All Dressed Up Exhibition – Borders Textile Towerhouse

This exhibition showcases a selection of outfits from Hawick Museum’s collection, all with a local connection, and many of which are on display at Borders Textile Towerhouse for the first time.

The costume spans over 100 years, the oldest piece being a striking Victorian dress that would have been worn with a bustle.  In contrast, a beaded flapper-style dress on show was so daring in the 1920s that the young lady who bought it had to take the dress to dances in a bag and change once she got there, as her father disapproved of her wearing it!

Locally made outfits include luxurious cashmere knitwear and fine tweed coats, while other costume is homemade, such as an elegant pink 1930s wedding dress and a handknitted girl’s blazer and skirt.

The exhibition also features design sketches by the London fashion house W & O Marcus Ltd, which opened a factory in Hawick in 1940, and fashion drawings by Alastair Michie who worked for Braemar Knitwear in Hawick for many years.