MOUNT DESERT — A cotton petticoat bustle with a wire bustle cage from the 1880s hangs diagonally across from a pair of patterned cotton skirts that were made from Miss Vogue patterns in the 1960s in the exhibit titled “200 Years of Women’s Fashion” in the Mellon Room at the Northeast Harbor Library.
The exhibit includes fancy frocks, long white gloves, a lace collar and real fur stoles. There are everyday dresses from decades past and even one purple T-shirt. A pair of white, high-button shoes from the 1860s or 1870s are scuffed, but still elegant.
A few of the items on display, all of which local people have loaned to the library, date back nearly two centuries. That’s appropriate, because Maine became a state 200 years ago this month. And it has been 100 years since women in the United States gained the right to vote.
“We are honoring that legacy with this exhibit of women’s clothing and accessories from before and after this important landmark in our history,” said Elly Andrews, the library’s director. “As women have gained liberties, fashion trends have shifted from restrictive and cumbersome to expressive and freeing.”
The exhibit will be up through the month of March, which is Women’s History Month.
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Illustrations of women’s fashions in various periods accompany the clothing and accessories in the exhibit.![]()
Two pairs of white dress gloves from the 1950s frame an elaborate lace collar, circa 1910.![]()
This camel-colored velvet hat with black cordwork was fashionable in the 1950s.![]()
A wire hoop for a crinoline petticoat from the mid-1860s is among the older and most anachronistic items in the exhibit.
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