If there’s one single aesthetic that’s been slowly creeping into mainstream fashion, culture and interiors, it may just be Victorian. With icons as far-flung as Nosferatu and Simone Rocha referencing the era recently, it’s undeniable. And, with the recent collecting craze of everything from Sonny Angels to antique glass swans, the trinket is alive and well. Enter: the modern-day cabinet of curiosities, which seems to be flourishing in 2025.
For the unfamiliar, the cabinet of curiosities emerged in the Renaissance era. These large, spellbinding glass cabinets (or small displays, or entire rooms) were full of rare objects from around the world, including everything from portrait miniatures, coral, rare coins, jewels, and shells. Though inherently a Renaissance idea, the concept was perfected in the Victorian era (from 1837 to 1901) due to increased travel and exploration. This year, the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City is opening an exhibition devoted to cabinets of curiosities in fashion; David Yurman’s new Miami Design District boutique has a cabinet of curiosities on display; and people of all ages are creating their own versions, stacking them with personal items, collectibles, and even vintage objects like makeup compacts or rare jewelry or shoes, putting them on display. The cabinet of curiosities is thriving, it just might contain shell-shaped Miu Miu shoes from 2017 instead of preserved animals. At least mine does.
Eileen Costa
What makes the idea of a cabinet of curiosities compelling is that it is so personal. Historical paintings may show pieces like natural specimens (naturalia) or scientific instruments, but the reality is that a true cabinet of curiosities could contain anything interesting, most often items picked up during travel or given as gifts. “A lot of my research into the history of the cabinet through the 18th century focused on what kinds of objects were collected within the cabinets,” explains Colleen Hill, curator of Fashioning Wonder: A Cabinet of Curiosities at the Museum at FIT. “I thought it would be really interesting to look at some of these larger categories, everything from objects of illusion to anatomical specimens to shells, and see how fashion has and continues to reference those same kinds of themes that inspired collectors hundreds of years ago.”
Unsurprisingly, even hundreds of years ago, shoes were at the top of collector’s lists, not just to wear but rather to display as beautiful items in one’s home interior. “Cabinets of curiosities were meant to be this microcosm of knowledge, so you would collect not just objects from the natural world, but also human-made artifacts,” Hill says. She cites super-tall Chopins, embellished shoes from India, and rare jewelry as some of the historical examples.
Even though we’re living during unprecedented times, the art of collecting is more popular than ever. Like the aforementioned Sonny Angels craze that has spurred meet-up groups, others are collecting rare archival fashion or antique objects, many for the first time. Unsurprisingly, this seems to be coinciding with the rising popularity of thrifting and antiquing. Jacquelyn Rambo, a Massachusetts-based teacher and content creator who often thrifts her favorite objects and lives in a 1940s stone Cape Cod-style house, frequently finds antiques like a convex glass curio cabinet that she found in early 2023 on Facebook Marketplace for $200. “I started researching cabinets and found photos of curio cabinets like these and how people would ‘style’ them in eclectic ways,” she recalls. “I went to a bunch of antique stores in my area of Pennsylvania, but wasn’t able to find the right one—some didn’t have a locking mechanism, some had new glass. I resorted to Facebook Marketplace and almost immediately found the one we would eventually take home! It was the first piece my partner and I bought together for our home and curated the rest of the room around it and our fireplace.”
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Photo: Jacquelyn Rambo
Rambo is deeply inspired by the Aestheticism and Arts and Crafts movements from the Victorian era, emphasizing how “painstaking details were ever present.” Her own cabinet of curiosities is used to store cabinet cards, tintypes, and oddities from the mid 19th century through the 1930s, including turn-of-the-century medical equipment like a pharmaceutical kit, glass eyes, animal skulls, and Victorian mourning pieces. She also collects brooches and pendants, even watch chains made of finely woven human hair—a common theme for sentimental jewelry in the 19th century.
