Sleeping Beauties

A feast for the senses, this book brings fashion to life through touch, smell, sight, and sound

What happens when a garment is preserved in a museum's archive and can no longer be worn? What do we lose when we protect fashion for study by future generations but relegate the movement of the fabrics, the feel of the stitching, and the sound of the skirts in motion to memory alone? Sleeping Beauties draws on primary research, conservation studies, and new technologies to reactivate designs in a museum's collection that must forever remain in a state of suspended animation. This immersive book uses a unique interactive design to convey the scents, sounds, textures, and motions of garments that can no longer directly interact with the body. Presenting creative interventions that enhance our sensory experience of each object, the magisterial publication features texts by fashion experts, conservators, and contemporary creators to provide further context for fashion connoisseurship. Reconnecting readers with exquisite designs from the 1600s to the present, this remarkable fashion history is vibrant, dynamic, and full of life.