Welcome to a new weekly blog post: Fundraising Friday. The FIDM Museum is in the final months of a major fundraising campaign to purchase the Helen Larson Historic Fashion Collection, a private collection of 1,200 historic garments and accessories from four centuries assembled by the late Helen Larson, a collector from Whittier, CA. Each Friday, this blog will feature an exquisite piece from the collection, with information on how you can make a donation to keep these one-of-a-kind treasures together and housed in a public collection in Larson's native Southern California. 

Girl's Dress
England
1850
Helen Larson Historic Fashion Collection

With all eyes on England's newest princess, it seems appropriate to launch Fundraising Friday with this delicately fringed and embroidered dress worn by Princess Victoria, the Princess Royal–Queen Victoria's eldest daughter. Helen Larson had a weakness for royalty, and several pieces in the collection have a royal lineage. There are dozens of garments belonging to Queen Victoria and Queen Alexandra, hats and shoes worn by Princess Louise of Prussia, Queen Elisabeth of Romania's wedding gown, Princess Mary's going-away dress, and a gown worn by Princess Charlotte's namesake 200 years ago. How did Helen Larson of Whittier manage to infiltrate so many royal wardrobes? She made frequent trips to Europe in the mid-20th century, buying up high-end historic clothing at auctions and estate sales and bringing it back to the U.S. at a time before antiquities laws strictly regulated such exports. A collection of this caliber would be impossible to assemble today, for any price.

Detail

Helen Larson spent 50 years building her collection; now, it is in danger of being dispersed forever or absorbed into another private collection, inaccessible to students, researchers, and the general public. The FIDM Museum needs your help to save the Larson collection. You can make a contribution of any amount online or by mail. Donations are tax deductible; if your company has a matching gift program, your support will go even further. The FIDM Museum has until the end of 2015 to finish raising the necessary funds, so now is the time to join the campaign and help make fashion history.