In the spring of 2012, the Fashion Museum Antwerp presents Living Fashion: Women’s Daily Wear 1750– 1950. From the Jacoba de Jonge collection, an exhibition about the influence of fashion on the everyday lives of middle-class women in Western Europe between 1750 and 1950. As a rule, it is high fashion that attracts most people’s attention, while only a select few have been privileged enough to wear it, and then only on special occasions. Exclusive fashion trends were, however, adopted as much as circumstances allowed by women of the middle classes, and to a lesser degree by the working classes. Based on historic dresses and accessories, the exhibition sketches a picture of the relationship between fashion ideals and the clothing that was actually worn, with an eye to the timeless desire to achieve a fashionable appearance in one’s clothing, regardless of function. The exhibition also looks into the construction of such fashionable apparel and the consequences this had in posture and behaviour, as well as altering or adapting clothing to suit new trends.Fashions were important not only in evening or formal wear, but also in day dresses, which changed according to the activities of those wearing them. The exhibition illustrates this story with 90 silhouettes, complete with accessories from the extensive historic clothing collection of the Dutch collector, Jacoba de Jonge.