Annette Soumilas, independent costume and fashion designer, specialising in textile conservation and display of historic dress, talks about the exhibition »Fashion Drive: Extreme Clothing in Visual Arts« at the Kunsthaus Zurich in 2018. Her job was to prepare loans from the Kamer-Ruf collection and from Martin Kamer's private collection at the storage for the exhibition and to dress the mannequins on site. Different work steps were necessary to present the clothes as it was intended. Annette talks about impressions that remain in her memory from this exhibition.

Here and there it happens that Martin Kamer discovers mislabeled objects at auctions. Sometimes he can buy a new dress or accessory for a relatively low price. This requires expert eyes and the necessary bit of luck. In this episode he gives two examples.

Annette Soumilas talks about the professional collaboration between Martin Kamer and her. Soumilas remembers her first meeting with Kamer in Florence, she describes him from her point of view, talks about the basic principles of their collaboration and the similarities between them on a professional level. She also reveals which is her favourite dress from Kamer's collection.

Soumilas is an independent costume and fashion designer, specialising in textile conservation and display of historic dress. She has worked with Australian and international public and private dress, textiles and costume collections for more than 15 years. From 2002 to 2015, Soumilas was textile conservation display specialist at the National Gallery of Victoria (Australia).

Martin Kamer not only collects historical fashion, he also trades in it and repeatedly lends objects from his collection to museums worldwide. In this episode he explains how this process works. With each exhibition new contacts are made and sometimes long-lasting collaborations and friendships develop. Kamer talks about the conditions he attaches to his loans. What is clear is that there is no financial incentive.

In this episode Martin Kamer talks about clothing labels and fraud, which is sometimes committed with labels. Kamer reports on a scandal in connection with an auction in Paris that happened about 20 years ago. It happens that Kamer buys a dress without a label in knowing that it can be attributed to an important designer.

For the exhibition "Smoke and mirrors - The roaring twenties" at the Kunsthaus Zürich (3 July to 11 October 2020), Martin Kamer is making available on loan some 20 exhibits, including five haute couture dresses. In this special episode, which was recorded on location at the museum on 18 September 2020, Kamer focuses on his exhibits and provides interesting additional information.

In this episode Martin Kamer talks about clothing labels and fraud, which is sometimes committed with labels. Kamer reports on a scandal in connection with an auction in Paris that happened about 20 years ago. It happens that Kamer buys a dress without a label in knowing that it can be attributed to an important designer.

Martin Kamer gives an insight into the process in auction houses. He talks about how he prepares for auctions, the strategies he uses on site and the excuses he sometimes uses to dupe himself into bidding higher than he originally intended.

Martin Kamer talks about the phenomenon that sooner or later things come to a collector when they have to. Kamer has made the experience that an object not purchased at an auction - for whatever reason - will eventually find its way into Kamer's collection. As an example, Kamer mentions a scarf designed by Raoul Dufy. Kamer also recalls a Spanish dress made of pineapple fibre (around 1860). And he talks about auction fever. Very often, he says, he paid more for an object than planned, but in retrospect he knows that it was worth it.

Just before the lockdown due to the COVID 19 pandemic, Martin Kamer purchased two albums with photographs from the 1920s. The photos, taken at horse races in Paris, show elegant ladies presenting the latest fashion - like a fashion show. Not all photos show who designed the clothes presented. Kamer uses his research material, consisting of other photographs, illustrations and magazines, to shed light on the dark.