The Museum of Cornish Life has one of the best costume collections in the South West, you can see a sample of our fabulous collection via our Sketchfab account where we have 3D scanned several items from the collection.
Find out about how we care for our collection and share the stories about the items of clothing in this film.
Short Films of the Costume Collection:
These short videos take you on a virtual tour of parts of the costume collection.
- Early Victorian Nursing Dress
- 1900’s Mourning Clothes
- Victorian Christening Garment
- Wedding Dress from 1935-1980’s
- Dresses from late 1960’s/early 1970’s
- Men’s Coats from 1940’s and 1960’s
Related objects
Coronation Gown
This intricate embroidery features on a replica, about a meter high, of the sumptuous gown worn by the Queen for her coronation in 1953. Created by designer Normal Hartnell, the dress’s embroidery incorporated not only the rose, shamrock, leek and thistle for the countries of the United Kingdom, but also plants representative of the Commonwealth
Hand stitched boots
This tiny pair of hand stitched boots is one of the Museum’s most beautiful and yet saddest artefacts. They are beautifully made in satin and cotton with delicate embroidered flowers and decoration, and were sewn by a young woman in one of Cornwall’s ‘lunatic asylums’, as they were then known. Shown beside a one pence piece
Hatpins
In the late 19th century women’s bonnets tied with ribbons gave way to the fashion for large decorative hats requiring a metal hatpin to keep them in place. Hatpins of the wealthy were in precious metals with jewelled heads, while the lower echelons of society such as shopgirls made do with simpler glass beads. Around 1901