Project « Fashion collections »

The aim of this research is to appraise the textiles, clothing and vast amount of lace currently in the museum’s storerooms. Some of these items were part of Raoul Warocqué’s collection for display. Others came from the wardrobes of the women of the Warocqué family, including items preserved as family heirlooms. It was Marie Warocqué who began this process and had annotated some of them. And yet this collection is not well known. It was the subject of unpublished research carried out in the 1950s but had not been exhibited since the castle was evacuated because of the 1960 fire. And yet, later acquisitions had been added to the collection. So we are looking at a complex group of items and the usual paradoxes of fashion collections, between family history and technological history, industrial and small-scale production, creativity and conformism.