Old clothes and new looks: Lessons from the past

A black papier-mâché sewing box, now on display in the Old Treasury Building’s ‘Belongings’ exhibition, would once have been both commonplace in and essential for many homes. This box and others like it – filled with needles and threads, thimbles and scissors, ribbons and buttons – helped women to create new looks from old clothes. Conscious of the pressing need in the present for more circular and sustainable fashion, dress historian Lorinda Cramer explores how sewing boxes were used, what could be achieved with the tools and materials they held – and, indeed, what lessons are offered from the past.