Fall 2011 Events
Sunday, December 4:
Fabulous Collectibles Sale
Thousands of vintage collectibles, like holiday items, linens, jewellery, books, postcards and greeting cards, prints and paintings, dolls, toys and games, silver, clothing, patterns, dishes, textile trims, draperies and slipcovers, plus more, are for sale. Mainly from the nineteen century (Victorian era) and early twentieth century, these items are not part of the OCMS collection, but the sale will benefit the OCMS. When you are doing your holiday shopping, remember that “everything old is new again.” OCMS members may enter at 12:30 pm. OCMS memberships may be purchased at the door. The general public may enter at 1:30 pm. Time: 12:30 - 4:00 pm Place: Hycroft, 1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Admission to sale: $5 per person Purchases by cash only.
Thursday, October 13, 2011:
The Titanic: A Gala to Remember
What was everyone wearing when the great ship went down? The passengers boarded the Titanic with trunks filled with the latest fashions of 1912. The ladies were prepared to change their clothes several times a day for breakfast, luncheon, tea, cocktails, and dinner. The men were equally clothes conscious. After all, this was the maiden voyage of the world’s most extravagant passenger steamship and people intended to dress to impress.
Ivan Sayers and live models will impress with a historical fashion show featuring glamorous garments reminiscent of the Titanic. Dinner will be a tasting menu featuring items similar to those eaten on the ship. A silent auction (proceeds to benefit the OCMS) and champagne cocktail hour (no host bar) will set the mood to mingle with style. Join us for this titanic event!
Time: 5:30 pm (dinner at 7:00 pm) Place: Hellenic Centre: 4500 Arbutus Street, Vancouver
Tickets: $65 per OCMS member; $75 per non-member; $520 per table of eight
Tickets must be purchased by October 6. Order tickets at www.ocms.ca
Full tables will be reserved. All other tickets are subject to general seating.
Sunday, September 18, 2011:
Ivan Sayers, the Passionate Collector and His Collection
On the day before his 65th birthday, Ivan Sayers will reminisce about the development of his extraordinary collection of historical garments from its beginnings in the Okanagan Valley to its flowering in Vancouver. Over the course of nearly fifty years, his hunt for the perfect garment, the perfect accessory, the perfect representation of a fashion trend, all at the right price, have led Sayers to store closures, people’s basements, auctions, and vintage fairs, not to mention the Sally Ann. Prized garments will be displayed, as Sayers recounts personal stories illustrating the passion, knowledge, good eye, determination, and pleasures that all collectors will appreciate. This program celebrates Ivan’s collection, his life’s work, but the OCMS sees this occasion as an opportunity to celebrate Ivan Sayers. Join in the celebration! (Ivan has generously requested that any friends who may be thinking of bringing a birthday gift to the event should consider making a financial donation to the Original Costume Museum Society in lieu. A museum of historical fashion is Ivan’s dream.)
Time: 2:00 – 4:00 pm Place: Hycroft, 1489 MacRae Avenue, Vancouver
Tickets: $18 per OCMS member; $10 per OCMS student member; $20 per non-member;
Tickets available at the door. General seating.
Spring 2011 Events
Sunday, May 29, 2011:
A Miliner's Tale: Edie Orenstein and Her Hats
Fashion forecasts predict summer hats with huge brims. What would Edie Orenstein say about that? Edie Orenstein is the heart and soul behind Vancouver’s Edie Hats. As a hat designer and historian, she has encouraged people to embrace hats with passion and open-hearted joie de vivre. As part of the Original Costume Museum Society’s series of programs featuring local fashion designers, Edie Orenstein will relate the inspirational and technical processes that go into the one-of-a-kind hats she makes and sells. Many of these fabulous hats (some under construction, some completed) will be displayed, while Orenstein describes the vintage fabrics, the historical references, the special millinery techniques (not to mention the candle scents and background music) that inspired them. DATE: Sunday, May 29, 2011
TIME: 2:00 pm
AT: Hycroft, 1489 McCrae Avenue, Vancouver
COST: $20 non-member; $18 OCMS member; $10 OCMS student member
Tickets available at the door.
Sunday, April 10, 2011:
Here Comes the Bride: Wedding Fashion from Queen Victoria to Princess Katherine
A hundred years ago little or no consideration was given to the well-being of animals or the balance of nature as feathers from far-away lands and monkey, leopard, and panther skins were regularly used to ornament the human body, leading to the endangerment of many species. When designers turned to farm-produced furs in the 1950s, devising new colors and textures were their primary concerns. Using displays of historical garments and a live fashion show,
Ivan Sayers discusses the fascinating, but disturbing, history of the use of feathers, furs, and exotic skins in fashionable attire, including the decline in their use beginning in the 1970s.
Time: 2:00 pm Place: Hycroft, 1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Tickets at the door, general admission: $20 per ticket; $18 per OCMS member; $10 per OCMS student member.
Sunday, February 27, 2011:
Men in Vogue: A History of Men’s Fashion from 1900 to the 1970s
Popular costume historian Ivan Sayers explores historical male garb in terms of wealth, sex appeal, youth, and even beauty. Over the years, fashionable male icons reflected changes in economics, technology, politics, and morality and styles went from a mature, sober, conservative male image to youthfulness in cyclical patterns. Counter-culture movements offered fashionable options for young male renegades, like zoot-suiters, bikers, Teddy Boys, rock and rollers, Beatles fanatics, hippies, and punks. Enjoy the live fashion show.
Time: 2:00 pm Place: Hycroft, 1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Tickets at the door, general admission: $20 per ticket; $18 per OCMS member; $10 per OCMS student member.
Sunday, January 16, 2011:
What Fur?: A Consideration of Animal Parts in 20th Century Fashion
A hundred years ago little or no consideration was given to the well-being of animals or the balance of nature as feathers from far-away lands and monkey, leopard, and panther skins were regularly used to ornament the human body, leading to the endangerment of many species. When designers turned to farm-produced furs in the 1950s, devising new colors and textures were their primary concerns. Using displays of historical garments and a live fashion show,
Ivan Sayers discusses the fascinating, but disturbing, history of the use of feathers, furs, and exotic skins in fashionable attire, including the decline in their use beginning in the 1970s.
Time: 2:00 pm Place: Hycroft, 1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Tickets at the door, general admission: $20 per ticket; $18 per OCMS member; $10 per OCMS student member.
Sunday, November 28, 2010:
Special Collectibles Sale to Benefit the OCMS
Members of the Original Costume Museum Society and the general public are invited to a sale of many types of collectible items (mostly Victorian era through early twentieth century), such as, vintage clothing and accessories, historical fashion plates, patterns, jewellery, prints and paintings, books, toys and games, baby carriages, christening gowns, greeting cards, postcards, baby furniture, and vintage Christmas items. These exceptional items are not part of the OCMS collection, but their sale will benefit the OCMS. Only OCMS members may enter at 12:30 pm. OCMS memberships may be purchased at the door. The general public may enter at 1:30 pm.
Time: 12:30- 4:00 pm Place: Hycroft, 1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Admission to sale: $5 per person Purchases by cash or credit card only.
Thursday, October 21, 2010:
The Cocktail Hour: Fashion On the Rocks 1925 through 1965
Cocktails, an American invention of the early nineteenth century, became widely popular in the early 1920s. Along with the cocktail hour came the need for appropriate clothing. The cocktail dress, which could also be worn for dinner, dancing, or the theatre, replaced forever the old-fashioned tea gown for formal afternoon functions. Short and usually made of elegant, rich fabrics glamorously cut and decorated with embroidery, sequins, or jewellery, cocktail dresses were accessorized by elegant shoes, wraps, and hats. With an emphasis on glamour, Ivan Sayers and a corps of live models will present a historical fashion show of cocktail dresses, from the sublime to pajamas. The evening includes a dinner and a silent auction, plus a no-host cocktail hour. Proceeds benefit the Original Costume Museum Society.
Cocktails: 5:30pm - Dinner: 7pm - Show: 8pm
Hellenic Centre - 4500 Arbutus Street, Vancouver
No Host Bar - Set Dinner - Full tables will be reserved. All others are general seating
Tickets: $65 Members - $75 Non-members - $520 Table of eight
Sunday, September 19, 2010:
Come Rain or Shine: A History of Waterproof Clothing Worn for Work and Play in British Columbia
The people of British Columbia have always relied on strong, often waterproof, clothing as they earn their livings in mining, logging, farming, and fishing. Fashionable waterproof garments have also been a necessary part of local wardrobes. Join Doug Kibble and Duncan Stacey, collectors of vintage workwear, as they explore the history of industrial garment production and use, including clothing made by the Great Western Garment Co. of Alberta, Jones Tent and Awning (Pioneer Brand), Caribou Brand, Aero, Woodward’s, Pierre Paris, and Dayton Industrial Boots. As well, Ivan Sayers will display waterproof clothing more fashionable than occupational, from the 1890s to the 1960s
Time: 2:00 pm Place: Hycroft, 1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Tickets at the door, general admission: $20 per ticket; $18 per OCMS member; $10 per OCMS student member.
Spring 2010 Events
Sunday, May 16, 2010:
Zonda Nellis: Vancouver’s Weaver of Fashion
Zonda Nellis, the iconic designer who helped put Vancouver on the international fashion map, recounts the history of her fashion design house and her thoughts on the aesthetics of dress. Her devotion to weaving superior fabrics, her creation of simple, elegant garments that display her hand-woven textiles to their best advantage, and the application of special treatments to ready-made fabrics that give the cloth a recognizably “Zonda Nellis touch” have all contributed to her rise to fashion design stardom. Ms. Nellis’s talk will be augmented with a slide presentation and a display of original garments that reveal the designer’s love of weaving and her respect for woven cloth.
Location: Hycroft, 1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver Time: 2:00 pm
Tickets: $20 per person; $18 per OCMS adult member; $10 per OCMS student member.
Tickets are available at the door (general admission).
Sunday, April 18, 2010:
European Haute Couture: Traditions of Excellence
The haute couture industry was begun by Charles Frederick Worth in mid-nineteenth century Paris. Worth promoted the use of the finest fabrics in the world that were cut with technical precision and then sewn and decorated by experts. Each garment was one-of-a-kind and created to the highest standards of workmanship. Twentieth-century haute couture maintained those high expectations, but politics and economics forced the industry to broaden its market by creating ready-made garments and even by selling design rights to mass manufacturers. The best of the ready-to-wear products formed what came to be known as “confection.” Claus Jahnke and Ivan Sayers, avid collectors and historians of fashion, will present a history of European haute couture. Using original garments by Worth, Dior, Chanel, Balenciaga, and others, they will illustrate haute couture’s intensive construction techniques, which make the inside of a garment as beautiful as the outside.
Location: Hycroft, 1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver Time: 2:00 pm
Tickets: $20 per person; $18 per OCMS adult member; $10 per OCMS student member.
Tickets are available at the door (general admission).
Sunday, March 14, 2010:
Fashions for Amazons: Sports Clothing for Women, 1850s to 1950s
As the Olympic spirit continues, the world sees women competing in many sporting events, but being excluded from others (like ski jumping). It is interesting to remember a time when women were expected not to participate in any sport that required serious physical effort. Sports were seen as manly and far too rugged for the delicacy of a woman’s constitution. Other than riding habits, which were usually inspired by men’s riding clothing, women had few garments designed specifically for athletic pastimes until the 1860s, when walking costumes first appeared. In the following decades costumes for swimming, skating, tennis, golf, and other sports came into popular use. Join fashion historian Ivan Sayers as he presents a display and slide show about Victorian sports costumes for women,which will be followed by a historical fashion show of original women’s sportswear of the twentieth century.
Location: Hycroft, 1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver Time: 2:00 pm
Tickets: $20 per person; $18 per OCMS adult member; $10 per OCMS student member.
Tickets are available at the door (general admission).
FALL 2009 EVENTS
Sunday, December 6, 2009
In 2008, Joyce Maguire, Vancouver musician and youth choir director, bequeathed her important, massive collection of historical infant's and children's clothing and goods to the Original Costume Museum Society. With extraordinary enthusiasm, over many decades, she had collected christening gowns, bonnets, bootees, sailor suits, pinafores, books, photographs, toys, games, nursery items, baby carriages, and more with special concentration on the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
For this program, Ivan Sayers selects some of the rarest and most precious items from this international collection, including underwear worn by the boy who became King Edward VII of Great Britain, in order to explore the changing mores of infancy and childhood and in order to pay tribute to an avid, generous collector.
Location: Hycroft, 1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver Time: 2:00 pm
Tickets: $20 per person; $18 per OCMS adult member; $10 per OCMS student member.
Tickets are available at the door (general admission).
Sunday, November 8
By carrying our spare change, keys, identification, cellphone, pens, and supermarket coupons, handbags perform a utilitarian function that helps coordinate our lives. Throughout history, the contents of handbags may have changed, but the desire to ornament them has not. Since ancient days, handbags have been made of the finest leathers and the richest cloths. Some bags have been designed to be discreetly dignified; others have been outrageously gaudy. Embellished with beads, ribbons, and even gold, they have also been embroidered, painted, and bejeweled. Join Ivan Sayers as he presents a live fashion show and display covering the history and design of handbags over the last two hundred years and the place handbags have had in the fashionable woman's wardrobe.
Location: Hycroft, 1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver Time: 2:00 pm
Tickets: $20 per person; $18 per OCMS adult member; $10 per OCMS student member.
Tickets are available at the door (general admission).
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Ivan Sayers, the popular, local fashion historian with an international reputation, is the "star" of an entertaining evening of historical costume with a cinematic theme. This special show illustrates the well-dressed lives of the wealthiest, most beautiful women in the world as seen on the silver screen. As a fundraiser for the Original Costume Museum Society, the event includes a silent auction, a three-course meal, and a vintage fashion show with models wearing the best of early twentieth-century glamour and sophistication, reminiscent of stars like Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo, and Betty Grable.
Location: 4500 Arbutus Street, Vancouver Time: Doors open at 6:00pm
Tickets: $50 OCMS members; $60 non-members; $400 for a table of eight.
Tickets are advance sale only; sale ends September 23. For best seats, book early.
Purchase tickets on-line at www.ocms.ca or at Lace Embrace Atelier, 219 East 16th Avenue, Vancouver.
Spring 2009 Events
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Historical epochs are fascinatingly chromatic. Indigo, cochineal, lac, brazilwood, shellfish purple, each shade has been vital to a world culture. Charllote Kwon, owner of Maiwa Handprints Ltd. and director of the documentary "In Search of Lost Colour: The Story of Natural Dyes," will speak about historic colours, the rise of synthetic replacements, and the contemporary natural dye revival. Kwon is director of the Maiwa Foundation, which provides assistance to artisans around the world who maintain traditional skills or recover natural dye techniques. She travels extensively to research handicraft and has developed a textile archive and research library. Under her leadership, four documentary films, two publications, and a bi-annual Maiwa Textile Symposium have been developed.
Presented at 2:00 pm at Hycroft, 1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Tickets available at the door: $20 per person
$18 per O.C.M.S. member | $10 per O.C.M.S. student member
General Admission
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Common sense tells us shoes are meant to be comfortable and to protect our feet, but vanity and fashion sense tell us that up-to-date style and design artistry are equally, if not more, important. During the twentieth century, fine leathers, elegant satins, and sensual velvets were embellished with perforations, beading, embroidery, and even jewellery, in order to make the foot beautiful, eye-catching, and provocative. Always popular fashion historian Ivan Sayers and a corps of live models will present some of the more remarkable examples of high fashion shoes, boots, and slippers from his personal collection, everything from high-top boots to sling-back sandals and from Cuban heels to no heels at all.
Presented at 2:00 pm at Hycroft, 1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Tickets available at the door: $20 per person
$18 per O.C.M.S. member | $10 per O.C.M.S. student member
General Admission
Sunday, March 29, 2009
In the 1950s and 1960s Mary Maxim sweaters were one of the most popular Canadian fashion statements. All over the country home knitters were creating heavy sweater-coats featuring flying Canada geese, crossed curling brooms, or leaping salmons. Other wild animals, sports teams' symbols, patriotic emblems, and a vast assortment of icons (both Canadian and universal) were popular motifs. Tom Graff was the first person in the country to draw academic and aesthetic attention to these humble, but important, elements of the Canadian fashion scene and his presentation will discuss his reasoning, his collecting, and his conclusions. Come and share the afternoon with us. Bring your sweaters and tell your own stories of Mary Maxim.
Presented at 2:00 pm at Hycroft, 1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Tickets available at the door: $20 per person
$18 per O.C.M.S. member | $10 per O.C.M.S. student member
General Admission
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Colleen Miller is the owner of Button, Button, Canada's only button shop. For thirteen years her Gastown shop attracted button lovers far and wide. This afternoon she will recount the history of the humble button, an artifact common to all cultures and demographics, doing its job of holding us together, adding embellishment, yet often not noticed until it is missing.
Ivan Sayers will enrich Miller's presentation with an assortment of eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth century garments illustrating the beauty and variety of buttons.
Presented at 2:00 pm at Hycroft, 1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Tickets available at the door: $20 per person
$18 per O.C.M.S. member | $10 per O.C.M.S. student member
General Admission
Fall 2008 Events
November 2, 2008
In the 1960s, there were three distinct "looks" in women's fashion. The first, from 1960 to 1963, was dominated by the bouffant Parisian styles of the late 1950s. The second was the mod/mini style popularized by Carnaby Street in London. The final style was the counter-culture, hippy wardrobe of San Francisco.
Join Ivan Sayers as he discusses 1960s fashion and fashion icons, like Jacqueline Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, and Twiggy, while showing original garments from the Original Costume Museum Society's collection, including garments by Dior, Balenciaga, Heim, Givenchy, Cardin, Desses, Patou, Connolly, and Mary Quant. Vancouver designers, such as Lore Maria Wiener, Vera Ramsay, and Evelyn Roth, will be represented, as well.
Presented at 2:00 pm at Hycroft, 1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Tickets available at the door: $20 per person
$18 per O.C.M.S. member | $10 per O.C.M.S. student member
General Admission
October 16, 2008
Orient Expressed: A History of Asian Influence on Western Fashion
Fashion Show, Dinner and Silent Auction Fundraiser, featuring Ivan Sayers
6:00 to 9:30 p.m.
Sun Sui Wah Restaurant | 3888 Main Street, Vancouver (CLICK HERE TO SEE MENU)
$50 for Members, $60 Non-Members (set dinner included)
Door Prizes!
Advance Tickets Only!
Contact via email:
Phone: 604.418.1433
From Lace Embrace Atelier: 219 East 16th Ave., Vancouver
October 5, 2008
The Costume Designer's Process:
From Concept to Camera
As movie and television industries increasingly strive for higher standards of historical accuracy in their productions, the authenticity of period costumes becomes essential. The creative challenges of developing realistic period fashion, be it glamorous or everyday or even fantastical, have led to a growing interest in theatrical costuming as a career.
Jane Stills, costume designer and Chair of the School of Motion Picture Arts at Capilano University, will discuss training, options, and opportunities in costuming for stage and screen.
Illustrating her presentation will be a display of actual wardrobe pieces worn by movie and television personalities.
Presented at 2:00 pm at Hycroft, 1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Tickets available at the door: $20 per person
$18 per O.C.M.S. member | $10 per O.C.M.S. student member
General Admission
September 21, 2008
Ivan Sayers celebrates the 150th birthday of British Columbia with an illustrated lecture and display of original clothing typically worn by men, women, and children in the 1850s. Newspapers, magazines, and letters brought the colonists news from the world they had left behind, including fashion updates on fabrics, colors, and stylish shapes. Early BC photographers documented the local fashions worn by politicians, business people, brides, and grooms. Photographs of farmers, fishers, loggers, and miners also show a sense of colonial style.
For those thinking of constructing a period reproduction, costumer Patrice Godin will complete the afternoon with suggestions for patterns, fabric choices, and hair styles that fit an 1858 theme.
Presented at 2:00 pm at Hycroft, 1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Tickets available at the door: $20 per person
$18 per O.C.M.S. member | $10 per O.C.M.S. Student Member
General Admission
