British Fashionable Dress The Olive Matthews Collection

This spectacular collection features many items of national significance. It contains over 4,000 men's, women's and children's fashionable clothes dating from c.1700 to the present. They help to reveal the history of dress and textiles throughout the centuries, highlighting changes in style, fashion and fabrics.

The Matthews collection also includes many small decorative accessories. It is rich in shoe buckles, delicate beadwork purses lace work and exquisite embroidery.

In the fashion gallery a new dress display is mounted annually. Together with the costume library, the exhibition provides an excellent resource for students and researchers of dress, textile and design history. Please see latest exhibition. Academic researchers and students wishing to consult items not currently on display or use the library facilities are welcome to do so by prior appointment. Please contact us to make an appointment.

Origins of the Collection

The founder, Olive Matthews (1887-1979) grew up in Camden, building up the core of the dress collection from London antique markets in the 1920s and 1930s. She settled in 1939 in Virginia Water and became a knowledgeable collector of dress, textiles and related accessories, and left a significant historical collection.

The Olive Matthews Trust was set up in 1969 to ensure that this important collection is preserved and displayed for public benefit. Trustees purchased the building, The Cedars, in 1972 working with the local authority to support the aims of the Trust within the Museum Service.