Why We Should Have Our Own Fashion Keepsakes
Is my closet a museum?!
A picture is worth a thousand words. But what does your outfit say?
In this digital age, it can be easy to store all our fondest memories in the cloud. With just one click of a button, our whole lives can be downloaded to a hard drive. Before we know it, we’ll be living vicariously through our own Instagram feeds.
Highlighting the importance of personal archives, I’m here to suggest that our memories can live on through clothes. Preserving our history, one shirt at a time, can be one of the best ways to keep that special moment alive, a way to share it with others. Whether it resembles an old concert tee or a cherished wedding dress, the possibilities of fashion keepsakes are endless.
Some can infer that our jeans are historic.
Fashion, since the beginning of time, has been used as a tool to showcase cultural identity and self-expression. Whether intentional or not, how we’ve chosen to present ourselves through generations has built a dossier of infinite stories. We can see this with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example, and the effort put into preserving its Costume Institute. The institute currently holds over 35,000 costumes and accessories, “spanning five continents and just as many centuries” (The Costume Institute). Refer to my “Met Gala 2025" article. According to The New York Times, a record $31 million was raised at this year’s Gala to upkeep the Institute.
Why is this important?
With political, cultural, and economic tensions rising on both a national and global scale, it has become difficult to ignore the historic comparisons. “To help the public re-establish this common ground and learn to build bridges rather than breed division, many believe that museums have a role to play in giving us perspective – be it through intellectual exercises or merely holding up mistakes of the past as evidence of where such behaviour will lead us once more” (Carlsson).
“Museums are the guardians of our collective memory, the storytellers of human achievement, and the catalysts for future innovation. Their importance lies not just in preserving the past but in shaping our understanding of the present and inspiring the possibilities of tomorrow.”
The safeguarding of our wardrobe exhibitions can help us not only measure the evolution of fashion, but the “gradual and important changes in society,” with each era possessing “a look that defines the most important details and sets the foundation for improvement” (Priedel). Fashion stands for more than what we choose to wear to work each day; it’s a movement that influences the future and how we can use it to enhance our everyday lives.
Do our closets need to be museum-worthy? Of course not! The act of protecting our namesakes is a mindful and powerful act that promotes a way for our descendants to know what came before. Who knows? The archaeologists of our fashion fossils could be our very own loved ones, rediscovering what we left behind.
Sources
Carlsson, Rebecca. “Why We Need Museums Now More than Ever - the Importance of Museums.” MuseumNext, 29 Aug. 2025, www.museumnext.com/article/why-we-need-museums-now-more-than-ever/.
“Costume in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1 Sept. 2014, www.metmuseum.org/essays/costume-in-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art.
Jipson, Art, and Paul J. Becker. “Analysis: What Data Shows about Political Extremist Violence.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 20 Sept. 2025, www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/right-wing-extremist-violence-is-more-frequent-and-deadly-than-left-wing-violence-data-shows.
McKinley, Jesse. Met Gala Raises the Bar with a Record Haul of $31 Million, 5 May 2025, www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/style/met-gala-2025-fund-raising.html.
Priedel, Felicia. Worldwide Talks Lessons: 5 Reasons Why Is Fashion Important, fashinnovation.nyc/worldwide-talks-5-reasons-fashion-important/.
