‘Dressed for Departure: Fashion in the Age of Rail’ is currently showing at The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle.

‘Dressed for Departure’ brings together historic fashion, artworks and objects that reflect on how engineering advances reshaped lives and culture, especially in the north-east. Set within the Fashion & Textiles gallery at the museum, the display journeys from the early 19th century, when the railway arrived, to the end of the 20th century, a time when rail travel had become an everyday reality. Visitors can explore how the beginning of the railway transformed not just transportation, but also personal style, artistic expression and social habits. The show is commemorating the bicentenary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the world’s first public railway to use steam locomotives.

Dressed for Departure: Fashion in the Age of Rail, until 1 February 2026, The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, thebowesmuseum.org.uk