Fleeting Fragrance The History, Preservation and Display of Perfumed Costume

Fragrance-like style-is one of the intangible aspects of costume history that we often wish had been preserved. Garments were perfumed both to impart a pleasurable impression and to mask disagreeable odors from use or from production processes such as tanning and dyeing. Expensive gloves were traditionally perfumed, as well as lace collars, silk stockings and shawls. Both historical and modern attempts have been made to create scents that please the wearer and attract the oppoiste sex, while (preferable) also repelling osquitoes and moths! Unintentional perfuming also occurred, which we sometimes may be lucky to find in our museum collections. How do we describe and identify the transient odors of museum objects, and at what cost can they be preserved and presented for the public? This lecture includes samples of reconstructed historical scents presented in costume exhibitions at the Royal Danish Collections.