Fabulous Fifties Day at National Museum of Costume

A day to remember

By Richard Sim, Visitor Services Assistant

The National Museum of Costume hosted a crowd-pulling event on Sunday 22 July when it opened its doors to the Fabulous Fifties Day. On a dry but very windy morning the Museum was pleased so many people turned out to visit and take part in the attractions. This year’s special Off the Peg exhibition of Horrockses dresses from the 1940s and ’50s was the main pull, drawing many admiring comments. Staff joined in the fun by dressing up in colourful period clothes, many of them home-made. Perhaps even more gratifying were the arrival of many visitors decked out in 1950s styles, some of them even sporting original Horrockses dresses. Music of the epoch echoed the period theme in the Tea Room where special biscuits, meticulously designed by staff, were on sale.

This visitor wore an original Horrockses frock.

Older visitors were invited to write down their reminiscences of the period on blue cards and attach them to the main staircase banisters, which in no time were a fluttering sea of blue as the idea proved a hit. So popular was the idea that visitors were still adding their comments a week later. Among the many comments made visitors recalled: “How slim people were”, “All the jiving”, “Having to wear a piece of cloth tied around my neck, soaked in camphorated oil to help my cold”, “Wearing a full skirt with petticoat made stiff with sugar water”, “Frost on the inside of windows”, “Going to the ‘steamie’ to do washing”, “Making skirts on Saturday afternoons for the Saturday night dance.”

Lucy Adlington of The History Wardrobe was at her entrancing best: in her ‘costume in context’ performance she depicted ’50s woman as a “Domestic Drudge transformed into Domestic Goddess” with characteristic humour. The Bill Fleming Quartet entertained the crowds with a medley of jazz compositions. Steve Brown and Linda Mallet of Lauriston Hall provided jiving sessions, enticing many to give it a try against their initial expectations.

Lucy Adlington transforms from Domestic Drudge to Domestic Goddess.

Dress Up and Smile offered opportunities for individuals and groups to be photographed wearing 1950s style clothes! Miss Dixiebelle and her assistants provided an interesting array of ’50s style hair make-overs and tips. Lisa Rothwell ran her ever popular children’s drop-in puppet-making craft workshop.

A young visitor enjoys a makeover in Miss Dixiebelle’s salon.

Children had a puzzle in each room on the theme of How much is that Doggie in the window? (a popular ’50s song) and older adults were invited to search their memories for answers to questions about famous programmes and personalities of the fifties – all devised by National Museum of Costume staff.

Why should the children have all the Fun?

By Janet Slade, Visitor Services Assistant

There are always fun things for children to do when they visit National Museum of Costume, but our recent Fabulous Fifties Day provided a chance to offer a fun activity to a different age group. Those visitors who remembered the 1950s were invited to tackle our 1950s Trivia Quiz and also to record their own reminiscences of that era.

Fabulous outfits for Fabulous Fifties Day!

We set the activity up so that visitors would see it on their arrival, and it was interesting to see how they approached it.  When a family group arrived, the children, assuming the quiz was for them (naturally), would pick it up and then – realising that they could not do it – hand it over to parents – usually also unable to do it – and finally to grandparents – success!

The older generation was clearly pleased to have their cherished memories valued, while the curiosity of the younger generations was aroused, with great family discussions taking place. Altogether it made for a truly family event and gave us an approach which we might be able to develop in the future.

I might add that several staff members were qualified to make their contributions too – and had a great deal of fun doing so!

 

Dazzling decade: The fabulous Fifties come to life

Guest post by Lucy Adlington of the History Wardrobe

Lucy is appearing at Fabulous Fifties at the National Museum of Costume on Sunday 22 July. Her costume-in-context presentation transforms a domestic drudge into a domestic goddess.

Harold Macmillan may have been telling her, “You’ve never had it so good!”, but the reality of life for the 1950s housewife could be far from glamorous. The position of women in society was changing rapidly in the 1950s. In contrast to wartime, women were giving up paid work outside the home to concentrate instead on their roles as homemakers. Fashion reflected that shift.

The Fabulous Fifties event is particularly apt in this Diamond Jubilee year, with its dazzling coronation images of a glamorous young Elizabeth II. Television programmes such as the BBC newsroom drama The Hour, and the US series Mad Menabout Madison Avenue advertising executives have helped fuel our fascination with the decade that dazzled.

Costumes and props from Lucy’s costume-in-context show.

This fascination is also a dialogue with austerity Britain. In the 1950s the country was emerging from the shadow of the Second World War. Ration books were not finally torn up until 1954. With its yards of fabric, Dior’s New Look, revealed in 1947, was in direct opposition to post-war textile rationing.

Fast-forward to 2012 and perhaps we are all in need of a dose of 1950s glamour and optimism. The Cinderella transformation for our Fabulous Fifties event is achieved with the help of bullet bras, sugared petticoats and sterling advice from the ‘Experts’. That advice includes how to stiffen your petticoat using a solution of sugar dissolved in warm water – whilst distracting your mother, as sugar rationing only ended in 1953 after all. The next challenge was how to dry the petticoat. One contributor to our popular online memory bank, My Life in Clothes, recalls setting it over the bath to drip dry, but forgetting to remove it before her father found himself submerged in a bathtub of syrupy suds.

Dresses from Lucy’s costume-in-context show.

Clothes can evoke the past and hold many memories. Whilst our talks are based on a wealth of academic and textile research, it’s the stories associated with clothes that really bring the history to life. People send us items of clothing, with a note sharing their memories their mother getting dressed for an evening out, recalling the scent of Evening in Paris perfume. When I bring out the liberty bodice, just about every woman of a certain age in the audience has something to say – I can’t get a word in edgeways! This is the real joy of these events.

Lucy also appeared at this year’s Classic Cars day at National Museum of Rural Life.