Originally written for Liberty Belle (September 2014), read it here. Photography by me.
This summer I was lucky enough to have a couple of days work experience at Bath Fashion Museum. It was a brilliant experience, which gave me an insight into how the world of fashion museum curating works. Here’s how those two days went.
Day 1, 6am: Up bright and early to catch my 8:30am flight to Bristol. I live in Newcastle so getting down to Bath seems like it’s going to be a nightmare, but actually the plane and bus rides go by pretty quickly and I get to Bath by 11:45.
12pm: I’m not expected at the museum until after lunch, so I drop my suitcase at my B&B and find a cute café to have something to eat. Before I go and sign in, I walk around the city and have a browse in the beautiful (but very expensive!) vintage shops.
1pm: After signing in, I’m given a tour of the museum offices and get introduced to everyone. My first task is to help catalogue clothing donations to the museum. This means learning how to sew labels with individual catalogue numbers into items of clothing, which can be easily taken out or hidden if they should go on display. The other staff members are busy working through a big donation from someone pretty significant in both the museum and fashion worlds, so I get to see and touch a lot of designer menswear – lots of amazing suits!
5pm: I leave for the day after taking a look at the department’s many books on fashion and history which line the walls of the office.
7pm: More exploring Bath! I go out for some incredible Thai food, and then have a wander around the historic Georgian streets before going back to the B&B for an early night.
Day 2, 9am: I get to the Fashion Museum and sign in. The morning is filled with more labelling, though we stop for birthday cake at about 11am.
12pm: We break for lunch and I am given a couple of hours free to have a look at the exhibitions currently on at the museum. Bath Fashion Museum is known for mixing historic fashion with modern pieces, and their Georgian exhibit has a lovely display on how modern fashion collections have been inspired by this era. Cue me having a slight fangirl moment over the Meadham Kirchhoff and Vivienne Westwood catwalk outfits. The Dress of the Year exhibition is also really interesting. Every year the museum asks someone from the fashion industry to pick a dress they consider to be iconic. This year they asked Susie Lau, aka top fashion blogger Susie Bubble, who chose a beautiful Christopher Kane dress complete with duct tape and diamantes.
2pm: I help move a bunch of “bundles” (museum talk for batches of clothes wrapped in muslin cloth) from the store in the museum to a store in the Circus, which is at the very top floor of one of the university’s fashion buildings. This is exhausting and involves so many stairs! Museum work is tough.
4pm: I do a little bit more labelling (of shoes this time) and then I get to go have a snoop around the stores. There are about five or six rooms in the main store, which are absolutely filled with stuff! The first room is stuffed to the brim with hundreds of hats in boxes with very intriguing labels such as ‘1920s – black’ or ‘Japanese designers – Yohji Yamamoto’. There are two rooms dedicated to shoes, lingerie and accessories, and a room with boxes that come up to my shoulders laid all along the floor with labels such as ‘Christian Dior 1950s’ and ‘Chanel 1940s’. Most of the visible items are 20th Century pieces and I feel like I’m walking through my dream wardrobe – 1920s pieces that Daisy Buchanan would be envious of and the most incredible 50s structured dresses are everywhere.
5pm: Time to say goodbye and get to the station for my train home
