(04/27/26) BATON ROUGE, La. — Temperatures never rise above 70 degrees, and the humidity is set at an even 50%. The room holds towering metal cases that roll across the floor. With the turn of a wheel, centuries of wearable history glide across the space.

It’s the vault in the LSU Textile and Costume Museum. Acquired pieces range from a 2-year-old studded black leather Christian Louboutin handbag to a 259-year-old silk robe à la française, predating Marie Antoinette’s reign.

“It has to be an object of exceptional design, visual interest, craftsmanship, a museum quality piece,” director and curator Michael E. Mamp said.

It’s not just wearable pieces in the vaults. The collection also contains 19th and 20th century quilts, some of which will be part of the museum’s upcoming exhibit, “Stitches in Time: Quilts and Fashion.” The exhibit opens May 3 and will run through Jan. 15.

In preparation, the museum’s team spent countless hours tending to their collection of approximately 10,000 archived objects.

Mamp’s curatorial journey begins long before acquisition. He decides if a piece fits the museum based on its collecting mission: American and European fashion, women designers, LSU histories and Louisiana histories. The process is highly selective, and the choice is made from images the potential donor submits, Mamp said.

The large rectangular cases house categorized collections of clothing ready for their biannual display. Meticulously sorted by designer and product type, the clothing and accessories undergo careful conservation processes overseen by Mamp and his team of students.

The receiving-to-storing process requires thorough steps: inspecting, vacuuming, freezing, examining, describing, dating, hanging and storing. If they miss any steps, the entire collection is threatened.

Mfon-Abasi Obong, an LSU textiles, apparel, and merchandising Ph.D. candidate and museum team member, acknowledged the difficulties of working with aged textiles. Obong shared particularly pesky complications that may come with natural fibers.

“You have to also worry about insects,” Obong said. “We have to make sure that the environment these items are stored in will not attract any critters. If it's animal fiber like wool and stuff, those critters might actually eat those fibers.”

Pests, as well as the weight of the garments themselves from embellishments, beading and any added material, threaten to accelerate deterioration, Obong said.

The evolution of technology could promise a brighter future for fashion preservation at the archival level, Mamp and Obong said.

Shelly Kerns, an LSU AgCenter corn, cotton and grain sorghum specialist, said recent technological advances benefit fabrics at the manufacturing stage, as well.

“They're also looking into basically applying different finishes to the fabric [cotton] to enhance natural properties to make it more competitive with synthetic fibers,” Kerns said.

With synthetic fibers on the rise, cotton has increasingly needed to prove itself as the most durable natural fabric choice, Kerns said. She said the finishes such as TOUGH COTTON and STORM COTTON technologies have different aims, from increasing strength and hydrophobic properties to added stretch technology in workout wear. These research initiatives seek to restore cotton as the top fiber choice and to make it more desirable, she said.

Historic garments composed of cotton textiles provide some ease of mind to museum staff. Mamp detailed the different types of care the team approaches cotton versus silk clothing with.

“If it's a cotton dress that is quite strong, then it might go onto a padded hanger and be hung,” Mamp said. “Our 1767 robe à la française, which is silk and very, very fragile, that's stored flat and is stuffed with a special type of acid-free tissue paper that keeps the silk from having any creases in it, because creases across time can also turn into tears or damages in the fabric. So, it's a tedious and big topic."

For the new “Stitches in Time: Quilts and Fashion” exhibit, visitors can expect to see an extensive display of Geoffrey Beene quilted designs, donated by Sylvia R. Karasu, MD, according to the museum’s website. In a showcase of exquisite craftsmanship and Louisiana history, the museum again uses fashion as a lens to give a spotlight to stories of the past.

“When you think of an object like a garment, or an accessory, or any piece of fashion,” Mamp said. “Anyone that's had a loved one in their life who has passed away may hang on to a garment, a scarf, a quilt, a piece of jewelry, because that object carries with it the essence and the story of the person who wore it.”

Quilted evening jacket embellished with reflective gold paillettes, Geoffrey Beene, fall/winter 1991. Photo by Alan Barnett

Exhibition title card by LSU Apparel Design undergraduate student Martha Rigney