These days, attending a symphony demands little more than a pair of jeans and maybe, if you’re really dressing for the occasion, your fanciest going-out T-shirt. Back when Vancouver’s storied Orpheum Theatre opened in the 1920s, however, seeing a show of such magnitude meant pulling out your Sunday best—and we don’t mean just throwing a blazer atop that ironed T or donning your least scuffed sneakers.

Think damask-silk evening dresses accessorized with strands of shining pearls, dropped-waistline robes, and flowy Princess Diana–inspired frocks that once belonged to the wife of the former Dutch ambassador to Austria—all of which is on dazzling display in The Dress Circle: Fashion for the Symphony 1918–2018, an exhibition at the Orpheum presented by the Museum of Vancouver, Vancouver Civic Theatres, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in celebration of the VSO’s 100th birthday. Curated by local fashion historians Ivan Sayers and Claus Jahnke, the installation features 10 stunning gowns, each representative of a style period dating back to the early ’20s to present day.

From a World War II–era silk-velvet cape to a psychedelic, sequin-embellished number that embodies the ’70s in all its groovy glory, the garments offer a visual timeline of what women would’ve worn to witness a VSO concert over the last century. “Traditionally, going to a public performance like a symphony or an opera or even a more conventional music performance, you would get dressed up,” Sayers tells the Straight at the Orpheum during Dress Circle’s launch. “Nowadays, people tend to think it’s a bit pretentious to get dressed up. They want to be casual to show that everybody’s sort of equal—and I understand it. But you also can miss out on a lot if you don’t get dressed up.”

Dress Circle features attire sourced from establishments like the Society for the Museum of Original Costume and UBC’s Frederic Wood Theatre, as well as Sayers’s and Jahnke’s personal collections, so many of them have connections to Vancouver. The shimmering silver frock that’s illustrative of the ’30s was designed and crafted by a local company called Donaldson’s, for example, which Sayers describes as “the most exclusive, the most expensive dressmaking business in the city” during its time. There’s also a gorgeous mint-green cheongsam or qípáo decorated with hand-embroidered butterflies and peonies. This dress was included in the installation to acknowledge the red satin wall hangings that Vancouver’s Chinese community donated to the Orpheum when it opened in 1928.

“We tried to make it [Dress Circle] glamourous but relevant to Vancouver,” explains Sayers. “So often, people tend to think that, because you’re in Vancouver, it’s not going to be glamorous and there’s no reason to try. And that’s nonsense.”

Sayers hopes that the fashion-centric exhibition will offer visitors a peek of the Orpheum’s stylish history while encouraging them to dress up for future VSO recitals and other performances. He recalls a time he attended a show at the Granville Street venue nearly three decades ago, when he spotted an elderly woman clothed in a beautiful rouge-satin dress adorned with gold flowers that dated back to the ’30s. She wore it with a matching coat, he remembers, and prior to the concert, fellow guests clamoured to get a view of her ensemble in the Orpheum’s lobby.

“Everyone was milling about just to get a look at this elegant, elegant woman,” he says. “She looked wonderful. And I only mention this because, if it goes in the paper, one of her heirs might hear about this and phone me up and give me that dress. I’m waiting for that dress!”

The Dress Circle: Fashion for the Symphony 1918–2018 is at the Orpheum Theatre until May 31, 2019.