Online collections = happy eyeballs

Just in case anyone needs to kill some time on the internet or actually needs to find an object for research's sake, here are a few links that I have been perusing lately.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's digital collection

House of Worth, 1896

The Chicago History Museum's digital collection

Paul Poiret, 1913

and OMG that dress!, which is a blog dedicated to posting images of historical fashion from institutions from all over the world.

Jacques Fath, 1953, The Kyoto Costume Institute

The images in these digital collections are gorgeous and include centuries of history.  So even if you are not looking for academic purposes, just browsing for the sake of your eyeballs is a good reason too.

Enjoy!

Fashion Journals: Worn and Address

I have come across two fashion publications that I have enjoyed so much in the last few months.  Address, based out of London, is an independent, academic journal that presents fashion through many different creative mediums and perspectives.  Worn, based out of Toronto, is another independent fashion journal that also showcases fashion and the art of appearances from many different viewpoints.

One of the reasons I love these journals so much is the incorporation of different styles of writing, perspectives, cultures, themes, and personalities. Their broad spectrum view of fashion and the ways we encounter and interpret it in our past, present, and future lives is what makes these publications different from fashion journals before them.  While Address has pieces written by those in and out of the fashion industry from all over the world, Worn supports those in its local fashion community and operates in a realm of its own where an extraordinary fashion journal is cleverly disguised as a fashion magazine.  Worn and Address share an important quality, however,  in that they both approach dress as something that is unique and different to every culture and every individual for that matter.

I could not turn a page in either of these publications without finding something that struck me.  These are just a few quotes that I could not help but make note of.

The introduction to the opening article in Address titled "From Out of the Box" by Nathaniel Dafydd Beard: (This article discusses the ever-rising emphasis being placed on fashion exhibitions in cultural institutions and how museums are learning as they go to find the best ways to make their collections accessible to the public.)
"Historically, the relationship between fashion and the museum ended at the cloakroom.  Yet, just as curators began to explore the vast cultural significance of the fashion industry, their spaces saw an explosion of vitality which has now escaped from the boundaries of physical space altogether.  As fashion curators develop an increasing hunger for the digital, what role does clothing now play?"

(from the same article) "Despite their vast wealth of knowledge and expertise, there remains a slight amateurish air over the fashion curator's role, in part because so many had to create their own jobs as they went along."

"Or as Cecil Beaton once put it, 'He who ignores fashion, ignores life itself.'" (My new tagline..)

This opening article in Address meant a lot to me. While I was still interning at the Chicago History Museum, I saw first hand the types of efforts that were being made to catalog images for future public release on the web.  Fashion has always been, well, fashionable, but as for fashion in museums, the public and museum staff themselves are still trying to figure out how to receive it.  I strongly suggest anyone who has any interest in this subject to order the journal from their website.  This article is only one of many gems in their current issue.

(Don't mind it's creased corners, I've been carrying it with me 

everywhere since I got in the mail last week)

I have only been a subscriber to Worn for its last 2 issues. They are a bi-annual publication and their most recent issue was their 14th.  Just as the 13th issue was, the 14th issue has been just as much of a page turner filled with insightful and refreshing articles that do not take themselves too seriously as some long-standing fashion publications might.

Right away in the editor's letter, Worn manages to talk about style in a way that had not occurred to me before:
"When it comes to style, fashion, and taste, WORN is committed to challenging the polarizing concepts of good and bad...We believe we have as much to learn from things we don't like as things we do.  Realizing that there is no one sartorial path is to accept there is no one human narrative; ultimately, our individuality is what we have in common."

Throughout the issue, from the different types of bras and their histories to the affects the military has had on men's fashion ("Shop at all seriously for a suit, and you enter a realm of things you must always or never do."), I learn more and more about the clothing I put on everyday.  I also learn about the clothes that other types of people wear everyday, such as ballet dancers, or even other cultures, such as Mayan women in South America and their traditional huipils.  All in all, Worn presents information about style and dress in such a thought-provoking and witty way that will make me a subscriber to their journal for as long as they keep sending them to me all the way down in Memphis.

The mere existence of these publications gives clue to the rise of this once scoffed at industry of dress as interpretive history.  And as someone who hopes to have the privilege to work in this industry one day, publications, blogs, and other forms of media like these ignite my drive and passion to meet that goal even more.  And for that, editors of Worn and Address, I thank you.

Favorite Old Thing of the Week (??)

So I think I started the Favorite Old Thing post and then did maybe two weeks hence the question marks in the title sooo let's try this again, shall we?

One of the greatest tools that I've found on the internet for studying historical objects is the online archives that museums work tirelessly to photograph and publish online for the world to see. I can't wait for the Chicago History Museum to launch their own archive of objects because that collection deserves to be seen on a world wide basis. One of the existing online collections that I continually return to for examples of historical dress, however, is the Metropolitan Museum of Art's. Currently, the Met has 341,940 objects at our disposable to browse through or to conduct a specified search. I was browsing through the collection in research of my last post on the Charles James exhibit when I came across this gorgeous sweater.

The Met dates this sweater at 1895. The clues that point to this date are the leg-o-mutton style sleeves, which came into popularity in 1890, and the intended use of this type of sweater, which would have been for sportswear. It may be hard to believe that a woman would have played tennis in an ensemble like this with our Under Armor and barely there Nike outfits that the Mrs. Williams's play in today, but it is true that this sweater would have been considered "casual wear" in 1895. The state of its condition is really remarkable and makes pieces like this very rare in museum collections because its intended use would have allowed for wear and tear and made it an unsuitable piece to be donated.

Prior to the rise of women playing sports it was considered dangerous for women to participate in rigorous physical activity because her energy needed to be conserved for "childbearing and rearing." As a young woman who played college basketball, it is unfathomable to think that women had to be restricted to "calisthenics, dancing, walking, and horseback riding" for exercise. Thankfully, by 1900, even the fashion world had begun to approve of sports for women:

"But aside from the team spirit there are wonderful physical advantages in basket-ball. Of all the team games that men play, for many long years not one was available for the women's colleges... Basket-ball, however, was available from the first, and it was not many months after its invention in 1892 that it was welcomed in all of the women's gymnasiums...The fascination of the game attracted the girls to the gymnasiums, and they took this exercise willingly and even eagerly when chest-weights, dumbbells, and rowing-machines seemed a drudge. The excitement of play, too, permitted them more exercise with less fatigue, the advantage of which is apparent."

-- J. Parmly Paret, Harper's Bazaar, October 20, 1900

Resources are Metropolitan Museum of Art website and "Women in Pants: Manly Maidens, Cowgirls, and Other Renegades" by Catherine Smith and Cynthia Greig.

"Charles James: Genius Deconstructed"

On this grey Saturday afternoon, I had the pleasure of revisiting some old stomping grounds at the Chicago History Museum and the chance to see the Charles James exhibition that has been in place since October. Charles James, a London born fashion designer, first made his stake in the industry in Chicago in the 1930s. The 1940s and 1950s were the wonder years in Charles James career. In 1946, James presented his first (and only) collection in Paris. "The Paris showing was so successful that Christian Dior credited James as an inspiration for his now-famous 1947 New Look collection."* The exhibit, titled "Charles James: Genius Deconstructed," presents James's work through the lens of construction. James approached dressmaking with techniques that he had acquired making his daring style of hats in the late 1920s. Therefore, James's designs were constantly ahead of their time in style and technique, as well as considered masterworks of art and construction.

One of the highlights for me (outside of the gowns themselves) of the exhibit were the CT scans that were taken of several of the gowns at the Field Museum. The scans revealed the very meticulous construction of the gowns which included intricate metal stays and boning in many of the gowns.

CT scan of Charles James's "Tree" gown

Cover of exhibit catalog** featuring a side by side image of the "Tree" gown and the CT scan taken of the gown

Another highlight of the exhibit for me was a little tidbit of fashion history that I learned about one of my favorite James pieces, the Infanta or also known as the Williamsburg. The two different names for this gown refer to the two different time periods in which a similar style of gown was worn. "Infanta" was a name used for women in the royal Spanish court in the seventeenth century whose wide style skirts are infamous in paintings by Diego Velazquez. The name "Williamsburg" refers to the panniers, an undergarment that widened the appearance of the hips, that women wore in the eighteenth century in the United States.

Left to right: Velázquez, Infanta Don Margarita de Austria, 1660;

Charles James, Infanta, 1952; Robe a l'Anglaise, 1784-87.

The illustrations of Antonio Lopez are another interesting and beautiful aspect of the exhibit. James and Lopez collaborated in the mid 1960s when Lopez was beginning to be recognized in the art world. This collaboration has been a vital point to the survival and legacy of James's work. 106 of Lopez's illustrations were donated to the Chicago History Museum during Charles James's visit to the Chicago History Museum in 1974.

Illustration by Antonio Lopez of Charles James design

"The artist, Charley James, who chose silks or furs instead of stone or paint as his media, built sculptures and created paintings around the living flesh." - Franklin Rose, friend of Charles James

Charles James on his visit to Chicago History Museum in 1974,

the purpose of which was to examine the collection of his gowns.

*Quote from exhibit catalog.

**The exhibit catalog for Charles James: Genius Deconstructed can be purchased here.

Images from Metropolitan Museum of Art and Chicago History Museum.

L'influence

I was perusing the runway images from Paris and Milan's most recent fashion weeks (Spring 2012 Ready-To-Wear) and I came upon this fabulous hat (or visor, really..) in the Balenciaga show. Instantly, the famous Irving Penn photographs of Balenciaga fashions circa 1950 came to mind, but also..and please bear with me on this one..images of trench warfare soldiers from World War I. Something about the almost cape-like brim reminded me of the drawings and cartoons of trench soldiers that were plastered on propaganda posters and war bond posters. Whatch'all think?

Balenciaga Spring 2012 RTW

Lisa Fonssagrive in Balenciaga, taken by Irving Penn, 1950.

Love, love, love.

O and just for fun...Another gem from Spring 2012. Yall know I love some Barbie shoes...Especially some YSL Jack Sparrow meets Marie Antionette Barbie shoes..*sigh*

Runway images property of Style.com

"We all get dressed for Bill."

Every one who is interested in fashion, especially fashion journalism, needs to watch the documentary on Bill Cunningham. Simply titled "Bill Cunningham New York," this documentary chronicles the life and work, which are one in the same, of the photographer who has captured fabulous, real women in fashion on the streets of New York since the 1960s. Historically speaking, he has seen and captured all the major works and looks of high fashion and "street" fashion of the second half of the 20th century. He continually references historical influences in his weekly columns for the New York Times as well as in the audio for online videos that accompany his "In the Street" column. Bill Cunningham is a staple character in the streets of New York City as well as an icon in fashion journalism. His mission is not to define trends or fashion, but to merely capture and portray beautiful men and women in their clothes or their "armor to survive everyday life" as he puts it. It is because of people like Bill that fashion has become so accessible to everyone across the globe. He dedicates his life to capturing everyday people in the wonderfully fashion forward city of New York for his own pleasure as well as for the pleasure of small-town girls like myself who dream of the day when our photograph is casually snapped by the likes of Bill Cunningham. The documentary is available on instant streaming on Netflix right now so I suggest you all hop to it and check it out.

"Unmentionables: Foundations of Fashion"

In the spirit of embracing my move back to Memphis I am seeking outlets of history and fashion history in my dear ole hometown to not only continue my own education of the subjects but also to learn more about the place in which I was born and raised. So it was my delight to learn that The Pink Palace was opening a display of fashion undergarments titled "Unmentionables: Foundations of Fashion." As every other broke post-grad does in this situation, I looked up when the museum offers free admission :) So last Tuesday in between 1-5 I trekked over to check it out. (I will be writing a separate post about the general history of The Pink Palace and the other textile and garment pieces I encountered while on my visit there.)

The emphasis of the display is on silhouette and how fashion's history has been defined greatly by shape and the undergarments that create said shapes. The display includes 12 examples of women's undergarments spanning from the 1880s to the 1960s and 4 examples of men's undergarments. The display also includes 6 women's dresses, including one wedding dress, that exemplify the type of garment that would be worn with their counterpart understructure, all spanning from the 1880s to the 1960s. The study of silhouette has always been an area of interest of mine, especially in relation to corsetry and the women's movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I complain when a belt or a pair of pants is too tight so I can only imagine the discomfort that these women dealt with daily because of tight corsetry. On the other hand, today's woman will walk around in 4 inch heels all day giving herself blisters all for the sake of beauty and fashion, so is there really that big of difference? All I can conclude is that I am thankful that it is no longer considered in vogue to wear those type of garments under my clothes everyday and to thank designers like Chanel, Poiret, and Fortuny for setting the trend on a mainstream level in the 1910s and women like Ameilia Bloomer, Annie Oakley, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton for starting the trend among women at the grassroots level in the 19th century.