Accessories are diverse - and they are everywhere! Sometimes they are invisible, sometimes they catch the eye. They can be purely decorative or have a more practical and technical function. Sometimes they reveal something about academic appointments, they mark affiliations and demarcate boundaries at the same time and they can also become a political statement. Accessories are much more than just unimportant accessories: in the truest sense of the word, they play a leading fashion role.

The exhibition sheds light on this using selected objects from the Textile Everyday Culture Collection, which have been arranged in several themed sections. For example, accessories can have a medical function, as we show with orthopaedic foot correction splints and a bra with a prosthesis for breast cancer patients. But they can also be used for aesthetic reasons to modify the body, as shoulder pads and a girdle illustrate. Accessories can be political on different levels - for example, when it comes to uniform buttons or (de)constructing certain gender concepts and vestimentary role models. We are showing a bow tie that has become a trigger for cross-dressing and has thus found its way into the exhibition as a representative of queer objects and queer clothing practices.

We shed light on the topic of sensitive - often animal - materiality using the example of a bag made of crocodile leather. The animal was illegally hunted in the 1920s and the bag therefore allows us to critically analyse colonial practices. By contrast, rheumatism fur is much younger and of European origin: until the early 2000s, such objects made from cat fur were regularly traded in the EU. Accessories are also typically used as souvenirs. They are reminiscent of places or people, as shown by a dance lesson fan from the 1920s and a cap with a Union Jack motif from London. Similar to a poetry album, the fan with small poems bears witness to the former owner's admirers, while the cap reminded the donor of a visit to the famous Carnaby Street in the 1970s. Sometimes accessories are also central to many practices at a particular time, but then fall into oblivion. This is the case with gaiters, hatpins and money clips, which are considered 'curiosities' from today's perspective and are representative of changing clothing practices over the years.

In the summer semester of 2025, students at the Institute of Material Culture took part in a seminar in which they intensively studied accessories from the Collection of Everyday Textile Culture (STAK) and their various functions as mentioned above. The exhibition presents the results of the seminar in terms of both content and material. Free sets of postcards designed by the students to accompany the objects are available to take away. We have also designed accessories to wear, in the form of temporary tattoos with motifs ranging from buttons to plasters, which can embellish outfits both temporarily and on the skin. If you like, you can also download the templates below, which can be printed out at home either as stickers or as tattoos. The exhibition aims to encourage people to take a closer look at accessories. After all, many different stories can be told based on accessories - perhaps we will then see our everyday companions, big and small, with different eyes!

Curators: Veronika Dawydow, Klara von Lindern

Duration: 14.01.2026 -