There are over 2,500 items of costume, which includes accessories, in the collection. Mainly Bedford residents have donated the majority of the costume collection, over the past fifty years. The largest category is that of women’s clothing from 1840 to 1930, which is very well represented by examples of fashionable attire worn by the middle-classes.

The Gallery continues to add to the collection via donations, and we are particularly interested in fashionable garments from the eighteenth centuries and late 1950s to 1970s and men’s costume from the eighteenth century to 1979.

Please click on images below to see larger photographs and fashion notes for each period.