The power of Julie Vojtovics (co-founder of Vors Archive) is the serendipitous way she calls forth garments of the past. Or rather, the formidable way clothing and objects call on her. Famously started as a passion project, Vors remains the most awe-inspiring huddle of fabric available to the public. What creates its supernatural effect on researchers is the conviction within the founders that any item within the collection has to be an incredibly special and unseen one. Everything acquired goes through a test: Vojtovics touches, feels and furiously understands all the soft-goods in her shopping basket. ‘I experience strange, beautiful, unexpected feelings sometimes when I find pieces. It must give me a certain fervour before I buy it.’ The zeal is in turn experienced by visitors and viewers of Vors. Her compassionate cataloguing of its original use is tangled with her imaginative research into who the person was, what they looked like and how they themselves felt when wearing the piece. Archives often remove the wider humanity of history, acting as silent graveyards for personal stories.  Vors acknowledges each thread is a memory bank for the every day as Julie gives them a vibrant home: she restyles, retells and rethinks. Caring for the residues of experience and the sanctity of patina, she embodies the perfect history tour guide for mutton sleeves, mourning capes or RAF belts alike. Julie Vojtovics is the keeper of every broken bone in each bodice.

1870s/1880s French Mourning Cap (Vors Archive)

Julie Vojtovics is a costume designer and researcher based in Paris.