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New Place Project Update: Exhibition Space

Work has begun on the installation of our new exhibition at New Place

Meet the Shakespeares in our innovative new exhibition centre. The clothes, a lot of which are white, are two girls' dresses, a lady's dress, and a gentleman's dress, with doublet and shin-length slops with tassels at the bottom. They are shown with ruffs, so would be the clothing of gentry.

As work has now started with the exhibition installation process, we are working with design team Past Pleasures who have made their way onto site to start the installation process of their costumes.  

Past Pleasures are based in London and are the UK’s oldest Historical Interpretation Company and were founded in 1987.  They will be on site for 3-4 days piecing together the beautiful tailored dress with meticulous detail.

The costumes are made from a special material called Tyvek.  Tyvek is a synthetic material which is made from flashspun high-density polyethylene fibers (In English this means a nonwoven pliable plastic material).  In contrast to what our designers are using it for, the material is often used to protect buildings during construction phases due to its strength and usability, however, as it is also dust proof and easy to cut, sew and clean it makes it a perfect material to be used in our exhibition.

These costumes will feature upstairs in our exhibition, along with some beautiful animations which show Shakespeare’s family life at home in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Although we can’t show you the finished products - as that would spoil the surprise, we’ve attached an image below for you to get your teeth into!  The exhibition and New Place Gardens will open on 1 July, please keep checking back for more updates.