Fashion Museum Antwerp presents "Living Fashion" with Women's Daily Wear 1750-1950 from the Jacoba de Jonge collection

Based on historic dresses and accessories, the exhibition sketches a picture of the relationship between fashion ideals and the clothing that was actually worn, with an eye to the timeless desire to achieve a fashionable appearance in one's clothing, regardless of function. The exhibition also looks into the construction of such fashionable apparel and the consequences this had in posture and behaviour, as well as altering or adapting clothing to suit new trends.

The exhibition illustrates this story with 90 silhouettes, complete with accessories from the extensive his- toric clothing collection of the Dutch collector, Jacoba de Jonge.

Jacoba De Jonge

Jacoba de Jonge studied law in Leiden, but had been interested in the history of clothing and apparel from  a young age. At the age of 16, she began collecting historic costumes, beginning with an heirloom from her  great aunt. In 1965, she spent a year working at the Netherlands Costume Museum in the Hague.    Her collection now offers an overview of fashion developments from about 1770 until 1950, including  some 2500 objects.
Jacoba de Jonge has always made her collection widely available to the public, through  lectures, presentations, courses and receiving visitors. She worked as a volunteer on costume exhibitions at  various museums and was the 1994 recipient of the ‘Silver Carnation’. From 1970 to 1980, she was on the  Board of Directors of the Netherlands Folk Costume Foundation’s Queen Wilhelmina Collection. In 1980, she  helped found the Netherlands Costume Association for Fashion and Regional Costume, which she chaired  until 1995.  
In addition to loans, her collection has inspired several exhibitions, at Markiezenhof (2000), Huis Bergh  (2003) and the Hasselt Fashion Museum (2007), among others. The Jacoba de Jonge collection now becomes part of the permanent collection of the Fashion Museum in Antwerp. This exhibition is a selection  from this outstanding collection.