Collecting fashion is an art unto itself. Compiling a collection requires time, knowledge, passion, a keen eye, and a bit of luck. This double bill presents iconic items from two remarkable private collections formed in Utrecht. 

‘A celebration of fifty years of dazzling couture.' - Hans van Emmerik (collector)

From a young age on, Van Emmerik would admire the clothing worn on family photographs, particularly by his grandmother. She also happened to have a studio for children’s clothing, housed on an 18^th century estate on the outskirts of Utrecht, at Oosterkade/Helling 1. She also gave him bits of left-over fabric. It all sparked a profound fascination for fashion, and Van Emmerik became a passionate collector of fashion from the first half of the twentieth century. He now owns the country’s largest private collection of fashion from this era, with more than 300 dresses worn by affluent ladies in that period. The items range from spectacular evening gowns decorated with sequins to couture made of rustling silk.

‘There’s a hat for every head.’ - Tiny Meihuizen-Wijker (collector)

Until 2009, the museum of hats and collector’s shop Gossip & Whispering could be found at just a stone’s throw from Centraal Museum. As a young girl, founder Tiny Meihuizen-Wijker took a fancy to the hats that ladies wore to church. She admired the exuberant designs, striking colours and remarkable details. The most eccentric hats were sure to spark all sorts of gossip and whispering – hence the name of her later establishment. To wear a hat is to make a statement. Her collection eventually grew to over 1200 hats, ranging from dainty bucket hats from the 1920s to extravagant models sporting flowers and bird feathers.

Centraal Museum is now offering the public the first-ever opportunity to admire these remarkable collections, which have otherwise remained largely hidden from view.

Digital mirror

How would it look on you, the felt Buffalo hat once worn by Vivienne Westwood (1941-2022), or a green bucket hat from the 1920s? Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to actually wear the fashion items kept in museum collections, because of the fragility of the textile. But we’ve teamed up with Europeana Fashion and Modemuze, and thanks to innovative technologies such as 3D scans and 360 degree photography, you can still try out different hats. So go on… give it a go!

Another Story

Another Story is a new concept housed on the second floor of the museum. Here we invite artists, or in this case collectors, to respond to the museum with their own work.

Collection Centraal – DRESSCODE

For the first time since 1978, and as the only such instance in the Netherlands, fashion again has a permanent place in a museum. The route for the new permanent exhibition starts in the Middle Ages and ends with today, with each room along the way dedicated to a specific theme. You can encounter fashion from different time periods in several of the rooms, by makers including Klavers van Engelen, Iris van Herpen, Viktor & Rolf, Duran Lantink, Das Leben am Haverkamp, Virgil Abloh and No Limits! Art Castle. The DRESSCODE room is entirely devoted to fashion and forms an exhibition within the exhibition, where the codes of fashion are revealed and unravelled: from the symbolism of red shoes to a design by fashion house Worth, known as the ‘inventor’ of labels and hence of label mania. The fashion pieces exhibited here change every six months, to preserve the fragile fabrics.