The Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising, known for its creative galleries, holds a hidden gem. Housing over 20,000 historic archives of fashion, the museum makes its resources available to students for research, projects and viewership, but instead of books, it is a resource of apparel history.
“The imprint of the body is visible, and it gives you a connection to that person that is so rich and something you cannot get if you read about that person,” said Megan Osborne, interim director of the Avenir Museum. “The physiological response to our life is captured in clothing, and that remains with the pieces once they come here, so now people have access to that tangible part of history.”
The Avenir’s collection is composed of clothing, textiles and accessories from the 1900s to present day. While the primary focus is on Euro-American fashion, the collection expands from designer apparel to global apparels.
Housing an extensive collection by Richard Blackwell then led to growth in other designer apparels, including Arnold Scaasi, James Galanos, Calvin Klein, Dior and Valentino. The collections have also seen recent growth in apparel from Central America and northern parts of South America.
“Showcasing textiles from places such as Bolivia and Panama has allowed us to give representation to places we have not been able to before,” Osborne said.
The ways in which clothing affects the design of our houses, cars and furniture points to the clues of the environment they were made within, telling stories not of only the person, but the time and space they existed in.
“It holds someone’s life story, and it is an incredible privilege for us to care for and store those life stories through the clothing here.” -Megan Osborne, Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising interim director.
“Make an appointment; come in,” Osborne said. “We can turn the pieces inside out, (and) if appropriate, we will cut snippets of the fibers and do fiber testing, pull back up prints as support for the garments and so much more. There is a wealth of resources here that are available to everybody.”
The Avenir possesses textiles that have been passed down through decades of life. They not only represent the tangible love that is held in clothing, but also the historical importance of tangible artifacts.
“Sometimes we don’t have all the answers,” said Brooklyn Wenzel, the Avenir’s visitor engagement coordinator. “Sometimes it can feel like we’re doing detective work to try and answer these questions.”
By housing this tangible aspect of our history, it may lead one to question the current manufacturing process of clothing. Fast fashion is a hot topic, bringing many to question the environmental effects of mass produced cat-walk trends. The archive collection allows for the second side of the coin to be introduced to the conversation.
“It’s concerning for the continuation of the collection,” Osborne said. “What will survive from 2025? What will represent what people are wearing and still be here for people to collect in 3025? How will they know about the past in this tangible way?”
When looking to the connection between runway fashion and current trends, the collection enables viewers to find personal connections within the decades-worth of clothing.
“That runway of high fashion will always exist, and it will always influence what we wear,” Osborne said. “But if you as a design student want to be creating things that people are loving and wearing and passing down, then those items will be the things that have memories attached to it.”
Spilling red wine on a wedding dress, sweating stains into the flapper dress after a good night out, bleeding from a corset that was tied much too tight: These small imperfections that many now see as reason to dispose of clothing were once the marks that made them so memorable.
“It holds someone’s life story, and it is an incredible privilege for us to care for and store those life stories through the clothing here,” Osborne said.
Reach Ruby Secrest at entertainment@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.
