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Fashion and Textiles

The Ulster Museum holds a significant collection of fashionable dress, related accessories and textiles ranging in date from the eighteenth century to contemporary international designer and high street fashion.

The collection of fashionable dress was recreated after the former collection was destroyed in the fire following the bombing of the building in which it was then stored in November 1976. The Ulster Museum took this catastrophe as an opportunity to build a distinctive new collection. In the early 1980s it was decided that the museum should acquire complete International Designer and High Street outfits every year. This policy enables the collection to reflect the most important trends and designers in modern fashion, and to provide a valuable teaching resource for students of fashion design here in Belfast, and beyond. The Ulster Museum is the only museum on the island of Ireland, and one of the few in the UK, to collect modern fashion on such a regular basis. The Fashion Collection now contains over five thousand objects ranging from eighteenth-century silk gowns to modern International and High Street fashion.