WORCESTER, Mass. - The Worcester Historical Museum is opening "Pretty Powerful: 100 Years of Voting & Style," a new exhibit celebrating women’s right to vote through fashion. 

Each outfit on exhbit has a story to tell, including a dress made in the 1960s by a Worcester Boutique owner, and another dress worn by Michelle Obama. 

“Clothes are really powerful to enter the past," Charlotte Haller, historian behind the Pretty Powerful exhibit, said. "You can imagine the woman that wore that dress and suit, you can think about the world that she walked through while wearing those clothes."

It’s why the Worcester Historical Museum is using fashion to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote. Some of movement was local. The first National Women Right’s Convention was held in Worcester 171 years ago.

“Worcester has been an important piece of the story of understanding Women’s Rights," Haller said. 

The exhibit includes outfits made and worn by people who were born in other countries and came to Worcester.

They’re reminders Black and immigrant women didn’t win the right to vote until years later. And voting rights continue to be a topic of debate, even now as federal leaders look at bills to make it easier to register to vote and vote by mail.

“I’m really elated to part of this project, really celebrating how far we have come as women and how far we still need to go," Efua Dufu, a contributor to the Pretty Powerful exhibit, said.

Haller says more women are voting in elections, but they're still lagging behind men when its comes to holding political office.

The exhibit opens to the public on Tuesday, Oct. 26.

There are special preview times on Thursday and Friday (Oct. 21-22) from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. and on Saturday, Oct. 23, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. People must sign up for the preview time slots. Tickets are available here.