Ulster Museum’s Ashes to Fashion Exhibition Opens

5 July 2026, by Dolla Merrillees

In this week's blog post, Costume Society member Dolla Merrillees reviews Ashes to Fashion at the Ulster Museum, Belfast, on display until January 3rd 2027.

On 11 November 1976, gunmen forced their way into Malone House, the headquarters of the National Trust in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Two incendiary bombs were planted—one on the ground floor and another on the upper floor. Although a five-minute warning was issued and the building successfully evacuated without loss of life, the resulting fire engulfed the house, destroying its upper storey, where the Ulster Museum's entire costume and textile collection had been moved for safekeeping less than a year earlier.

Marking the half-century since the bombing, Ashes to Fashion, curated by Charlotte McReynolds tells the remarkable story of how the Ulster Museum painstakingly rebuilt its costume and textile collection, piece by piece, through donations, acquisitions and the dedication of generations of collectors and supporters. It also pays tribute to the succession of curators who shaped the collection in the decades the followed, foremost among them the then Curator of Applied Art, Elizabeth McCrum.

The exhibition opens with a large-scale black-and-white photograph taken on the day of the bombing. It captures the devastation in its immediate aftermath: the building reduced to a smouldering ruin, its upper floor collapsed, with only the skeletal roof beams left standing. This image is echoed in the exhibition design, where a reconstruction of the charred roof structure frames the entrance, immersing visitors in the scale of the disaster.

In total, approximately 10,000 objects were destroyed, representing five centuries of fashion, dress and textile history. It remains one of the greatest cultural losses of the Troubles, erasing what the Ulster News described at the time as "the irretrievable loss of the historical evidence of our culture." The newspaper continued: "One of the saddest features of the disaster is that, more than any other part of the museum's collection, this was made by the people themselves."

The scale of the loss is conveyed in a staff memorandum circulated on the day of the fire. It records the destruction of "one of the best collections of linen damask in the world, a rare Elizabethan embroidered jacket, a costume collection spanning the 1770s to the 1970s, an outstanding collection of eighteenth-century dress, and significant holdings of Irish, English and Continental lace." As McReynolds notes, the blaze also consumed much of the collection's documentation, including photographs and object records. The few archival images that survive, now displayed in the exhibition, are among the handful of surviving records of the collection before its destruction.

Against this overwhelming sense of loss stands a single, extraordinary survivor: the Lennox Quilt. Hand-stitched in 1712 by Belfast woman Martha Lennox, it is the only object from the original collection to survive the bombing, spared only because it was on display in the museum at the time.

For McReynolds, the quilt forms the emotional heart of the exhibition. She recalls seeing it for the first time alongside Martha Lennox’s descendants:

"It was the first time I, and three generations of women all descended from Martha Lennox, saw the piece in the flesh. I don't think any of us expected it to be so beautiful. It was that moment of sharing…that the poignancy of the quilt's survival, and the loss of so much else, hit me."

The opening gallery takes its cue from the quilt itself. The raspberry hue of the walls is drawn from its vibrant floral embroidery, establishing a visual language that carries visitors from the story of loss into one of renewal. It is a subtle but assured curatorial gesture, creating a dialogue between the quilt and the surrounding seventeenth- and eighteenth-century textiles. Among the highlights are the Antrim bed furniture commissioned by Lady Helen McDonnell in 1750 and a rare stumpwork casket (c.1660) embroidered with scenes from the Old Testament.

The casket is especially significant. Donated in 2023 by Lanto Synge, an authority on historic embroidery, it exemplifies the generosity of donors who have helped rebuild the collection over the past five decades. More than simply an important acquisition, it replaces a stumpwork casket destroyed in the bombing, reminding visitors that while the original collection can never be recovered, its legacy continues to be renewed through new acts of collecting and philanthropy.

This thoughtful use of colour sets the tone for an exhibition design that is both restrained and elegant. Developed by McReynolds in collaboration with the museum's design team, led by Stefan McKee, the exhibition employs three carefully calibrated palettes as a subtle narrative device, moving from the rich raspberry tones of the opening gallery, through the restrained neutral of the historical displays, to a soft green for the contemporary section—a hue chosen, McReynolds explains, to evoke "freshness and renewal." These carefully judged transitions guide visitors through a chronological history of fashionable dress while providing an understated framework that allows the garments themselves to take centre stage.

Within the central gallery, a series of intimate bays traces successive period of fashion history, from a Belvedere court suit, probably French, c.1780s, to an Irish silk-and-wool tartan day dress of around 1865 and Paul Poiret's Tango evening dress of 1918. Tonal variations distinguish each bay while maintaining a cohesive visual language throughout. Period-inspired illustrations by the local design collective UsFolk provide subtle architectural and decorative references that frame, rather than compete with the garments.

While the collection now comprises around 6,000 objects, with around 140 garments and accessories on display, it reflects the collecting policy established by McCrum after the bombing. Rather than simply replacing what had been lost, McCrum set out to build a national collection with a particular focus on Irish design while also embracing historical dress, international couture and high-street fashion. Highlights include an evening dress by Elsa Schiaparelli (1947), a cocktail dress by Pierre Cardin (1968), and a Marc Bohan evening dress for Christian Dior (1986), worn by HRH Princess Caroline of Monaco. Another standout is a striking black sequinned evening dress (1909) with fragile gelatin sequins, worn by Mary Joy Newland, an American railroad heiress of Irish descent.

The contemporary section includes JW Anderson's Pixelated hoodie and jeans for Loewe (2023), Robert Wun's Zhong Lin ensemble (2021) and an evening dress by Laura and Kate Mulleavy for Rodarte (2020). At the rear of the gallery, an 'accessories wall' of shoes, handbags and headwear provides a striking finale. Inspired by the presentation of luxury accessories in contemporary retail environments, objects from different periods are displayed within individually illuminated niches, creating what McReynolds describes as a "jewel box" finale.

More than an exhibition about costume or fashion history, Ashes to Fashion is a moving account of institutional resilience. It celebrates not only the remarkable reconstruction of a collection, but also the dedication of the curators, conservators, donors and collectors whose efforts made that renewal possible. Fifty years after the fire, it stands as a powerful reminder that museum collections are never static: they are shaped, rebuilt and renewed by successive generations of people who recognise their importance as repositories of cultural memory.  “It is”, writes McReynolds, “a story of style and of substance, and it is still being written.”

Ashes to Fashion is on view at Ulster Museum, Belfast, until January 3rd 2027. The exhibition is ticketed, available to purchase online.

Dolla recently visited Paris, reviewing exhibitions such as La Mode en Majesté: Royal Thai Dress from Tradition to Modernity, which you can catch up with on our blog.