20 November 2015

Search the loft, under the bed or the back of the wardrobe – York Castle Museum wants those pictures of you or your family in the most fashionable attire of the day – from punks to rockers, hippies to Spice Girl wannabes.

Next march the museum is opening a new exhibition called Shaping the Body, looking at how culture, food, health and lifestyle have changed the way we look over the last 500 years.

Fashion is a key part of the exhibition and the museum wants to capture what the people of Yorkshire were wearing in past decades when they hit the town dressed to impress – or shock.

As well as fashions the curators also hope to hear from body builders, waist trainers, and people with lots of tattoos or piercings.

The museum hopes to collect a number of striking images for inclusion in the exhibition, with the story behind them.

Alison Bodley, senior curator of history, said: “We are looking for people who embraced the iconic fashions of the day and the reasons why you decided to dress or look that way.

It could be the punks, mods or the 80s perms of the past or more recent trends such as wannabe Spice Girls or sk8ters. Were you the one in class who wore the school uniform in a rebellious way? Or did you have a bright pink Mohican? Were you a man who grew your hair long or a woman who shaved it all off?
“We also want pictures of people who have taken to shaping their body in an extreme way, such body building, tattoos or lots of piercings, and the reasons why you decided to do this.”

The team are also interested in pictures of older relatives who may have been, for example, Teddy Boys, or Rock n Rollers.

People interested in sharing their photographs and stories should contact Robert Wake, collections facilitator, on: robert.wake@ymt.org.uk or by phoning 01904 687687. On submitting images you are granting the museum to use them in the exhibition.

Shaping the Body opens in March next year.

From 18th century bum rolls, through to the Victorian hour glass figure, the punks of the 70s and the perms of the eighties, the exhibition will look at how our bodies have been shaped and designed through choices we make and the consequences of our lifestyles.

Using York Museum Trust’s extensive collections of costume, social history, archaeology and art, see how the perfect height and weight have fluctuated in different periods, and how economic circumstances and cultural ideas impact on fashion.

Meet the people who have pushed their bodies to the limits to gain the look they crave and find out about dangerous fashions such as the women who wore extra tight corsets high heels and even poisonous dresses!

This thought-provoking, fascinating and often humorous exhibition will challenge the notion of the perfect body.