Bath museum tells story of fashion from the 1500s to 2016

The story of fashion – from the 1500s to 2016 – is being told at a museum in Bath which is set to run for almost two years.

The major new exhibition is called 'A History of Fashion in 100 Objects', and opened at the Fashion Museum in Bath at the weekend.

It will run until New Year's Day of 2018 – by which time there might well be another garment to tell what the fashion of the end of 2017 was.

The exhibition features authentic garments, trousers, shirts, evening dresses and gloves that have survived the vagaries of fashion, from a late 1500s 'blackwork' embroidered men's shirt, to the 'body-con' Galaxy dress worn by millions of women in the 2000s.

"The Fashion Museum is consistently named as one of the world's top fashion museums," said council chiefs Patrick Anketell-Jones, from Bath and North East Somerset council, which runs the museum.

"This new exhibition will give local residents and visitors a chance to see some of the finest fashion garments and accessories from the museum's fabulous collection," he added.

One of the oldest fashion garments to go on display is an intricately embroidered woman's jacket – known at the time as a waistcoat – worked in coloured silks and glittering metal thread and dating from the time of Shakespeare.

Object number 61 has a particularly poignant local back story. The embroidered silk chiffon wedding dress was worn by Mabel Chappell when she married Robert Fuller – from the great Fuller brewing dynasty from Wiltshire. After their wedding in 1907, the couple lived at Great Chalfield Manor, which is now run by the National Trust, in west Wiltshire.

The bridesmaid dress itself was created by one of the world's first leading female fashion designers, Lucile, Lady Duff Gordon, who was born in 1863. Five years after she designed the wedding dress, she was on board the maiden voyage of the Titanic, but managed to survive.

Object number 75 in the exhibition is a dress from Parisian couturier Lucien Lelong from 1948, worn by Gone With the Wind star Vivien Leigh, which helped set the fashion trends for the post-war era.

The Fashion Museum has its finger on the pulse - each year it invites a fashion expert to select a 'Dress of the Year' that epitomises – for them – the year in fashion, and the chosen ensemble becomes part of the museum collection. 'A History of Fashion in 100 Objects' ends with the Dress of the Year 2015, two outfits by visionary British menswear designer Craig Green, giving an up-to-the-minute, contemporary take on historical fashion.

Visitors to the exhibition will also be able to engage with additional aspects of the Fashion Museum's collection through extra displays incorporated as part of the exhibition. This includes 10 'shoe moments' throughout history – from Georgian silk shoes to Air Jordan trainers – plus a children's trail showcasing 10 fashion looks for kids, from the 1700s to the 2000s.