The Hidden Wardrobe
Part II
Fashion held in private collections and in museum stores
Dress is so much a part of life that its cultural significance is often overlooked. Any item of apparel has much to reveal about the time and place of its creation, and the unique forces that gave it shape and substance.”
- p8 The Dress Detective by Ingrid Mida and Alexandra Kim
The Hidden Wardrobe is a research project run by The House of Embroidered Paper
The Hidden Wardrobe blog entries are created as a platform for recording imagery, text and audio concerning rarely seen historical garments held in private collections and museum stores.
Each garment recorded has been viewed as part of a research visit conducted by Stephanie Smart - The House of Embroidered Paper - to the ends of informing a particular collection.
The House of Embroidered Paper is a unique fashion house - fine art studio. Every garment it creates is formed entirely from paper and thread; each is a piece of contemporary paper textiles. Collections are woven through with fashion centred stories, plus the memories of individuals, unknown details of social history and responses to our collective sense of place, space and the natural environment.
The House of Embroidered Paper was established by fine artist Stephanie Smart in 2017 following the exhibition of her first 3-d collection of garments constructed purely from paper and thread.