The exhibition MODE * CHAPEAU: Two special private collections unveiled in the Centraal Museum in Utrecht will open on May 9, 2024. From Jeanne Lanvin, Elsa Schiaparelli and Maria Monaci Gallenga to Christian Dior and Paul Poiret: eye-catching designs from these well-known and partly bygone fashion houses can be seen together for the first time at the Centraal Museum in a unique exhibition.
These largely hidden treasures come from two special private collections: Hans van Emmerik and the late Tiny Meihuizen-Wijker are both Utrecht ‘collectioneurs’ (collectors) with an impressive collection of couture, hats and accessories, including from the roaring twenties.
Ninke Bloemberg, fashion curator at Centraal Museum: ‘Collecting fashion is an art in itself: putting together a collection requires time, knowledge, passion, a good eye and a bit of luck. In MODE * CHAPEAU, highlights from two top-quality private collections come together for the first time, supplemented with special objects from our own collection and a digital fitting experience.’
Fashion
Hans van Emmerik (1952) is a ‘collector’ of fashion, accessories and fabrics, specialized in couture from the period 1900-1950. With more than 300 items of clothing, he owns the largest private collection in this field in the Netherlands. MODE * CHAPEAU features more than seventy dresses, coats and objects from his carefully curated collection.
The exhibition shows evening dresses from the dazzling 1920s and elegant gowns from the 1930s. There are masterpieces from Lanvin and Schiaparelli, among others, but also couture from lesser-known fashion houses. MODE * CHAPEAU also shows the stories of mainly female makers who are less familiar to the general public, such as Maria Monaci Gallenga, Callot Soeurs, founded by four sisters, and Jenny – one of the leading French couturiers in the last century.
The exhibition also focuses on the art of collecting: Van Emmerik put together his collection from the legacies of chic ladies, but also bought many fashion items at markets in Paris or in antique shops in the Netherlands. Part of his collection was previously on display at the Centraal Museum in the exhibition Crêpe and Beads (1980) and in Couture (1999) at the Rijksmuseum.
Cheers
Tiny Meihuizen-Wijker (1944-2014) is the founder of the Dutch Hat Museum Gossip & Whispering in Utrecht, which closed in 2009. Her private collection includes more than twelve hundred headgear: from refined pot hats from the 1920s to turbans by Dior and designs by Schiaparelli. MODE * CHAPEAU features more than fifty hats from Meihuizen-Wijker’s collection.
The most striking examples are her hats with flowers and bird feathers – a real rage at the beginning of the 20th century. Not only the feathers of hummingbirds, pheasants and birds of paradise were used: some ladies’ hats even featured completely stuffed birds. In the 1950s and 1960s, some hats consisted almost entirely of flowers. A very labor-intensive job: most flowers were put together by hand and are almost indistinguishable from the real thing.
Fashion Central
A small selection has been made especially for MODE * CHAPEAU from the museum’s own fashion collection, including Junya Watanabe and Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh for Nina Ricci.
Get your Head in History
As part of MODE * CHAPEAU, visitors can try on 3D scanned hats from different time periods. In collaboration with Europeana Fashion and Modemuze, a digital full-length mirror has been developed with which you can not only ‘try on’ the hats in the museum – they can also be opened with your own phone via social media.
The floor
On the second floor of the Collection Building, the Centraal Museum presents De Verdieping, for which the museum has invited artists, designers and collectors to present their own work in relation to their choice from the museum collection. MODE * CHAPEAU is the second exhibition in this series. Anna Aagaard Jensen’s solo exhibition will follow in October 2024.
Collection Central
Since December 2023, for the first time in almost fifty years, fashion has had a permanent place in the collection presentation of the Centraal Museum – unique in the Netherlands. The route of the permanent collection begins in the Middle Ages and ends in the present, with each room linked to a theme. Spread across the halls you can see fashion from different time periods and in different styles: from Klavers van Engelen, Iris van Herpen and Viktor&Rolf, to Duran Lantink, Das Leben am Haverkamp and No Limits Art Castle! A digital catwalk from Studio PMS can also be seen in the DRESSCODE fashion hall. Spectacular new acquisitions will also be shown from June.
MODE * CHAPEAU can be seen from May 9 to September 29, 2024 at De Verdieping in the Centraal Museum in Utrecht. The exhibition was designed by Tatyana van Walsum.
