A new chapter for the Devonshire Collection of Period Costume
The Devonshire Collection of Period Costume is one of the largest private collections of its type in the UK. It holds tens of thousands of objects and items of clothing, the earliest from about 1650, although most date from the 18th century to the present day. Our hat collection alone consists of more than a hundred storage boxes, each holding multiple examples, and we have eight boxes simply storing shawls. There are legions of accessories, handbags and shoes, and clothes ranging from the sumptuous to the everyday.
From 2025, after 38 years, Bogan House will no longer be available for the annual Totnes Fashion and Textiles Museum exhibitions. No other viable locations in the Totnes area could be found, but we are happy to announce that the University of Falmouth's Institute of Fashion and Textiles has undertaken to house the entire collection for the next five years, preserving its legacy and ensuring continued public access through both physical and virtual displays. This partnership not only keeps the collection intact but also allows the University to develop new courses in the history of costume and textiles. The trustees are excited about this new phase and the potential it offers for the collection’s future, while the public can continue to enjoy its history and contributions to fashion.
Thank you to everyone who has visited and supported us and our annual summer exhibitions since 1974
Watch this website for further information.
Statement from the Chair of Trustees
For 38 years the Devonshire Collection of Period Costume, known more recently as the Totnes Fashion and Textiles Museum, has leased parts of Bogan House, the Grade I listed building in Totnes High Street. A year ago its owners, the DW Mitchell Trust, informed us that they would need to sell the building to recoup some of the expense of its six-year restoration, and that our lease at Bogan House would therefore expire on the 25th March 2025. The trustees of the Collection decided that the best option to keep the Collection together was relocation.
Because of the delicate nature of a collection of costumes and accessories, there were serious constraints imposed on a choice of site by the very special conservation needs of the Collection and the time and the cost to prepare a bespoke space. Attempts were made to try to keep the Collection in Totnes or the surrounding area if possible and we spent three months looking at twelve different options, but all of these failed at least one of our criteria: sustainability, time and cost.
We were then contacted by the Institute of Fashion and Textiles of the University of Falmouth which has courses in fashion design, fashion photography, textile design, and costume design for film and television. It has its own collection mainly focused on twentieth century and contemporary costume and textiles.
We have now agreed to loan the whole of our Collection to the University for five years and to create a new trust — still called the Devonshire Collection of Period Costume — with Julia Fox and Kate Strasdin as two of the first trustees. The agreement includes a responsibility on the new trust to ensure that the Collection is properly stored and handled and made available to the public by physical and virtual means.
The University is delighted by the opportunities and prestige this move will bring to them. They are designing new courses in the history of costume and textiles at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. The present trustees are also delighted that the Collection will stay together. It will continue to celebrate the work of our founders, Peter Clapham, Paula and Annette Morel, of Julia Fox and our volunteers, and the generosity for the last thirty-seven years of the DW Mitchell Trust. From 2025 the Collection will enter a new era of appreciation.
We understand that this decision may be a disappointment to many of our worldwide friends who have delighted in our summer exhibitions. Thank you for your supportive comments on the quality of the Collection and the knowledge and skill of our volunteers in presenting it to you.
We intend to keep our website going for a while so that you can be aware of what is happening and how you can continue to delight in the Collection as it develops.
Roger Tilbury
Chair, Devonshire Collection of Period Costume