Plenty will be dressing the part Saturday as models take a walk through fashion and theatre history.

“Dressing the Part: A Cavalcade of Historic & Theatrical Garments” is a production by Jeffery Phipps, a Beaufort County Arts Council board member and recently retired professor of costume design at East Carolina University. It’s not the average arts council fundraiser: the art here includes everything from underwear to outerwear, from casual to formal, from the big screen to Broadway, and from the closets of some local families.

“We wanted to do something that would be interesting for our patrons and that tied together theatre arts with local families,” Phipps said.

Phipps, for one, is contributing to the show his personal collection of costumes, collected over the years: costumes from ECU’s theatre programs through the years, including “The Nutcracker,” from “Idiot’s Delight,” a 1937 film starring Clark Gable and Norma Shearer, and from two Broadway productions — “America Fable” and the doomed production about the life of Marilyn Monroe, “Marilyn,” which had only had 17-day run before it closed.

“That’s how I got these two dresses — they were trying to recoup some of the investment,” Phipps said.

There’s plenty more to be seen, and some of the most interesting pieces come from the attics and closets of Washington residents, like Karen Tripp’s 1950s prom dress, an elaborate work, handmade by her mother from a pattern in a teen magazine, and a dress Tripp’s mother wore as a bridesmaid in the 1930s.

Phipps said the clothes being feature is not all fancy, though that’s the clothing that tends to survive through the decades. This fashion show gives an accurate portrayal of what people actually wore. For example, a trio of dresses that were worn by women in Kugler family.

“They’re simple dresses but they’re so very cleverly made. They look simple and like nothing, but they are so important,” Phipps said. “You didn’t see everyday stuff because they wore it out.”

For Phipps being able to share costumes and clothing is his life’s work. People wear clothing for five reasons, he said: as protection, for modesty, as a way to establish socioeconomic status, to fit in with a certain occupation, and as a way to attract romantic partners. As a costume designer, it’s his role to figure out what clothing best represents a character.

“As a professor of design and costume history, one of the things I so much enjoyed about my job was to make people look like their characters,” Phipps said.

“Dressing the Part” begins Saturday at 2:30 p.m. with light refreshments, followed by the fashion show from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., which will be emceed by ECU director and professor of acting Robert Caprio,

“From 4 to 4:30 there will be a meet and greet, where the models will be out, so people can see the clothes up close,” Phipps said.

Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. To purchase tickets, call BCAC at 252-946-2504, or visit the Turnage Theatre at 150 W. Main St., Washington.