A County Durham museum is launching a new exhibition on its “visionary” co-founder’s taste for fashion - featuring items dating back to the 1850s.
The Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle, is today (Saturday, March 22) welcoming visitors to Joséphine: A Woman of Taste and Fashion.
The exhibition will offer an insight into Joséphine Bowes’ “innovative and mixed-genre approach” to collecting with an eclectic display of floor to ceiling textiles.
The new addition in the museum’s Fashion and Textile Gallery will last until March 2026 and follows the launch of a larger exhibition, From Joséphine Bowes: Trendsetters and Trailblazers earlier this year, which celebrates 200 years of its co-founder.
Visitors can expect to see an array of woven and embroidered chair covers alongside textiles, lace, and items purchased for the museum at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867.
Surviving items of clothing and accessories belonging to Joséphine will also be displayed for the first time in years, alongside other examples of historic dress from the 1850s and 1860s.
Archival material relating to her purchases will be on show, offering a personal insight into the items she owned and wore during her lifetime, and her interest in fashion.
More recent examples of French haute couture will also be featured, including those purchased with Art Fundʼs New Collecting Award in 2015, and with contributions from the Friends of The Bowes Museum.
Pieces by 20th century designers including Elsa Schiaparelli (1890 to 1973) and Yves Saint Laurent (1936 to 2008) were acquired in the spirit of what Joséphine might have worn had she lived in the 20th and 21st centuries.
They will be shown alongside items by French designers Jacques Fath (1912 to 1954), Jeanne Paquin (1869 to 1936), Madeleine Vionnet (1876 to 1975), and hats by Simone Mirman (1912 to 2008).
The display will also site the arrival of French fashions in the North East only a decade after Joséphine’s death in 1874, when John James Fenwick (1846 to 1905), founder of Fenwicks in Newcastle, began to bring examples of couture over from Paris in the mid-1880s.
A series of events will also coincide with the exhibition, free with day admission or membership, for textile, fashion and history enthusiasts to enjoy.
Curator of fashion and textiles, Rachel Whitworth, will lead monthly spotlight tours, offering a 30-minute introduction to the exhibition and overview of the display highlights.
Three themed talks in The Curator Series will focus on Joséphine’s love of fashion, her textile acquisitions, and the history of French fashion.
Bookings can be made via the website.
Rachel Whitworth said: “This exciting exhibition, entirely drawn from The Bowes Museumʼs permanent collection, is an opportunity to celebrate Joséphine Bowes as a woman both of and ahead of her time.
“She was a discerning collector of textiles and purchased clothes from the most fashionable couturiers and dressmakers of her time.
“The museum has sought to build on her legacy with examples of work by some of the most significant French designers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
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“Many of the items in the exhibition have not been displayed before and provide fresh insights into the formation of the museum.”
Joséphine: A Woman of Taste and Fashion is located in the Fashion and Textiles Gallery at The Bowes Museum.
Entry to the exhibition is included in general admission and membership.
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