Cover illustration: Detail of a pleated silk Delphos gown by Mariano Fortuny, circa 1920 - 1930, as featured in the 2014 to 2015 exhibition Fashion
Statements. M.2013.121. Photograph by John Chase.
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In a change to previous formats, which covered a calendar year, the
Annual Report now encompasses the financial year from April to the following March.
In an exciting and busy year, 2014/15 has seen the profile of the Olive
Matthews Collection raised significantly, both locally and nationally. There has been a considerable increase in outreach and in-house interpretation for groups, with more people than ever experiencing the collection through talks and other special events. Awareness and recognition of the collection has also been increased through important loans to prestigious national organisations. In addition, the Trust have continued to invest in new purchases and received notable donations. A number of important pieces have been added to the collection; filling in gaps relating to earlier periods and adding contemporary or near contemporary items to bring the collection up to date.
 The on-going conservation programme continued with many pieces benefiting during the year. The exhibition Fashion Statements was the impetus for garments to receive treatment. Due to the wide time period encompassed by the display (1780s to 1980s), conservation challenges were many and varied. They ranged from cleaning the delicate ribbed silk of a 1780s frock coat to repairing tiny scattered holes in our Fortuny
Delphos gown and addressing the conservation and mounting needs of a dress featuring the enormous puffed sleeves typical of the 1830s.
 A large number of new acquisitions and images have continued to be added to the Admuse database (see details below).
 172 items have been formally accessioned into the collection during
2014/15. Many of these have been fashion plates, a large group of which were transferred to the Olive Matthews Collection from the
Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester. Kerry Agar-Hynd continues to work on this project, which is not yet complete. The total number comes to
351. Another large group relates to the retrospective accessioning of other printed ephemera which had previously been used for reference only. It was felt that, since some of the items are potentially very useful for researchers, they should be properly accessioned into the collection.
The pieces are now fully documented, labelled, photographed, stored safely and added to our digital database so that they are easily
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accessible to curators and researchers alike. Garments accessioned included a black cocktail dress by Alexander
McQueen, a pair of starched calico sleeve puffers and a dinner gown by
Agnes-Drecoll.
A rare pair of starched calico sleeve puffers, circa 1830. Designed to be worn under evening dresses to support wide sleeves.
M.2014.273a+b. Photograph by John Chase.
Couture dinner gown by Agnes-Drecoll. It is made from silk crêpe and silk chiffon with applied crêpe and sequin decoration. Circa 1940. M.2014.272.
Photograph by John Chase.
 John Chase, our longstanding freelance photographer, has completed two photography sessions this year - one focused on fashion plates for future publication and the other on exhibits for the Fashion
Statements exhibition. He was once again able to produce stunning shots of a large number of mounted and conserved items with particularly eye-catching close-ups which reveal the intricacy and beauty of the items in all their glory. His work continues to benefit the collection enormously. He composes and lights each photograph meticulously so that the garments are seen to their best advantage. The images are used for publications, talks, online resources and publicity for exhibitions.
Detail of child’s dress of cream wool with embroidery and smocking. Circa 1884.
M.1994.2. Photograph by John Chase
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Day dress of printed cotton with flounced skirt. Circa 1847, MT.2028.
Photograph by John Chase

 The Olive Matthews Trust has made significant investment in the collection during the 2014/15 period. The Kerry Taylor
‘Passion for Fashion’ sale on the 25th June resulted in the purchase of an important group of garments. These were a velvet stole by Maria Gallenga, c.1920, an evening ensemble by Molyneux, c.1938, a
Madame Grès draped silk evening gown, c.1945, a Schiaparelli evening coat, c.1952, a Sylvia Ayton/Zandra Rhodes dress, c.1966 and a Jean Paul Gaultier corset dress from c.1989. A further Kerry
Taylor sale in October allowed the Trust to acquire a 1966 black mini dress by André
Courrèges, and the
December ‘Passion for Fashion’ auction
Corset dress by Jean Paul Gaultier,
Circa1989. M.2015.005. Photograph by
John Chase brought further valuable additions in the shape of a rare pair of salmon pink knitted stockings, c.1750
One of a pair of hand embroidered hanging pockets, circa1710 - 1740. M.2014.241a+b.
Andrews. A mixture of contemporary collecting and filling gaps as identified in our Collecting
Policy, each carefully selected item adds its own unique qualities, whilst simultaneously building the strength of the collection as a whole.
- 70, a Jean-Louis Scherrer evening gown, 1980s, a
Comme des Gar ç ons ensemble and Yamamoto dress, both from the 1980s and an Alexander
McQueen printed satin suit from 2009. An extremely rare and important pair of hanging pockets from the first half of the 18th century were also purchased from costume dealer Meg
Detail of hand worked embroidery on an
18th century sack back gown.
The collection has received a total of 19 donations during 2014/15. These have included evening gowns from the 1920s and ‘30s, three pairs of gloves from the
1950s and ‘60s and a Mary Quant ribbon choker. Most notable was a group which consisted of an 1850s wedding dress with evening and day bodice and an important hand embroidered 18th century sack back gown of deep red silk.
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 The Olive Matthews Collection lent some of its most important items to two prestigious exhibitions during 2014/15. The 1780 Jane Bailey wedding ensemble was exhibited in the opening case of the
V&A Wedding Dresses exhibition. This display was up for a year and visited by over 300,000 people.
The record-breaking popularity of the exhibition and the prominence of our items cannot have failed to increase awareness of the collection. One of our 1730s embroidered stomachers (MT.1319) has been displayed at Kensington Palace as part of the Historic Royal Palaces ‘Glorious Georges’ displays. Again lent for a year, it will shortly be replaced by our other 1730s stomacher (MT.1314).
In addition to raising awareness of our collection, these loans are testament to the fact that national
Hand embroidered stomacher, circa 1730. MT.1319. Photograph by John Chase. institutions now recognise the Olive Matthews
Collection for its quality and historical value.
 The Farewell to All That Edwardian fashion exhibition remained in place until Saturday 30th August 2014. A popular and visually appealing exhibition, it chimed well with the centenary of the start of the Great
War and complemented the in-depth and locally focussed First World
War exhibition in the Discovery Zone on the first floor of the Museum. The associated catalogue was a big success; selling out its original print run.
 Fashion Statements opened on the 17th
September 2014. The three themes of Romantic,
Outrageous and Classic fashion allowed for the selection of unusual and varied pieces dating from the 1780s to the 1980s. This colourful display, which stimulates discussion and challenges visitors’ preconceptions, is designed to appeal to a
General view of the Fashion Statements exhibition.
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wide cross-section of viewers, including school and college groups, as well as more general interest visitors. Many of the pieces have never been displayed before, and star items recently acquired are included, such as the Mariano
Fortuny Delphos gown, the Jean Paul Gaultier corset dress and the late 18th century man’s cream silk frock coat. Other pieces long held in the collection are seen in a new light, for example the rose pink and acid yellow man’s court suit; seen here in the context of its outrageous colour combination.
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Detail image of silk court suit showing unusual colour combination, Circa 1780.
MT.4831. Photograph by John
Chase. From April 2014 to the end of March 2015, a total of 560 people gained special access to the collection through general enquiries (297), individual visits to the reserve collection (21), group visits
& talks (242). It is helpful to give the results for the same period during
2013/14 for purposes of comparison. The equivalent results were as follows: 419 people gained special access to the collection. These divide into: general enquiries - 271, individual visits to the reserve collection - 19, group visits & outreach talks - 129. During 2014/15 there has been a 34% increase on the previous year overall, with the biggest gain coming from talks to groups which rose by a massive 88%. This considerable increase is due to a larger than normal level of requests for talks and may not be sustainable in the long term, but it certainly shows how word about the collection has continued to grow. Many of the groups hailed from the local area, but we also hosted students from
London colleges and other groups from across the country. Our ability to respond quickly to enquiries and requests; carefully tailoring visits to specific requirements, means that we are often favoured over the larger London collections and receive much positive feedback.
 Sally Turner, Education Officer, was away on maternity leave during the
2014/15 period. Her job share Heidi Dawley stepped up to work full time.
The Education Department has continued to be able to make use of the fashion displays in their visits for school children, especially the
‘Clothes in the Past’ session, which was chosen by a number of primary schools. The Farewell to All That Edwardian and pre First World War display helped school children to understand what life was like before the Great War. The Fashion Statements exhibition has been useful for
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sessions which have incorporated work on colour, pattern and materials as well as different fashionable silhouettes. The dressing up elements included in both exhibitions have also been greatly enjoyed by school groups. During informal art and craft activities children have also used the fashion displays as inspiration. A-level and GCSE students have continued
 to make regular independent visits to the fashion galleries, using the pieces displayed as starting points for special research projects.
Dressing spoons art and craft activity, August
2014.
Central St Martins Fashion History and Theory students came for a talk on
19th century dress and the history of the collection, as well as a tour of the galleries and a chance to view reserve collection pieces. Students from Morley College in South London came with their tutor Brigid
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Strowbridge, long-term friend of the Museum, and Wimbledon College of Art also visited. Many other students in tertiary education have also come independently to see pieces.
During May Grace Evans made her speaking debut with the Women’s
Institute. She spoke to 60 members at the Ottershaw Night-owls branch on the subject of our 1930s debutante’s ensemble, taking the actual
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WI talks.
May also saw the Marion Socular needlework tour group visit the
Museum and see items from the reserve collections, including needlework tools and embroidery.
A church group from Egham enjoyed seeing collections items from various periods.
A combined visit from the Costume Society and the Textile Society consisted of a packed study day of papers and object analysis and proved a great success.
June was also extremely busy, with visits from St Paul’s Church wives’ group, a visit from the Strawberry Hill House sewing bee (who saw items relating to 18th century embroidery and their Joshua Reynolds portrait entitled ‘The Ladies of Waldegrave’). This month also saw the History
Wardrobe return with two talks on Great War fashion, which linked to the fashion exhibition Farewell to All That.
A regional meeting of the British Association of Friends of Museums was held at the Museum in July and incorporated a talk about the Olive
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Matthews collection. A two page report of the meeting subsequently appeared in the
Association's newsletter.
Chertsey’s St Peter’s Church Ladies’ group visited for a talk and access to a range of items from the reserve collections in October. This month also saw the visit from Wimbledon College of Art (viewing
18th century garments).
The London Dressmaker’s Club came in November and saw a range of pieces and fashion plates dating from the early 20th century to the 1960s.
February 2015 saw Central St Martin’s college students come to view 19th century pieces.
The annual visit of the Chertsey Society also took place in February 2015, and members were given a tour of the fashion galleries.
In March Brigid Strowbridge brought historical fashion construction students from Morley College in South London. They saw corsets and items contemporary to them.
Lucy Adlington of the History
Wardrobe dressed for her
’Great War Fashion’ talk.
The Museum’s regular ‘Fun with Fabric’ group, which consists of guided sessions to help adults explore stitching and embroidery techniques, carried on throughout 2014/15. They used pieces from the collection to fire
Work carried out during ‘Fun with Fabric’. their imaginations for their own designs.
 The Friends of Chertsey
Museum made a very successful trip to the Victoria and Albert
Museum to see the Wedding
Dresses exhibition. The visit included a talk from Grace
Evans about the 18th century wedding ensemble which we had lent for the display, and a talk from Edwina Ehrman, curator of the exhibition.
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Barbara Prowle - long-term fashion volunteer - continued to provide valuable help with day-to-day collections care projects as well as making underpinnings for the fashion exhibition.
Jane Nash was able to assist with projects associated with mounting garments for display and photography during much of 2014/15. Jane continues to work on small projects linked to the dress collection.
Kaye East, who also assists with local history projects at the Museum, has
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 worked making underpinnings and carried out accessioning for the
Olive Matthews Collection.
Judith Norman has added countless dress-related records to Admuse, allowing us to keep on top of accessioning targets.
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The Discovery Zone on the First floor began our period with a display about shops in the borough of Runnymede. It featured wonderful objects from the local history collections and a large number of historic photographs.
This was followed by Runnymede Remembered - which explores the First
World War and its impact on the local community in Runnymede. This display represents the culmination of a huge amount of in-depth research on the part of Emma Warren, Curator. It includes important loaned objects such as an original Vickers machine gun from the conflict, items associated with the home front and artefacts brought home from the trenches. These complement items from the Museum’s own collection. Each member of the borough who lost their life in the
Great War is remembered and included in a ‘Book of Remembrance’.
Their names are also written on individual poppies suspended from the ceiling. A computer touch screen allows visitors to search war-related photographs and articles from the local newspaper, the Surrey Herald, which were published between 1914-18.
The Temporary exhibition gallery hosted a range of displays including a touring exhibition on the History of Food, and a display of artworks from pupils of Sir William Perkins’ school in Chertsey. February saw the opening of a major exhibition to mark the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta - an anniversary which has seen worldwide commemorations. Our role as the museum for the borough of
Runnymede meant that this was an important and high-profile exhibition. The display looks at the charter in terms of its history, but also its relevance today as interpreted by a series of high-profile individuals and representatives of human rights groups.
Their interviews are shown on TV screens in the gallery. As well as our own objects, a number of loans have been incorporated, including a near-perfect facsimile of the British Library-owned
Part of the 2015 Magna Carta exhibition.
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 copy of the Magna Carta. A number of events linked to the exhibition are due to take place during the course of 2015, and the Indian High
Commissioner, who features in the exhibition, will visit the Museum and the memorials at Runnymede during June.
The Museum has many regular planned events. These include ‘15 minutes of Fun’ - a themed drop-in craft activity for children, ‘Museum
Monkeys’ which is aimed at pre-school children, and the ‘Dementia
Café’; a drop-in event which allows dementia sufferers and their carers to access the Education handling collection. The Young Archaeologists’
Club is also thriving with visits to places of interest and events at the
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Museum. ‘Fun with Fabric’, an adult education group runs on a monthly basis.
The ‘Chertsey Museum App’ - a Smartphone application - has been updated with new content. It has proved popular and we are currently looking to extend its use into the Museum galleries themselves.
 Our new website has been well received. It is much more user-friendly and visually appealing. The site includes text and images from previous exhibitions, including those in the Fashion Gallery, and the searchable database of collections is now partially up and running, though further work is being done to add images from the fashion collection. It is now possible to order books from the website.
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Work is now well underway for our next exhibition: Fifty Years of Fashion.
The display is designed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the opening of Chertsey Museum and will feature garments from the 1960s to the 2000s. A number of newly acquired items will be featured, including the black André Courrèges mini dress, a Yamamoto dress, our
1980s evening gown by Jean-Louis Scherrer, and two Alexander
McQueen pieces. It promises to be a very popular display, allowing visitors to reminisce about their own fashion memories and explore five decades of important and high-fashion garments.
The next display in the Museum’s ‘Discovery Zone’ will be 50 Favourite
Objects - an exhibition to celebrate 50 years of the Chertsey Museum .
To celebrate the Golden anniversary of the Museum, a reception will be held in November 2015.
The Temporary Exhibition Gallery will again see a wide variety of local and more general thematic displays. These will include a display about local landmark St Ann’s Hill.
Following the success of the Olive Matthews Collection’s loan of an 18th century stomacher to Historic Royal Palaces for their Glorious Georges displays, the original stomacher has now been replaced with our other early 18th century stomacher, which forms a focal point for a case exploring dress accessories. The display is in the King’s Apartments,
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Dress, circa 1966 by Sylvia Ayton and Zandra
Rhodes, M.2014.276, alongside a copy of Sylvia’s original sketch. Photo of dress © Kerry Taylor
Auctions.
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Kensington Palace and the loan is due to come to an end in April 2016.
We have a number of fashion groups visiting the Museum this year.
Central St Martins are due to return as well as Wimbledon College of Art and various local societies. Costumiers from the Swedish Royal Opera
House are visiting with Ian Chipperfield, the Staymaker, during June.
Grace Evans is speaking about the Fashion Statements exhibition to another Ottershaw WI group and is booked to a give talk about the
Olive Matthews Collection at the Weald and Downland open air
Museum for their Historic Clothing Day. She is also speaking at the Dress and Textile Specialists conference in November.
A number of other events associated with the fashion collection are also taking place. These include a talk by Sylvia Ayton on her work during the 1960s, highlighting her design for the Ayton/Rhodes dress recently acquired by the collection (see above).
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