernalia of the laundry. The exhibition will be an eye opener for those that have never seen real corsets, or early bras, or bloomers.
The exhibition opens on 15th December 2006 at Horsham Museum and runs until 31st August 2007.
For further information contact Jeremy Knight, Curator.
Horsham Museum, 9 Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex RH12 1HE. Tel: (01403) 254959 Email: museum@horsham.gov.uk
www.horshammuseum.org