Textiles & Dress Collection (TDC)

The Textiles & Dress Collection is a reference collection of textiles, dress and associated materials, fashion and interiors fabrics and textile artefacts, and published material including commercial dress patterns, knitting and crochet patterns, dressmaking and craft magazines. There are examples of everything from underwear to opera capes, wallpaper to plastic macs, dancing shoes to doilies.

This collection traces the changing nature of everyday dress, actively seeking to record the design, the cut, the details, the fabrics and the methods of manufacture of ‘ordinary’ clothes, valuing the garments that serve us in our everyday lives as much as those that celebrate us on milestone occasions. Our earliest textile pieces are in in our lace collection and are from the mid seventeenth century, whilst our dress and accessories date from the early 1800s to the present day.

The Collection also houses several extensive special interest sections donated by private collectors, such as The Men’s Bodywear Collection (underwear and sportswear), The Ivy Leaf Collection (bespoke 20th century corsetry), The Shelagh Lovett Turner Collection (19th century dress), The Fletcher Lace Collection, and objects with connection to Cornwall that have been collected with the recorded stories of their donors and wearers.

This resource will be of value to anyone with an interest in the history of costume, everyday dress and textiles; to textile, fashion and costume designers; or anyone simply fascinated by the role clothing and textiles play in our lives.