“The Eternity of Romance” exhibit presents old European ladies’ dresses and accessories dating back to the period from 1820 till the early 1900s. Original, exquisite outfits in excellent repair are but a part of Maryna Ivanova’s private collection, which includes nearly one hundred hats, thirty dresses, a hundred purses, a dozen umbrellas, five pairs of shoes and other historical attire.
By the way, some dresses and suits are complete with a “passport,” a biography of the items that are inseparable from their former owners and their biographies.
Ivanova dubs herself “the slave of the collection”: “To preserve these unique items of clothing, you need to keep the necessary humidity level, and also keep the sun out. The worst enemy for these fabrics is dry air and direct sunlight. Everything needs to be endlessly moved, aired, and restored.
“All my earnings (Ivanova designs interiors) are invested in my collection. I can’t help wondering how my family continues to tolerate me spending so much money on my hobby.”
The exhibit was also accompanied by concerts. The organizers decided to depart from the conventional rigid frames of academic music soirees by placing three chamber bands (the string quartet Post Scriptum, the saxophone quartet Sax’s King, and traditional music group Secundum Artem) inside an unexpected “cover.”
The gallery looked like a terrace surrounded by 19th century female silhouettes. It allows you to plunge into the romantic atmosphere of the time.
