The Engen’s Executive Director Annie Bommer said the new exhibits debuted last weekend. She said as visitors enter the museum, they’ll first see an exhibit of early skiwear, including some pieces that date back to the 1930s.
Bommer said the exhibit shows how clothing technology has changed.
“Our early stuff, you know, we have just a regular sweater with a turtleneck, you know, it's obviously wool to kind of wick that water away. And then just some pants, like trousers that you'd see walking down the street,” she said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” June 23.
Board Chairman Emeritus Tom Kelly said his favorite part of the exhibit is a blue sweater from ski legend Alf Engen, the museum’s namesake.
“This thing, honest to God, it looks like it just came out of the box, and it's almost 100 years old,” he said. “So for me, that was really the highlight of the exhibit, and it's the first thing that hits you when you come in the entryway to the museum.”
The exhibit transitions into 60s styles with bright color patterns, one-piece suits and spandex leggings. Contemporary ski gear, like parkas and bibs, is also featured and switched out every year to keep the exhibit fresh.
Kelly said a second fashion exhibit includes skiwear from the collection of magazine editor and U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame inductee Barbara Alley Simon. She’s known as the “First Lady of Ski Fashion.”
“She was a fashion editor of Skiing magazine, and she really set the global trends in sports for several decades,” Kelly said. “During the 80s and into the 90s, she was fashion in skiing in America. She eventually married Jerry Simon, a ski show promoter, and the two of them were just an inseparable pair in promoting fashion and skiing.”
The Simon collection includes pieces from the 60s through the 90s and features footage from traveling shows where models danced in ski outfits.
Kelly said Simon donated most of her collection to the museum and it’s something that can’t be seen anywhere else in the world.
The last of the new exhibits tells the story of the U.S. Alpine Ski Team, which includes jackets worn by the team. Kelly said Utah financier and philanthropist Spencer Eccles donated uniforms he received during his over 30 years as a trustee of the U.S. Ski Team.
“As we worked to identify which year were each of these jackets from, we looked at the sponsor complement; who was on the jacket and when were they sponsors,” he said. “That was how we really identified which year these jackets came from, and I think we were 100% successful.”
A video was created for each year in the collection to discuss the uniforms and what was happening in Alpine skiing at the time, specifically focusing on Utah ski racers.
The museum is free to visit and is open daily from 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.
