How did local women in the small Vermont town of Middlebury dress themselves and how did they deal with their burgeoning aspirations to keep up with the fashionable trends trickling in from the larger world? From Homespun to Couture offers a window onto the sartorial tastes of local women and the growing Middlebury tailoring scene from the 1800s to the early 20th century.
Historic photographs, fashion publications, business advertisements and merchants’ ledgers, dresses, bonnets, shoes, and fashion accessories from the Museum’s archival and object collections on display reveal what Middlebury women made, wore, and purchased in the town’s early days.