There is an existing archive of extant garments at WCA which has been sitting, untouched, in storage for many years. The aim of this society is to record and study the garments in this archive while also learning about costumes in the museum industry and exploring both collections and curation. It's an opportunity to get hands-on experience with historic garments and interact with like-minded students and academics. We are currently going through our boxes and taking a catalog of what items are in each box. Every box is a surprise and frequently there are beautiful treasures hidden under the layers of tissue paper! We hope to set up talks with a few costume researchers and hopefully someone in collections management sometime soon! As we grow we hope to set up a blog to display student investigation, research, and reproductions of garments in the archive but for now, we will just discover what secrets lie under the dusty white box lids!
Our Cataloge can been seen here : https://wcacostumearchive.myblog.arts.ac.uk
Membership is only £5 and all money will go towards the upkeep of the archive and towards securing guest speakers! Membership also means that you will get email updates for future talks and workshops as well as free members' access to certain talks or workshops.