In our dual exhibition, MIX & MATCH, we offer a glimpse into our collection’s universe.
But which items actually belong to the Draiflessen Collection, and how are they organized?
In this blog post, we’d like to give you a little insight into everything that’s stored in our archives and storage rooms—and that you can admire in the current exhibition.

The Draiflessen Collection’s Company Archives house important documents from the history of the C&A company, founded in 1841 in the Dutch town of Sneek. The documents span the period from C&A’s earliest years right up to the recent past. These holdings are to be expanded in future to encompass further areas of business activity pursued by the Brenninkmeijer family. The company’s written records, together with the documents belonging to the Family Archives, occupy some 250 meters of shelf space. Photographs of store openings, production facilities, and department stores also form a core strand of the archival holdings. Another focal point is the Advertising Collection, which contains German newspaper adverts from 1911 to 2002, as well as film and print advertising targeted at international audiences.

Historical documents from the personal collections of family members complement the holdings of the Company Archives. It is often not possible to draw a clear line between professional and private life. The Family Archives include photographs and home movies, as well as letters and personal printed materials, such as wedding newspapers or written pieces on family history.

The Company Collection covers the three-dimensional objects originating from the context of C&A as a Brenninkmeijer family business. It chiefly comprises C&A clothing and promotional products, such as the Snuffle Dog and several variants of the Palomino mechanical rocking horse. Architectural models, historical shop-floor and back-office hardware, and fashion drawings are also housed in this area of the collection.

Our Fashion Collection encompasses more than 4,000 garments and accessories, with an emphasis on sample pieces and C&A collections from the 1950s onward. The collection also includes selected objects from the fields of haute couture, prêt-à-porter, and bespoke tailoring, as well as items made by other ready-to-wear clothing manufacturers. These wide-ranging holdings enable different facets of the history of fashion and its times to be illuminated in detail through research and exhibitions.

Objects such as clothing, personal mementos, and artworks belonging to the Brenninkmeijer family are important pillars of the Family Collection, which is constantly being expanded through donations and permanent loans from private collections.

The Applied Arts Collection houses large groups of works and single pieces primarily related to the history of textiles and industry.

Comprising more than 2,000 objects, the Stichting Ariadne’s Naaikussen (Ariadne’s Sewing Cushion Foundation) is an exquisite collection of historical needlework and sewing utensils. It was assembled with great expertise by Clementine Kuttschrütter (née Brenninkmeijer, 1933–2018) over a span of more than forty years and today represents the largest area of holdings within the Applied Arts Collection.

The distinguished holdings of the Liberna Collection—on permanent loan to the Draiflessen Collection since September 2012—focus on manuscripts, miniatures, incunabula, books after 1500, prints, drawings, stained glass, and paintings produced primarily between the fifteenth and the seventeenth centuries in Northern Europe. Founded by Bernard Brenninkmeijer (1893–1976), the Liberna Collection (liber = Latin for “book” + Bernard = the collector’s first name) comprises some 4,000 objects.

The Libisma Collection holds facsimile editions assembled by Aldegonde (b. 1945) and Hubert Brenninkmeijer (1934–2018), initially in close collaboration with the Liberna founder Bernard Brenninkmeijer. It consists of high-quality facsimiles (exact modern-day reproductions) of manuscripts from the seventh to the fifteenth centuries, together with a small number of early printed books. The Libisma Collection comprises some 250 items and has been housed in the Draiflessen Collection since November 2013.

The Tuliba Collection was assembled by Anthony Brenninkmeijer (1929–2021), a son of the Liberna founder Bernard Brenninkmeijer. It consists of some 750 prints and drawings as well as twenty-four medieval and early modern manuscripts and eleven miniatures. This compilation largely mirrors the focus of the Liberna Collection in terms of the time span and regions in which the artworks were produced.

The Draiflessen Collection is also home to a select collection of contemporary art, which is in the process of being expanded. It includes works of visual art from the media of photography, video art, and painting. The objects in question represent acquisitions made specifically to complement the collection, along with donations and also commissioned works arising out of our collaboration with artists.