Worthing Museum & Art Gallery have added a pair of David Bowie’s flared trousers to their current exhibition after their recent re-discovery within the museum’s costume collection.
A pair of black satin rayon flares worn by rock-star David Bowie on-stage at Worthing’s Assembly Hall on May 11 1972 during his Ziggy Stardust tour, have been returned to display after their re-discovery then subsequent research and authentication.
The trousers, which are now classified by museum accession number 1983/419, were donated by Mr J Fowle in 1983. They had been ‘lost’ within the museum’s 30,000-piece costume collection as a result of historic changes to the curatorial team and were unveiled as part of ongoing collection cataloguing which enabled their inclusion in a digital database of the collection funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. The trousers had to be researched and authenticated before they could be exhibited at the museum.
The trousers, which are now displayed on the ground floor of the museum, feature a diamanté hem detail, are backed in black crepe, have a zip fastening and include legs measuring 3-feet in circumference which required four panels of fabric for their creation.
Gerry Connolly, senior curator at Worthing Museum & Art Gallery says: “We’re delighted by the recent popularity of these wonderful trousers which we have been able to research and authenticate as having belonged to David Bowie who wore them on-stage here in Worthing.
“It’s not uncommon for pieces within museums to have been temporarily ‘lost’ if they were donated before collection records were digitised and curatorial staff changes have taken place. We are therefore thrilled that these flares have now been placed on display just metres from the stage on which they were originally worn.”