The Secret Fashion Museum of Shenkar College – With Tal Amit

It all started as a small collection, donated in 1986 by FIT in New York (The Fashion Institute of Technology). Over the years the archive grew and expanded thanks to donations from Israel and the world. Clothing from various periods, ethnographic and artistic textiles, as well as various accessories enriched the archives. The archive is officially called “The Benet and Pauline Rose Fashion and Textile Archives, Shenkar College”. It functions as a center for study and research at Shenkar College. It is one-of-a-kind.

The archives house a wide variety of 4000 articles of clothing, from the 18^th century through to the 21^st century. In addition, the collection contains ancient, modern and ethnic textiles and accessories that were created or worn in Israel from the end of the 19^th century. The archives also house a collection of fashion drawings, the work of the Israeli artist Yona Celyuk, drawn in Paris in the 1920s.

The Rose Archives are an invaluable tool for teaching and research, and is open to students, graduates, researchers and designers for display, study and research. Since it is a didactic collection, the students can benefit from it throughout there studies at Shenkar College and even afterwards. The Academic staff use specific items to explain various technical aspects related to the design and making of clothes, and to show the connection between design and textile to social, cultural, economic and technological aspects.

The archives host a continual flow of special lessons which are tailor-made to the demands of the lecturers in the various departments. The lessons are diverse and range from acquaintance with a specific era in the history of fashion, or the textiles, the source of inspiration, to modern design, the study of ancient clothing, homage to renowned designers, etc.

Textile and dress are a language containing a rich vocabulary relating to the history, sociology, education and technology. The archives are an enduring showplace for the wonderful wardrobes of the past.

Opposite: Pierre Cardin, 1969-70

Some of the dresses even have a fairy tale story all their own. The dress on the next page was worn by the actress Janice Rule and appears in a movie starring Dean Martin, The Ambushers, in the 27th minute.

Archive curator Tal Amit with the dress worn in the film.

Matt Helm – The Ambushers 1967 full movie by ursula-strauss