The Victorian Wardrobe in Oamaru is a blast from the past.
With more than 4000 individual clothing items it is the largest collection of Victorian costumes in New Zealand.
"We’ve been told that many times," volunteer Dawn Sutherland said.
"We’ve even been told we’re the biggest collection in the southern hemisphere, but we don’t know that."
The wardrobe has a handful of original Victorian-era garments from the late 1880s.
One dress in particular is very special to Mrs Sutherland, as she has owned it since she was 10 years old.
"We lived on a farm and a couple of farms over, there was an old abandoned house that as children, we used to play in.
"[One day] it started to rain and my younger sister suffered badly with ear aches and I thought ‘if she gets wet, she’ll get ear ache and Mum won’t be very happy’.
"So I wrapped her up with this old cloth [we found in the attic of the abandoned house] so she wouldn't get wet on the way home and [the dress] was the old cloth.
"I’ve done a wee bit of research on it and I believe it belonged to a Mrs Jeffcoates."
The wardobe was started more than 30 years ago by Sue McLean.
It initially consisted of op shop finds that had been "rehashed" to look like Victorian garments, Mrs Sutherland said.
The collection grew when the Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust bought a collection of costumes from a Dunedin woman who made them.
Nowadays, the majority of the costumes are made by the volunteers, including Mrs Sutherland.
What sets the wardrobe apart from other collections is that all items — except for the original Victorian era garments — are all in use.
Tourists and locals alike hire the costumes for a day or just get dressed up to take photos together.
Mrs Sutherland loves seeing the smiles on people’s faces once they’re dressed to the nines.
"You get them dressed and put a top hat on and give them a walking cane. They’re completely dressed and they just feel different about themselves. They go out walking like they’re somebody.
"It makes you feel good that you’ve made them feel good."
