Cathy's Art Diary

Second part of an exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum looking at the history of boys clothing. I’d done the first part on breeching a couple of months ago so was pleased to manage to see the second part on sailor suits. Thank you to the lady in reception who let me pop in without paying again as I just wanted to see that one   gallery. Have a look at the detail of the show on my first blog post .  This part looked at the fashion for sailor suits started by Queen Victoria. There were two nicely displayed cabinets one of leisure suits with the traditional sailor collars and one of outfits mimicking officers, possibly made as page boy outfits. I was touched by the story of one suit which had been made by the men on the ship the boy’s father, who was an admiral, was on. Closed 3 March 2024  

Charming exhibition   at the Fashion and Textile Museum looking at the history of clothing for boys. It’s a topic which doesn’t get covered very often and this show will be in two parts. The first looked at fashion until the 1920s for boys to wear dresses into the age of 3-6 and then to wear trousers or skeleton suits even though trousers were only worn by manual workers until the 1820s. The second part, which I’ll will definitely be going back to, will look at sailor suits. (21 December 2023 – 3 March 2024) The show was based on the collection of Alasdair Peebles which comprises over 1000 items. The suits were beautifully displayed with a background designed by Peebles and the main display was shown like a group of boys playing. All the outfits were in sepia colours which made it look like an artwork in its own right. There was also a smaller display with a boys, a suit for court dress and an ornate skeleton suit. Closed 16 December 2023