Exhibitions
Fashion from the 1890s and the 1990s. A vibrant celebration of two very different decades of fashion from the Whanganui Regional Museum collection.A lot can change in a hundred years but some things stay the same. The 1890s and the 1990s had a common theme of black clothing but were a century apart in terms of dressing formally or casually.
1890s fashions featured long dresses with ruffles, frills and bustles. Men wore dark tightly fitting jackets, vests and long trousers. Formal and austere clothing was the norm. The fashion-conscious and well off had their clothing made by seamstresses or tailors, sourcing their materials from mercers, dealers in textile fabrics, especially silks, velvets and other fine materials.During the 1990s, clothing became increasingly more casual for everyday wear. There was a definite move into the grunge look of hoodies, sneakers, ripped jeans and t-shirts. The 1990s also saw a more minimalist fashion evolve in the form of pencil skirts, cardigans and slip dresses. And Diana Princess of Wales continued to develop and influence women’s high fashion globally.