While going through our exhibition, you will be acquainted with a wide range of fabrics as well as their history.
Although the clothes have been worn, they are still well-preserved. You might, of course, occasionally be able to discover a little stain or a hole here and there, yet this also makes you aware of the fact that some of these garments are 50, some even 80 years old. Besides, these traces of the past tell a lot about the situations in which the pieces of clothing were worn. You may not realise it when you have a quick look at them in the exhibition; moreover, most visitors are certainly rather interested in the clothes’ filmic background. But if you look closely at every inch of a garment as a restorer while cleaning and smoothing it for the exhibition, these traces of the past reveal a lot. This way, it becomes evident that some scenes must have been quite exhausting as noticeable stains of sweat can be found in typical places – such as the arm pits and the back. Another example: evident colour stains can be found on the back of a red/white-striped dress that Jenny Jugo wore in “Land der Sehnsucht”, which indicate that the actress presumably sat down on a bench with wet paint. In addition, the work on the clothes reveals something about the personality and the preferences of the actress. The garments, e.g., suggest that Jenny Jugo attached great importance to good fabrics and that she liked wearing designer clothes. Thus, labels like Schiaparelli, Kuhnen Berlin or Balenciaga can be frequently found among her dresses. Several of her hats were made by Bertke or Legroux Soeurs, and more or less all her shoes were designed by the Italy-based company Brunettini. Jenny Jugo obviously had a weakness for Schiaparelli: several clothes with this label can be found in her estate. Even contemplators who know little about fashion will notice the extraordinarily beautiful design of the buttons, which are clear identifying features of designer clothes. Most of the clothes without a label seem to have been tailor-made; this is indicated by the zippers that were sewed in by hand and the manually seamed edges. Another recurring feature is an embroidered emblem that can be found on the front part of the skirts. Concerning the garments that have not (yet?) been attributed to one of her films – which, in turn, suggests that these clothes belong to Jenny Jugo’s personal wardrobe –, it stands out that she predominantly owned monochrome clothes with a relatively clear cut and that she liked wrapped skirts. A broad range of high-quality fabrics was used: This range includes different kinds of silk such as organza silk, chiffon, atlas silk, and damask as well as silk velvet, cotton velvet, tulle lace, Georgette, etc. Yet there are also pieces of clothing made of wool, different woven linen or cotton fabrics, and artificial silk. Some of them were made using creping, fabric-folding, or printing techniques.

Now, how does a restorer deal with such a wide variety of fabrics when preparing an exhibition?
First, the current state of each individual item has to be reviewed and recorded to create a basis for the following procedure. In order to ensure the professional review and handling of such a large amount of textile artefacts (after all, the Jugo collection comprises about 170 pieces of clothing) a textile restorer has to be consulted – whom the museum unfortunately cannot afford to hire on a permanent basis. Ines Zimmermann, a specialised restorer with many years of professional experience, was enlisted as a consultant and for the restoration of some garments.

Each fabric has to be cleaned in a specific way; different characteristics require special attention. Of course, filmy materials have to be treated more carefully than thick ones as otherwise deformation of the fabric may result. As everyone knows, velvet attracts threads and fluff, both of which are removed using different methods than for other dirt sticking to the fabric. Dirt adheres to each individual fabric in different ways: Even if you don’t see it when looking at the fabric, a lot of dust might, e.g., adhere to atlas silk that still looks shiny. If the dirt isn’t removed, the fabric’s decay proceeds faster. All garments were first dry-cleaned using a vacuum cleaner and a latex sponge (a so-called “Wallmaster”). Inch by inch, the first layer of dust as well as dirt that doesn’t adhere strongly to the fabric are removed, using a little piece of the sponge and brushing along the direction of the fibre – of course, all of this is done manually. In order to reach as much of the fabric’s surface as possible the outer and the inner parts of the garments had to be cleaned separately.