Creative Industries – Research of Museum

The Northern Ireland Museums

Our client, National Museums NI (NMNI), look after 4 museums across the country – Ulster museum, Ulster Folk Museum, Ulster Transport Museum & Ulster American Folk Park. The Ulster Museum is located in botanic gardens and hosts specimens of the natural world.

Textiles at the Ulster Museum

The collection at the Ulster Museum currently holds 4 textile themes,

Historic Costume – ‘The collections of NMNI illustrate every aspect of daily life over the last 300 or more years. Working life, religious life, a life of luxury, life in the fast lane of motor sport’
Contemporary Fashion – ‘The Contemporary Fashion collection at National Museums NI vividly captures how quickly dress styles evolve and change.The collection includes work by designers such as Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Alexander McQueen, Victoria Beckham, Burberry, Gucci and Vivienne Westwood.‘
Fashion accessories – ‘The objects range from the colourful and fancy fans designed for Victorian evening dress, to basic umbrellas for everyday use. The collection showcases traditional craft skills used in the making of dress accessories.’
Textiles – ‘It represents the history of the linen and cotton industries in Ireland, and the needlework skills of quilting, embroidery and lace making.One of the earliest pieces is the Lennox quilt, a stunning embroidered quilt from 1730. The most recent objects include contemporary textile artworks and printed textiles.’

Online Exhibitions on NMNI

Edward Molyneux Evening Dress

‘Born in London in 1891, Edward Molyneux trained as a painter, but began work as an illustrator for the fashion house Lucile after winning a design competition. He served in the First World War and opened his own Paris salon in 1919, where he became an instant success with elegantly-cut dresses and tailored suits.

Evening dress of pale pink silk crepe, sleeveless. low back joined at waist. Dress has under-dress has ribbon straps,hooked opening left side seam.‘

3-Piece Evening Gown

‘Three piece evening dress worn one piece over the other. Underdress of mid blue crepe – bodice section has been cut off. Hem is trimmed with an applied band of blue net covered with overlapping rows of silver grey mat sequins. Middledress is sleeveless, with low round neck, slightly lower at front, of blue net covered with sequins as above. The lower edge is fringed as above and as above an unsequinned section of width of one sequin row runs from top of fringe vertically upward.’

1920s Evening Coat
‘a 1920’s coat of printed silk gauge brocaded with gold thread, having ruched trim and monkey fur hem’

Vice Versa – July 2019

Vice Versa was an exhibition at the Ulster Museum showcasing how male styles have influenced women’s fashion, stretching over the past few centuries.

‘One designer whose work features prominently in Vice Versa is Yves Saint Laurent. The French couturier was renowned for breaking down barriers between men’s and women’s fashion throughout his career, most notably with his famous tuxedo suit for women, the chic ‘Le Smoking.’’

‘The newest addition to the Ulster Museum’s fashion collection is a 3D-printed men’s double-breasted hourglass coat, designed by Demna Gvasalia for Balenciaga.

Exhibition curator, Charlotte McReynolds, said this garment is one of the most disruptive to gender norms.

“It’s an important example of how womenswear is now influencing men’s fashion,” she said. “Largely unassuming, it maintains the long-held viewpoint of men’s fashion being elegant and restraining from decoration. However, uniquely, it has been 3D-printed and moulded to exaggerate the hips to create what is traditionally seen as a ‘feminine’ attribute.”