About The late Mrs. Betty Penny MBE founded the Blandford Fashion museum, located in Lime Tree House, in 1996. The house is a beautiful Georgian property in Blandford Forum, built by John and William Bastard after the town’s Great Fire in 1731. Mrs. Penny’s collection of costumes, known locally as the Cavalcade of Costume, form the nucleus of the present collection. However, since then the collection has almost trebled in size and continues to grow thanks to generous donations from the public. In 2024, thanks to Dorset Council for the Culture and Community Project Fund we were able to initiate Stage 1 of our digitisation project, which has enabled us to digitally record all of the paperwork and photography associated with the Cavalcade of Costume. We are looking at a way at making this available through our website but for now, if you are interested in studying this wealth of information please email collections@blandfordfashionmuseum.co.uk . The Arts Council gave the museum accredited status in 2010, and renewed it in 2015. We receive a small grant from the Town Council, but no other public funding. As a result, we have a few paid members of staff and an invaluable team of volunteers. We have a reputation locally for our friendly atmosphere. We have thirteen display spaces over two floors, and there is a rolling programme of exhibition changes. Our exhibitions showcase historic dress and textiles and the connection between fashion and social history. Additional facilities include a Resources Room for use by students studying fashion & textiles and a Lecture Room for study days.

The History of Theatre Costume This talk by Dr Helen Walter looks at some of the crazier moments in Theatre costume and reminds us ' anything goes' In an age where Wuthering Heights and Bridgerton are making headlines for breaking all sorts of rules when it comes to Theatre Costume, are they really as outlandish as they seem? Explore with us some of the craziest moments in the history of Theatre costume. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-history-of-theatre-costume-tickets-1986898698493?aff=ebdsoporgprofile#location

Easter decorations Get ready to crack open your creativity and whip up some cool Easter decorations with us! Join us at the Blandford Fashion Museum on April 2, 2026 at 10:30 AM for a fun, hands-on event where you can create your own Easter decorations! Don’t miss out on making your space extra special this Easter! We will stitch an easy pattern onto wooden eggs and make a window decoration. All materials are supplied. A drink and a biscuit are included in the price and you can also look around the Fashion Museum, if you wish. All children must be accompanied by a parent/carer. This workshop must have 4 attendees to run, so invite your friends to join you. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/easter-decorations-tickets-1984771603294?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

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Donation To Support Our Work We love sharing and celebrating fashion history with you, but we are only a small museum, staffed mostly by volunteers. We work hard to keep our prices low, but if you can give more please consider a monetary donation. Your donation would go towards a range of vital costs we have to keep the museum running, from heating and dehumidifying our rooms so we can provide the correct environment for our historic textiles, to emergency repair works (this year we have had to contend with a leaking roof, a broken dishwasher in our tearoom and issues with our boiler). It could also help us to afford to keep running events by contributing to the payment of equipment, guests and staff as well as subsiding the prices for our family focused workshops. We are a charity, as well as one of the only fashion focused museums in the UK. If you can, please consider donating today. Thank you. If you would like to make a monetary donation please follow this link: https://fashion-museum-blandford.arttickets.org.uk/donate Charity Number (Cavalcade of Costume Ltd): 1052471 Contact us at collections@blandfordfashionmuseum.co.uk Our donations page is hosted by the Art Fund SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER Enter your email here...* Yes, subscribe me to your newsletter. * Subscribe

Step out in Style this Spring! Have some eggs-tra special fun at our workshop and decorate an Easter hat to wear at all your Easter activities. We will be decorating an Easter hat with chicks, bunnies, flowers and stickers. All materials are supplied. A drink and a biscuit are also included in the price, as is a look around the Museum, if you wish. All children must be accompanied by a parent/carer. This workshop must have at least 4 attendees to run. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/step-out-in-style-this-spring-tickets-1984761806993?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

'Power Dressing' February 2025 - November 2026 Power Dressing: 1770-1990 Fashion and textiles have long been signifiers of power and wealth. Throughout the ages, the colour and fabric of garments communicated the status of the wearer. Certain fabrics and colours have even been banned for lower classes. The style of a garment can enable the wearer to create a statement and take up space. The production of textiles has the power to create fortunes and destabilise entire economies. This exhibition is split into two rooms. The Powerful Silhouette focuses on how emphasis on shoulders in women's wear can create a commanding figure, from the shoulder pads of the 1980s to Romantic leg-of-mutton sleeves of the 1820s. Power & Textiles examines the cultural and economic significance of certain fabrics through time, from sumptuary laws and velvet to paisley shawls and The British Empire. See handout for more information.

Donations / Acquisitions Due to storage issues, we have to be very strict on accepting donations and making acquisitions. If you would like to donate items to the Blandford Fashion Museum please email photographs and any relevant information to collections@blandfordfashionmuseum.co.uk The donations will then be considered by our display team, before going through the acquisition panel, where the collections' manager and a group of trustees will decide if we accept the item. This process can take a few months. We are lucky that we receive a lot of offers of donations, but to process them takes time. If your item is accepted, we will arrange the relevant paperwork and set a date to deposit the item.Please note, as we are a fashion museum we only take items relating to costume and fashionable dress. We do not currently accept other textiles (such as quilts, tapestries etc) or social history items (such as dolls). We currently do not have the budget to purchase any items for the collection. Items accepted may be taken into our main collection, our education collection or be used for set dressing, but we will discuss these options with you more thoroughly depending on what we think is best for the item. Please do not deposit or post any donations to the museum without prior confirmation that we will accept the item. Doing this may result in disposal. Thank you for considering donating to us.

Get egg-cited and make some Easter chicks and Easter baskets! Join us at the Blandford Fashion Museum on April 2, 2026 at 1:30 PM for a fun, hands-on Easter craft session! We'll be making cute Easter chicks and colorful Easter baskets—perfect for celebrating the season. Don’t miss out on this egg-cellent event! All materials are supplied. Children must be accompanied by a parent/carer. A drink and a biscuit are included in the price and you may also look around the Fashion Museum if you wish. This workshop must have 4 attendees to run. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/get-egg-cited-and-make-some-easter-chicks-and-easter-baskets-tickets-1984769484958?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

Clean and Occasionally Decent - Personal Hygiene Across the Ages Anya Glinski presents an illustrated talk about the quirky world of hygiene through history and see how we all got so fresh! Join us in person for a fun dive into how folks kept clean (or tried to) through the ages! From ancient baths to modern showers, discover the quirky, weird, and sometimes downright funny history of personal hygiene. It's an event for anyone curious about where our grooming habits come from and how they've evolved. Join us and ready for some unexpected stories about staying clean! https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/clean-and-occasionally-decent-personal-hygiene-across-the-ages-tickets-1984876081792?aff=ebdsoporgprofile