As other people have mentioned, vintage is not enough distinction for a museum costume collection, it really isn't a word used by costume historians, but is more of a retail distinction.
Think of the costumes as art or as history or a combination of the two. Otherwise you will end up with a giant pile of thrift store looking wedding dresses and random cast offs that you will never display. Costume, like anything else has different levels of quality and importance, provenance matters, condition matters, age matters less than the other factors (a first ladies gown or Sept 11 NYFD uniform has far more meaning than a shredded 1905 dress with no provenance). There are very important pieces from the 80's and 90's and from last year if they are significant, but you want to have some policy for narrowing them down, especially as textiles require more training, materials and space to preserve correctly, I have found more modern pieces typically are handled less carefully because of their familiarity, but newness does not necessarily equal strength, especially when plastics are involved (sequins, etc.)

The main thing is to collect within your own mission and abilities.

Elizabeth Walton
www.waltonmuseumservices.com

On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 3:04 PM, Diane Hutsell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
We have a nice collection of vintage clothing at our museum and recently we have had some people wanting to donate articles from the 1980s. Our concern is that once we take one piece of clothing from the 80s, where do we stop. I guess the big question is where do we start? I'm hoping someone out there has some good guidelines for taking "vintage" clothing. If you have guidelines/policy, I'd love to see it. You can send it to me off post if you like.
 
Diane
 
Diane Hutsell
Executive Director
McMinn County Living Heritage Museum
423-745-0329
www.livingheritagemuseum.com
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