Fashion History Museum is a museum in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, which chronicles the history of fashion. It was founded in 2004 by Jonathan Walford and Kenn Norman. The museum is a non-profit charitable organization.

History

Founders

Prior to founding the Fashion History Museum, Jonathan Walford had been the founding curator of the Bata Shoe Museum. Walford has been collecting historical fashions since the 1970s, finding pieces from auction houses, garage sales, and even rescuing some items from the trash. He has also written several books on fashion. Walford is currently the museum's Director/Curator. The museum's other founder, Kenn Norman, who serves as the Chair of the museum's board, has a background in finance, project management and design.

Southworks Gallery

For the first ten years of its existence the museum lacked a permanent gallery, so it created exhibitions that travelled around Canada and the world, from Hong Kong to Bahrain. A pilot gallery in a mall in Cambridge Ontario, in 2013 saw almost 8000 visitors in the four and a half months the museum was open there.

Hespeler Post Office

In June 2015 the museum opened in a 3,000 square foot decommissioned post-office that had been opened in 1929 in the former town of Hespeler, now a neighbourhood of Cambridge. The museum retained and restored the original terrazzo floors and installed replicas of antique light fixtures for lighting. A restoration project for the clock over the museum's front doors was funded by the public. The town of Cambridge was once a textile manufacturing hub, making the museum a suitable fit with the town's history.

Collection

The museum's collection encompasses over 10,000 items. These items range from what may be the oldest existing European shoe worn in North America (it was reputedly worn in New Amsterdam and dates to about 1660), to dresses by Hollywood designer Adrian (Adolph Greenberg) to 1970s handbags made from cigarette packs.

Exhibitions

Before establishing the current gallery space, the museum created travelling exhibitions and pop-up shows.

2009 exhibitions

2010 exhibitions

2011 exhibitions

2012 exhibitions

2013 exhibitions

2014 exhibitions

2015 exhibitions

The present gallery space opened June 27 with the following exhibitions:

2016 exhibitions

2017 exhibitions

2018 exhibition

2019 exhibition

2020/2021 exhibition

2022 exhibition