Dr. Elizabeth Lundén

World history in terms of costume and dress would have been lost to an extent that I don't think people understand today.

A wonderful example of what happens when extraordinary women come together with a clear vision and make things happen.

My interest in fashion, I guess, it comes from childhood, mostly about dressing up.

I'm a Kluge Research Fellow at the Library of Congress, and I work on fashion and cinema history.

My generation had great inspiration back in the 80s.

People like Boy George really opened, paved the way to play with clothes, and I think that was a big imprint.

So most of the things we would find would be theater costumes.

But not any theater costumes, because she collected special pieces of clothing from all around the world, from all eras.

So you will get predominantly European and Asian folk and regional costumes, for example.

Early 20th century haute couture, so she was collecting fashion as well.

Even some historical garments.

So really, really precious pieces.

But it's interesting that she was using them as theatre costumes at the time.

It's quite large, especially if you think about how expensive these pieces are.

Well, she was a socialite, a philanthropist, and she was in charge of a theatre company.

So she was a wealthy woman from the New York scene that was interested in art.

So you just have to think about it as some very wealthy people collect paintings or sculptures, and Irene was interested in clothing.

to have a space where people could study these costumes, both for other designers to see it, for students interested in these costumes, but also to preserve costumes as an art form.

She wanted to bring the same attention that other forms of arts had to clothing.

So that's why she created it into a museum.