I had to take my car in for a service appointment to a shop in a town called São Brás de Alportel. It’s about 30 minutes away from Tavira, but we had never been there before and had no idea what we would do while we waited for the car. I looked up some stuff on Google and the Museu Do Traje popped up. It looked like it could be interesting and a good way to spend some time. We grabbed some breakfast and coffee and then headed towards the museum. 

The entrance of the museum had a beautiful little courtyard. The walls were tiled and there was a beautiful iron dress horse. There was a small pond with Koi fish that also had an iron cage over it. The ground was also tiled with beautiful large tiles. 

Entrance to the museum

We walked in and the receptionist was extremely friendly. She gave us a small overview of the museum. She explained that there were multiple parts of the museum. Of course there was the costume part but there was also an exhibit about the cork industry and also an exhibit of the rural environment history. The entrance cost was €2,50 each. We downloaded the app and started on the journey. 

This post will just be about this section of the museum. Even though it was not a very large museum it did have a lot to offer so I will separate it into parts. 

The Gears of Time

A Different Time– The first room of the museum had a really cool art mural on the walls that was created by a group of contemporary graffiti artists Bean and Zen. They are from Olhao which is a town close by. Olhao is known for its really great street art. The artists were asked to design the room based on a Portuguese tongue-twister “Time asked Time what time Time had.” And they did an amazing job of interpreting that. In the center of the room is the mechanism of the original, old clock tower from the main church of the town which operated from 1903-1920. 

Piece of the original clock tower
Mural by Bean and Zen

The Gears of Time-

The Gears of Time starts with a Time Corridor and will take you on a journey of the history of Portugal from the 1900s until the end of WW1 and 1920’s. It begins with a small corridor with old photographs of some of the families of São Brás de Alportel. The pictures range from 1900-1930’s. The pictures display the time from the end of the monarchy to the First Republic, then to the Great War where many lost their lives and ends with the Times of Hope and Uncertainty which came with the end of World War one and a new Dictatorship.

The Time Corridor

Faraway Times-

This was one of my favorite rooms. It showcased the fashion of the Algarve in 1900. The dresses look heavy and warm and cover almost everything. It would have been very inappropriate to show any skin other than face and hands at the time. It was common to dress little boys up in military style outfits and the men wore suits. And everyone had a hat. Along the walls were windows that showed what you could buy in the local shops at the time. There was a window that showed a mustache trainer with the original instructions on how to use it. Another window showed dolls and toys. There was also one with a pair of womens boots. The dolls were a little creepy, not going to lie but old dolls always seem to be for some reason. My favorite part of this room though was at the end,  “The Language of the Fan.” It was a display of old hand fans and a mirror. Along the mirror were illustrations and instructions on how to use your fan to flirt. The mirror was so you could practice. I got pretty good at the “No” 😂

Typical Dress, The Mustache Trainer, and Creepy Dolls,
Flirting with Fans

Turbulent Times- 

The next room showed the fashion from 1910 and also described the political situation of the time. 1910 was the end of the Monarchy which had ruled Portugal for over 700 years. There were newspaper articles on the walls from 2 local newspapers that continuously opposed each other. The fashion of this time was a bit different but women still remained completely covered. There was also a beautiful vintage Vesta sewing machine. 

Vintage Sewing Machine
I thought the black dress was beautiful, I would have worn that!

In the Trenches-

The next exhibit showed a trench from the First World War. The main benefactor of this exhibit was Jose Viegas Louro who was a military doctor in the war. There are some of his personal items from the war on display here. This was the first time that poisonous gas was used in warfare and there are some gas masks on display as well. There are also some grenades, guns and ammunition, and medical supplies. 

Recreation of a WWI trench
Medical supplies from the war
Gas masks and weapons

Times of Hope and Uncertainty-

This was another of my favorites. The War was over and there were economic and social changes in Portugal. And with that came new fashion. The Roaring 20s dresses were popular in the Algarve and now women could show their legs! This room had beautiful flapper dresses on display. They were intricately beaded and made with more delicate fabrics compared to the heavy garments seen in the previous rooms. This was the end of the Gears of Time Exhibit. 

Outfits from the 1920’s. These dresses had gorgeous beadwork. They were stunning.

Marilyn Revisited

There was one last room where an artist named Charlie Holt was invited to do a project based on anything in the museum. They chose to reinvent some magazine covers from the 1920-30’s. They reimagined them in the style of Andy Warhol as he did with his Marilyn Monroe portraits.

Some of the prints by Charlie Holt and the original magazines.

This museum was really interesting. I love learning about the different parts of history like the fashion and day-to-day life. I am glad the mechanic was in this town because I don’t know if I would have ever known about this museum otherwise. I’m really glad we got to visit. I’ll be writing more about the other exhibits soon.

Don’t forget to check out my instagram for more pics and videos about the museum @vegas.to.portugal.