(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s fashion mavens and aspiring seamstresses have the opportunity to join a new members-only Collection Couture Club designed for people who admire style, but also want to study it, and get close enough to see the stitches. Christina Kastell, curator of history and anthropology at the Putnam Museum and Science Center in Davenport, says the facility has a storage warehouse filled with compelling textiles and garments spanning many decades.
“What you get to see is pieces from our collection. People get a chance to get up close and personal. I’m getting the white gloves out so people can actually look at the construction of how these costumes — or clothing — are made,” Kastell says. “In museums, we call what you would call fashion or clothing — a costume.” In addition to the viewings, there will be what Kastell bills as “collection conversations” as well as “couture sessions” with conservators who can address how history, craftsmanship, and contemporary aesthetics collide.
“We’ll be getting together with like-minded people, so we’ll be having a lot of conversations and programs about what people are going to see,” Kastell says. “For example, the first one that we’re going to be doing will feature wedding dresses. Hey, it’s June. What better than wedding dresses? I’ll be giving a program on the history of wedding traditions.”
That first program, “Behind the Veil,” will focus on wedding dresses and trousseau pieces on Thursday (June 25th), with new programs planned every other month. In her two dozen years with the museum, Kastell says she’s been striving to get more “working clothing” from both men and women for the collection. “The tattered old work clothing isn’t the type of thing that you would think that a museum would want, but yes, we do want that,” Kastell says, laughing. “We own thousands of costume pieces, hats, shoes, purses, stockings, handkerchiefs, dresses, pants, shirts, children’s clothing, everything.”
A majority of the pieces are from women, as Kastell says women tend to be more sentimental about their clothes and generally have more garments than men. While some of the pieces in the collection are from well-known figures, like a former Hawkeye basketball star with Quad Cities roots, other items may be from your next-door neighbor. “We try to collect from local celebrities. For example, we’ve got Acie Earl’s tennis shoes, but we also want the clothing of regular people,” Kastell says. “Everybody has a story and the Putnam wants to hear those stories and we want to be able to tell those stories.”
Learn more about the club and how to join here: https://www.putnam.org/collection-couture-club/
