‘An English Lady’s Wardrobe’, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK, 25 October 2019–1 March 2020

Abstract

Mrs Emily Margaret Tinne was a hoarder, collector and keeper of clothes. At her death in 1966, some sixty-two tea chests containing decades of clothes and accessories were donated to Liverpool Museums, with further items added by her daughter in the early 2000s. The resulting 750 items comprise the largest collection in the United Kingdom of clothing belonging to one individual, and ‘An English Lady’s Wardrobe’ was the largest exhibition of these items to date. The exhibition mainly reflected the clothing worn by Mrs Tinne in the years 1910 to 1939, but it also included some items belonging to her children and their servants. Set in the glorious high-ceilinged rooms of the Walker Art Gallery, the exhibition was airy, bright and spacious. Period films were projected onto the walls, which not only gave a glimpse into contemporary leisure activities, but also provided a demonstration of how clothing was worn and moved on real bodies. Panels of text and photographs introduced the Tinne family at the start of the exhibition, along with a video of Mrs Tinne’s granddaughter talking about her recollections of her grandmother. This was a reminder that these clothes are from the recent past, and that her descendants still have an interest in the collection. It was immediately apparent from this first room that this exhibition was as much an exploration of social history as it was about textiles. This aspect was immeasurably enhanced by some 1,300 letters from members of the Tinne family dating from 1923 to 1951, on loan to the Gallery. Excerpts from the letters decorated the walls, and added a personal slant to the items on display. For example, in 1937 Philip Tinne wrote to his son, ‘[Emily] has got a fierce new hat with purple and crimson rosettes in front. I can’t stand it ...’. Mrs Tinne frequently bought items and never wore them. Indeed, many of the items still have the shop tags, allowing a fascinating insight into where she shopped and how much items cost. Panels of illustrations, photographs and text depict the individual stores where Mrs Tinne shopped, ranging from the exclusive to department stores in the city (Fig.1). By examining the retail environment Mrs Tinne would have known, the exhibition had a very real sense of the local and, in many cases where buildings are still extant, the recognisable. The clothing has been extremely carefully conserved and the seventy-three outfits were displayed on mannequins custom-built for each item. As the collection ranges across nearly forty years, even the casual observer could see the way in which Mrs Tinne’s body changed with age and over the course of seven pregnancies. The garments shifted from the slim proportions of her youth, to the more robust sizes of her older age. As the exhibition was arranged by type of clothing, rather than chronologically, the various sizes in close proximity to each other were a pertinent reminder that not all clothing was created for fashion models and the very slim. Arranging the clothing by type, such as day dresses, coats and evening wear, also had the distinct advantage of demonstrating how both fashion