Now that I've finished the Tremendous Machines series, I wanted to share some highlights from my last trip to England, and I'm starting with the most exciting one. I was fortunate enough to learn about the V&A East Storehouse's "Order an Object" in time to schedule an appointment before my trip. The Storehouse is located in the former Olympic park in London, and full of objects that can't fit into the jam-packed V&A Museum in South Kensington.
V&A East Storehouse
It's very unique for a museum, as most objects are just there to look at, without any sort of placards or other interpretation, although they do have object numbers that you can use to look them up. They're also largely just sitting out, strapped down, like this Georgian wine cooler:
Georgian-era wine cooler
You can come in and view the objects in the main space without an appointment, but if (like me) you have a fear of heights, you may have an issue with the glass balcony railings. Thankfully, the room where you view the objects had no such triggers.
You can choose up to five objects to look at, and a time block of one, two, or four hours for viewing. I chose two Regency-era dresses, a petticoat, and two pairs of shoes, and went with a two hour time block. I was glad I chose that long as one hour would not have been enough time with these amazing objects!
I was a little nervous about handling fabrics that were more than 200 years old, but they have you read instructions for handling and glove up before you touch them. Delightfully, you are allowed to take photos, so I was glad to have my trusty Canon point and shoot which I could handle with the gloves on. Which means I have some photos of these amazing items to show you!
First, let's look at this circa 1823 silk dress, which had a matching spencer (meaning I got two items under one object, a bonus!). One common theme of the objects I handled was that most were even lighter weight than they looked when I handled them, and that was definitely true for these items.
The silk dress
Upper bodice of the dress
Lower detail of the dress
Sleeve detail
Lower sleeve detail
One of the great things about looking at the dress was being able to see how things fastened. The spencer had a combination of ties and hooks, and it appeared some of the hooks had been replaced with more modern ones, which made it clear that the older ones were older.
Spencer showing some of the tie ribbons
Lacing holes
More modern hooks
Older hooks
Back view of the spencer
The second dress I viewed was a circa 1807 wedding dress. Having seen this before the promos came out for "Wuthering Heights," I had to admit I got a little fired up about how many people were saying it wasn't historically accurate that Catherine was wearing a white wedding dress. Queen Victoria's white wedding dress made it very nearly a standard for brides, but prior to her wedding, ladies generally wore their best dress. So in an era when white muslin was a tremendously popular fabric, this dress was not an anomaly. Not to say that the "Wuthering Heights" wedding dress was historically accurate, nor even a good costume (how is it possible to make a dress fit that badly on the woman who just played Barbie?), just that the colour wasn't the problem.
Back to the dress at hand, though. As you can see, this was the era of long trains and translucent muslin:
The full dress
Back of the dress
Whitework embroidery on the sleeve
Whitework embroidery on the hem
Because a wedding dress was simply a good dress, it would be worn after the wedding as well. And this dress showed clear signs of wear, with stains, a little hole, and even a place where it had been patched. These made the garment feel even more real, because I could see that it had a history that could only be imagined at this point.
A tea stain, perhaps?
Hole in the fabric
A patch
The petticoat was perhaps the least interesting of the bunch, simply because it had the fewest discoveries to make, but it was still an opportunity to get a sense of its weight (most like what it appeared, of the bunch) and see how it fastened.
Back of petticoat
A closer look at the back
Front of the petticoat
Petticoat sleeve
Petticoat hem
My last two objects were a pair of boots and a pair of shoes. I wanted to get a sense of what footwear was like and have two pairs to compare against each other. The boots were an outer silk lined with leather and as you can see were not the sturdiest of footwear. I think these would have been good for a place like the seaside, for a promenade along a paved surface where they wouldn't get too dirty. For as you can see, they have gotten a little dirty with wear, but not very much, considering the pale colour.
The boots
Inside of boots showing the thin leather lining
View of the ties and bow on top of the second boot
Boot sole
At first, I found the shoes (1810-1820) less interesting than the boots.
The shoes
The shoes tied with this twisted fabric
The shoes got a lot more interesting, though, when I realized that they had some arch support:
Look at that arch!
Then I realized I was on to something, and got the second shoe out of its carrying case to discover that these shoes were very clearly made with a left and a right! I had thought that there was no such thing as left and right shoes at this time, and you were required to simply wear them into those shapes. So this one was perhaps the most astonishing find of all.
Bottoms of shoes showing the left and right build
As you can tell, this was an absolutely amazing experience. It's one thing to go to a museum and be able to see items like this under glass, and entirely another to get to handle them, feel the weight of them, discover their secrets, and imagine how they would have been worn. The East Storehouse is a bit out of the way of central London, but if this sounds interesting to you, I think you'll absolutely find it worth your while to get there. You can learn more about Order an Object on the V&A site.
My study table
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