1000 Years of Fashion History – an exhibition in miniature

From Saxon robes to Elizabethan ruffs, Victorian tartan and punk piercings, come and see how what we wear has changed across time… in miniature!

This exhibition has been created by Lisa Jayne Smith, following a career working in theatre and running her own business making and adapting period costume.

She has been an avid fan of costume history for as long as she can remember, and the exhibition is inspired by a book she came across while costuming for a play, ‘The Change in Fashion from 1066-1960s’.

Lisa spent six years researching and making more than 100 miniature historical costumes while receiving treatment for breast cancer.

Each hand made outfit, modelled by a 12-inch fashion doll, is complete down to the tiniest detail. The amount of time spent on each model would depend on the size and era of each costume, anything from a week to a month.

Journey through time, from the Saxons through Medieval, Renaissance, Tudor, Elizabethan, Jacobean, Carolean, Restoration, Stuart, Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian, 1910’s, 1920’s, 1930’s, 1940’s, 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s up to the 1980’s.  

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I have in making and creating them!

Lisa Jayne Smith