At the start of 2020 I was lucky enough to work with The Salisbury Museum again on their Look Again project where I was involved in the process of historical mounting for their new costume exhibit. This will be replacing the current display which has been up for about 30 years and based on feedback from young people, the team decided to update their collection and the way in which the pieces would be displayed.

​

The project began with a course led by Gesa Werner, a mounting expert from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Throughout this I learnt how to properly pad a mannequin and create suitable inner garments to support historical pieces from a range of different periods. I was working on a fascinating piece that was originally a 1760s dress, but was later repurposed into a 1920s wedding dress. It was useful to understand how to offer support to a loose fitting garment as it was important to avoid over padding the mannequin. The padding and inner garments aim to bring the costume to life rather than to stuff it!

 

Following this, I volunteered to assist in the decant of their current exhibit where I learnt about the process of cataloguing each item by examining the condition of the garment.