TEXTILES and fashion never before displayed are to form part of a new exhibition celebrating The Bowes Museum’s founder Josephine Bowes.
Josephine – A Woman of Taste and Fashion, opens on March 22, and complements the current From Josephine Bowes: Trendsetters and Trailblazers display.
It ranges from 19th century dresses to more modern designs and shows how French fashion has developed over the years.
It also includes peculiarities such as ecclesiastical vestments from the early 1700s and chair covers which give a glimpse of how people decorated their homes over the centuries.
Rachel Whitworth, curator of textiles and fashion for the museum, has carefully gone through the museum’s extensive collection to put together a display that will intrigue visitors and pique their curiosity.
It balances items bought by Josephine at the time, as well as fashion from the late 20th century which the museum founder may well have bought had she been alive now.
Ms Whitworth said: “As a woman she wore very fashionable clothes. She bought her clothes from the best dressmakers in Paris at the time. We have hundreds of bills in the archives but not very many of her surviving clothes. We have a purple bodice and an evening bodice which are thought to have been hers, but they have no labels and there is no documentation that says they were Josephine’s but they are the right date and the right sort of size.”
There is another dress from the 1860s on display which shows how elaborate the garments were.
Alongside this are three ensembles from Yves St Lauren which the museum bought in the wake of massive interest in an exhibition of the designer’s work a few years ago.
The purchases were made possible through a grant from the Art Fund’s New Collecting Award scheme.
Also of interest are items by Elsa Schiaparelli.
Ms Whitworth said: “She was Italian, but she lived most of her life in Paris and is thought of as a French fashion designer. She is a very interesting designer because she was influenced by the surrealists. She was designing in the 20s and 30s and working with artists like Dali to design embroidery and textile designs.”
There will also be items by French designers Jacques Fath, Jeanne Paquin, Madeleine Vionnet, and hats by Simone Mirman.
The curator said: “Jeanne Paquin is thought to be the first woman haute couturier. She was a woman running her own business designing clothes for woman.”
Of interest are hundreds of chair covers that Josephine Bowes collected.
Ms Whitworth said: “On the face of it, it doesn’t sound thrilling, but we have got covers from the late 17th century to the early 19th century. When their furniture fell out of fashion they would have it recovered and the covers would just get discarded. We think it was Josephine who had the foresight to say, ‘hang on a minute, I am interested in those’ and collected them for the museum.”
The exhibition will run until March 2026.
