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CURATOR'S CORNER: Sooke fashion dressed up in Sooke Region Museum exhibit

This year the annual summer exhibit is called Fashion Files: Dressing Sooke.

This year our annual summer exhibit is called Fashion Files: Dressing Sooke.

Our textile collection has more than 1,200 items that includes clothing, shoes, purses, jewelry, accessories, textile samples, doilies and blankets. Also included in the collection are objects such as dolls made from fabric, feathers, hat boxes and vintage dress forms.

Our collections team has spent the last two years reorganizing and inventorying this collection and excited to finally be able to show off some of our most unique pieces.

The exhibit will feature artifacts and archival material from our own collection and items loaned to us from the public. The content will look at what Sooke residents have donated to the museum and how these items were important to them and the community.

There is a variety of outfits in the exhibit. Myrtle Pedneault’s (nee Currie) eye-catching canary yellow knitted wool wedding dress is on display with a photograph of her wearing it. A sealskin jacket worn by Kitty Gordon is one of many items from the 1900s displayed.

You will also see Dan Haverty’s work outfit that he wore in 1982 during his last year as a local high rigger in the logging industry.

Other objects to look forward to include a B.C. Auxiliary Police jumpsuit donated by Capt. P.W. deP Taylor, a replica of Manuel Quimper’s Spanish uniform (discovery of Sooke), a 1950s Sooke ball uniform and a funerary necklace made of human hair. Additionally, there will be a sewing corner that features an early 1900s Singer sewing table and various fabric samples, projects and tools.

This year the photo-op station will be bigger than ever.  It will feature an array of costume pieces that visitors can dress up in and take a fun picture that, if emailed to the museum, will be printed out and featured in the exhibit.

A picture of Sooke in the 1920s is used as the background for the photo-op.

The exhibit runs through Sept. 20.

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Brianna Shambrook is collections and exhibits manager of Sooke Region Museum.