The Western Railway Heritage Museum is hosting a unique fashion show that will not only look at the history of women's fashion, but at a century of social change.
Using women's travel wear as his centrepiece, historian and antique clothing collector Ivan Sayers will present a look at the history of fashion from 1895 to the 1970s on Sunday, Feb. 18 at 1:30 p.m.
"It's what I like to call painless education," said Sayers, who worked the Vancouver Museum for 20 years, including serving as the Curator of History from 1976 until 1991.
"It's not just about the clothes, but about where women come from," he said.
Sayers will be presenting 12 outfits that show the styles of women's travel wear from 1895, 1905, 1815, 1924, 1928, 1937, wartime 1940's, post-war 1940s, the early 50s, the 1960s and 1970s.
"Each outfit is about where women were in history at that time," said Sayers.
Travel wear tends to give a good insight into the more conservative and practical stylings of an era.
"It tends to be practical, so it's easy to look after, there's lots of suits and coats rather than flimsy evening gowns," said Sayers. "They're modest clothes meant to keep you warm and comfortable."
Sayers uses his collection of historical clothing, possibly the most extensive privately-owned collection of its type in all of Canada, to not only show snapshots of the past but also to educate people on where we have been.
"I've always been interested in history," said Sayers. "I began to collect clothing 40 odd years ago. It was not something that was being well looked after, all of these old fashions. I started to gather it up just to preserve it."
His collection of men's, women's and children's attire is so extensive that Sayers is forced to sleep in the dining room of his three-bedroom 1910 turn of the century home.
"Everything else is storage."
The fashion show is being held in conjunction with this year's Wild at Art festival, and will also serve as a fundraiser for the museum.
