Save the gowns

Future-focused fashion industry looks to preserve collections

The concept of museumworthy clothes is arguably as old as museums themselves. But only in modern history did blockbuster fashion exhibits really take off.

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the 2018 exhibition “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” drew some 1.6 million guests, according to the museum. “Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood Design,” an exhibition that opened in 1974, had about 780,000 visitors.

Matthew Yokobosky, the senior curator of fashion and material culture at the Brooklyn Museum, which over the past two years has staged exhibits on designers Christian Dior, Thierry Mugler and Virgil Abloh, said the interest in seeing clothes on display has risen as “the occasions for getting dressed up have diminished.”

Preserving collections for posterity has not always been a priority in the fashion industry, which is focused heavily on the future (by the time that most brands’ spring clothes are released, they are already showing pieces for fall). “I remember having a conversation with Valentino,” Yokobosky recalled, referring to the Italian fashion designer who started his namesake label in 1960. “He said, ‘We weren’t thinking exhibition, we were trying to sell dresses.’ ”

Lately, though, Yokobosky said more designers are thinking about how to care for their pieces after they are sent down a runway. “In the last 10 to 15 years,” he said, people have realized that those pieces “are valuable and could make for an exhibition.”

For some American brands, the answer is to send garments to Garde Robe by Uovo. It was formed in 2021 after Uovo, an art-storage company, acquired Garde Robe, a high-end clothing storage business.

Before the acquisition, Uovo worked with a handful of brands, including Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Thom Browne and Oscar de la Renta. Absorbing Garde Robe brought about 20 others, including Carolina Herrera and Jason Wu. Brennan Lowery, the general manager at Garde Robe by Uovo, is hungry for more.

“I want every single American designer to store here,” said Lowery, 42.

Wu, 40, said he used to keep collections in a rental storage unit after starting his namesake label. About three years later, he began to work with an archivist and moved his pieces to a facility that specialized in art storage. The facility was good for the clothes, he said, but access was difficult.

In 2015, Wu — who has lent designs to the Met for “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” and “China: Through the Looking Glass” — started storing his brand’s pieces with Garde Robe.

They are in a massive Garde Robe by Uovo warehouse in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn that stores some 40,000 units — individual garments, bags or pairs of shoes — belonging to Wu and other clients. About half are from fashion brands, Lowery said, and the rest are owned by other customers, including private individuals.

The facility in Brooklyn is one of five warehouses across the country where Uovo stores fashion; the others are in the Long Island City section of Queens; Orangeburg, New York; West Palm Beach, Florida; and Glendale, California. All but the Glendale location also store artwork.

Garments begin their afterlife at Garde Robe by Uovo in Brooklyn with an inspection by one of eight wardrobe managers, who catalog the pieces and examine them for damage, stains or pests. When items look less than pristine, dry-cleaning is sometimes recommended before storage.

“I love order,” said Quinn Bradley, 38, the director of operations at the Brooklyn warehouse. Bradley, who had worked at Garde Robe for about eight years when it was acquired by Uovo, has a master’s degree in fashion and textile studies from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She said that she developed her love of collections management while working in public affairs at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York.

All Uovo warehouses used for fashion storage are climate-controlled, Bradley said, specifically at 70 degrees and 50% humidity, which she noted are industry standards.

“What is important is to avoid large swings of temperature or humidity,” Lowery added. An industrial-sized chiller regulates both at the Brooklyn warehouse.

Once pieces are cataloged and deemed ready for storage, they are photographed in one of the warehouse’s three studios. Two of the studios have cameras that capture 360-degree images; according to Lowery, those cameras cost $50,000 to $60,000 each.

After being photographed, garments that need to be hung are put in bags made of polypropylene (a breathable plastic). Other pieces are folded, wrapped in acid-free tissue paper and placed in lightblue boxes made of acidfree, corrugated cardboard. Shoes are stored in clear plastic bins. All of those bags, boxes and bins are kept on rails and shelves that occupy about 20,000 square feet of the facility’s 150,000 square feet.

“They keep our clothes as if they were works of art,” said Emilie Rubinfeld, the president of Carolina Herrera, which began using Garde Robe in 2012. Previously, its garments were kept in-house.

When storing fashion, Garde Robe by Uovo charges by the rack. One rack — which holds up to 50 garments, 10 pairs of shoes and 10 bags or other accessories — costs about $400 per month. Pricing, especially for fashion brands, can vary based on volume and the length of storage time.