Assembly Rooms and Fashion Museum

Thursday afternoon, I once again took advantage of the location of my placement and an hour-long lunch break and paid a visit to the Bath Assembly Rooms. Inside I found the Ballroom, Tea Room, and Card Room (now the Cafe), all connected by the Great Octagon. When they were originally opened (c. 1771), they were used for "assemblies" or evening social events consisting of music and dancing, tea-drinking, and card-playing. The main rooms have all been restored to their original Georgian magnificence, with brightly colored walls and beautiful chandeliers...and they can be rented out for concerts, weddings, conferences, exhibitions, or whatever! How fun would that be?

Ballroom

Tea Room

Great Octagon

Card Room

In the downstairs of the Assembly Rooms is the Fashion Museum. Nathan and I paid a visit a while back, but it seems that I forgot to post pictures! This is apparently one of the country's largest and most comprehensive collections of contemporary and historical dress. The first exhibit is the "Dress of the Year" collection which includes an outfit which best represents the most important new ideas in fashion for every year since 1963. As you can imagine, this includes some very...interesting...pieces...

After the Dress of the Year exhibit was a small collection of corsets and other undergarments from the 18th and 19th centuries. They even had corsets and crinolines to try on...and you'd better believe I did! Unfortunately they weren't very realistic (we're talking lifejacket-style clips to fasten the corset on), but it was fun! If you look closely in the picture of me below, you'll see a little British woman who walked by and said to her friend, "I don't think you're supposed to wear a hoodie under that..."

I particularly enjoyed the dresses from the Georgian and Victorian eras, like those shown below. I think I was meant to live in those days!

The Fashion Museum also has an extensive collection of accessories, including gloves, shoes, hats, and bags...

Although I wouldn't consider myself particularly "into" fashion, this was definitely a fun place to walk around...it's so interesting to see how quickly and drastically styles change!