This exhibition showcases specially selected garments and accessories from The Betty Smithers Design Collection, University of Staffordshire, to commemorate the centenary anniversary of the Callister Trust, which resulted in the creation of the Callister Garden.

The Betty Smithers Design Collection (BSDC) is a teaching and research collection of over 7000 objects mainly from the 20th-century housed in the Department of Creative Industries, University of Staffordshire.

Each of the items on display around the Williamson Gallery present the ongoing transience and temporal nature of fashion, reflecting the continual changes within society, culture and politics.

The garments and accessories hold a lived bodily experience, signifying moments in time, revealing varying narratives, telling their own unique story, and ultimately forming a collective inspirational statement of liberation and freedom of expression.

This exhibition is presented in collaboration with Roots of Fashion by The Callister Trust, taking place at the Williamson on 2oth March. Edward Callister championed women, establishing a Girls’ Club in Argyle Street, Birkenhead, in 1925. The Callister Garden was created as a safe place for women and is situated in an area with strong links to the Suffrage Movement. This exhibition celebrates many of the key moments of women’s fashion from every decade of the Callister Garden’s history, beginning from its inception in the 1920s to the present day.

Betty Smithers Exhibition curated by Senior Lecturer Angela Devoti -University of Staffordshire

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Roots of Fashion