Preserving fragile fashion

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Preserving historical garments is intricate work, as finely detailed as the hand-blown glass beads one might find on a 1920s flapper dress. There are techniques for everything from repairing worn materials to reinvigorating faded fabrics or restoring fashions feared suitable for little more than the trash bin.

But what is a fashionista-in-training to do when the attire on-hand is brittle or unstable?

University of Delaware junior Orlagh Cahill, a fashion design and product innovation major, from Brooklyn, New York, is spending the summer digitally recreating fragile 1920s dresses that are too delicate to be exhibited on mannequins.

Working alongside Belinda Orzada, fashion and apparel studies professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, Cahill is developing skills in both the physical and digital spaces associated with the conservation, cataloging and analysis of historic dress. She is one of five students involved this summer on the project, led by Orzada and collaborating UD professors Kelly Cobb and Dilia López-Gydosh. The work includes material culture research and hands-on experience with dresses in the UD Fashion and Textiles Collection of historic clothing artifacts. Ultimately, Cahill and her peers' work will support a planned 2026 exhibition of the garments in UD's Old College Gallery, so that exhibition attendees will be able to visualize what the garments would have looked like on a person.