Whilst Horsham Museum is closed to the public, we are taking the opportunity to change over some of our displays. One of the spaces we are reworking is our Costume Gallery, where we are in the early stages of changing over the entire display.
After the Museum temporarily closed for renovations, we started to disassemble our existing costume display. When items are taken off of display, we use our digital artefact tracking system to determine where they should be safely stored and to track their move from display to storage.
Now that the Costume Gallery is empty of its previous objects, we need to decide what our new display will look like.
With over 6000 objects in our historical costume collection, it takes time to identify which pieces should feature in the reworked gallery. We want our Costume Gallery to reflect the lives of Horsham’s past residents. To do this, we need to choose garments which can tell stories about how people in Horsham lived and how this has changed over time.
Historical costume is often fragile, so we must ensure that any pieces we use are in suitable condition to be displayed without damage to the artefact.
Pictured: A display case in the Costume Gallery, emptied and ready for new artefacts
Once we have selected a garment, we need to identify how it should be displayed. One of the first steps in this process is ensuring we have accurate measurements for our display pieces. If an item will be displayed on a mannequin or bust form, we need to know what size this should be.
The proportions of modern mannequins are often unsuitable for historical fashion. The waists of many pieces of our Victorian dress collection, for instance, are too narrow to fit mannequins made for modern dress silhouettes. Museums can work round these requirements by using bespoke mannequins for historical fashion, but also by using padding and undergarments to create the correct support and fit for a garment.
Pictured: Measurements are taken of a Victorian silk dress
We are aiming to open our new Costume Gallery to the public in January 2027. We hope you visit us then and enjoy learning new stories from Horsham's history.
Published: 23 Sep 2026