A Visit to the Fashion Museum in Bath

At the beginning of March I went to Bath for the weekend with my mum. It’s one of my very favourite cities. I’m a huge fan of the Georgian era and Bath is absolutely full of wonderful Georgian architecture and history. One of my favourite places to visit in Bath is the Fashion Museum. The museum is housed in The Assembly Rooms building which in itself is worth a visit as it features in so many Jane Austen books and is such an important place in Bath history.

Beautiful chandeliers in the Assembly Rooms

The current main exhibition is on Georgian clothing, and it’s absolutely wonderful. I love the opulence of early Georgian clothing and the ridiculous wideness of court dresses. Then there are the simple elegant Regency dresses.

The exhibition features over 30 18th Century outfits which are from the Fashion Museums extensive collection. The fabrics are incredible, from woven silk dresses to heavily embroidered men’s waistcoats. The court mantuas on display are both bizarre and breathtaking. The details are so beautiful. I do feel very sorry for the women who had to wear them at court for long lengths of time.

Another of my favourite displays at the museum is Behind the Scenes. Clothing is displayed with boxes from the stores behind them. It’s a wonderful way of experiencing just how huge the volume of items in museum collections can be. Having a brother who is a curator I have been into other museum stores before and the wealth of amazing pieces is incredible.

The display portrays 100 years of fashion and is a great follow on from the Georgians as it begins in the regency period right up to Edwardian fashions. It is a great lesson in how fashions evolved throughout the 19th century. Some of those tiny waists are ridiculous!

I love to have a good dress up and was delighted that the museum had some really wonderful Victorian style dresses to try on. My mum and I spent absolutely ages trying everything on and taking lots of pictures. Here’s my Victorian selfie!

Next up was a display of everyday clothing from the 20th century. My pictures aren’t great as the light was quite low, but I always enjoy looking at fashion that can be classed as vintage and hearing my mum talk about the clothes she wore in the 60s and 70s was fantastic.

There is so much to see at the museum, and if you find yourself in Bath it is an absolute must see.

To find out more visit the Fashion Museum Website. 

I’ll be sharing more posts about our trip to Bath over the next few weeks. March and April were so busy for me that I’ve got a bit of a backlog of blog posts to write at the moment, so I’m trying really hard to catch up.