Second skin

A motif from the exhibition

The Second Skin exhibition guides visitors through the history of underwear – the pieces of clothing that have been an indispensable part of people's lives for the past half a millennium. The exhibition features various undergarments, thus presenting the social and historical importance of these most intimate, yet also most provocative pieces of clothing that are our skin's first contact with fabric. Today, we take underwear for granted, rarely giving much thought to it, yet without this ‘second skin’, it is difficult to imagine the daily life of our bodies.

The exhibition, which is a result of the collaboration between two museums, was first put on at the Museum of Ribnica in 2016. For the presentation at the Tolmin Museum, the exhibition was slightly altered and supplemented with garments originating from the Zgornje Posočje region. The history, making and design of underwear were more or less the same everywhere, what is special, however, are the local underwear-related stories and reflections, which are presented as quotes in the highlighted sections of the exhibition.