Just wanted to take a moment to mention a few events/exhibitions occurring in NYC:
Greg Lauren: Counter Culture – Ralph Lauren’s nephew, Greg Lauren, (Alliance Francaise Gallery, February 4 – March 6) uses only white paper, specially treated with Japanese oil, to create garments which reflect his own obsession with detail. He admits that his concern over the smallest features of a garment – a pocket, collar, or a button – is what drives his work. His choice of paper as his medium also reflects the fact that fashion in society can sometimes seem “paper thin.” For more on paper garments, see Tove’s post here.
American Beauty - I recently attended a tour of the current exhibition (Museum at FIT, November 6 – April 10) guided by curator Patricia Mears in which she explained everything from the physical set-up of the exhibition to the history, importance, and relevance of each garment. Overall, the exhibition is another lovely, grand, and appropriate homage to American style, with a quite impressive range and breadth of garments on display.
Fashion + Film, the 1960’s Revisited – In conjunction with the James Gallery’s exhibition (March 12 – May 1) of the same name, last Friday the CUNY Graduate Center hosted a full day of papers related to 60’s cinema and fashion, generally in reference to Italian and French films. Most notably, Stella Bruzzi delivered a paper on Pasolini’s Teorema, in which she pointed out how absolutely crucial the costuming elements, whether on or off the body, are to the film’ narrative. During the panel there was the mandatory mentions of Hitchcock and La Dolce Vita and Antonioni’s Blow-up, and despite some interesting points made along the way, it seemed that most of the presenters had a difficult time connected thoughts on both film and fashion – they either tended to discuss one or the other.
“By the mid-1940s, Jacqueline was arguably the most influential designer of surface pattern in Britain.”
–Book review by Lisa Santandrea
An opening spread in Jacqueline Groag: Textile & Pattern Design: Wiener Werkst,tte to American Modern pictures the designer. White-haired with bangs and a pixie cut, an aquiline face, one graceful hand rests on her chin; the other holds a smoldering cigarette. She looks into the camera; her gaze is direct, yet not quite serious. Although she is in her 50s, her skin is lineless, glowing. The image does not reflect the hardship of her experiences—WWII displacement; a beloved husband later described as a “bad tempered old man.” Instead, what shines through is the pert curiosity of one who claimed her “inner age” to be eight years old. It is the face of a woman you’d hope to sit next to at a dinner party.
Jacqueline Groag, by John Garner, 1957. Design Council archive, University of Brighton Design Archives.
Born in 1903 to Jewish parents in Prague, Jacqueline Groag—born Hilde Pilke —traveled to cosmopolitan Vienna to study textile design at the influential Kunstgerbeschule. At 23 and already a widow, a career in art and design was one of the few avenues acceptable for women at the time. A self-described ‘sophisticated naïf,’ Groag apparently flowered under the tutelage of instructor Franz Cizek, who gave his students colored chalk and drawing pads, and asked them to draw while inspirational music played in the background. Impressed by her progress, Cizek convinced architect Joseph Hoffman, head of the Werkstätte, to waive admission requirements, and she spent the next two years as the architect’s pupil. By 1930, she was already being described in print as a “front runner of the Hoffman school,” and was designing textiles for couturiers including Chanel, Lanvin, Worth and Schiaparelli.
Further accolades followed quickly. In 1931, she won an award for lace design at the Paris Exposition Coloniale International. This was followed by a gold medal for textile design at the Milan Triennial in 1933. Personally life was blossoming as well. At a Werkstätte masked ball in 1930, she met the respected Modernist architect Jacques Groag, who was also a Jew from Czechoslovakia. In 1931, they were engaged, and married in 1937—when she changed her first name from Hilde to Jacqueline. “His wonderful, never aging, youthful enthusiasm took me to spheres so high and unearthly as no man ever did and no man can imagine,” she later wrote. The couple—both shining stars in Vienna’s intellectual circles—is thought to have collaborated on many projects during this time.
But the Nazi threat was looming. When Austria and Germany united in 1938, the couple was forced to relocate to Prague. Just one year later, as Germany occupied their native land, they fled to Britain.
As the home of the Arts and Crafts movement, Britain was considered hallowed refuge for artists. However, by 1939, the reality was different. “On arrival in London they found themselves members of an uprooted group of disoriented and anxious patriots in a country shaken to its roots and preparing to fight for its life.” Nonetheless, Jacqueline soon found work designing textiles for export, as war restrictions resulted in very limited textile printing for the home market. Jacqueline’s designs had a playful eclecticism, often incorporating a “rational underlying grid associated with Joseph Hoffman.” Flipping through the book’s abundant full-page color plates, the essence of the “eternal eight-year-old” is clear. Vivid colors, strong lines, even a certain fearlessness is evident in her work. It provides insight into her personality—insight that is much valued. As much as this book has to offer, the text left me wondering. Just what was the personality behind that face that so compelled me?
The authors, Geoffrey Rayner, Richard Chamberlain and Annamarie Stapleton, clearly know their subject. Yet much of the book reads like an extended resume. The reader learns that Jacqueline received important commissions by the Design Research Unit (DRU) as well as industrial designer Gaby Schrieber. We find that her tulip design for Edward Molyneux made it onto a dress for Princess Elizabeth. We read that she designed interiors for the airline BOAC, greeting cards for Hallmark, textiles for the Associated American Artists, and, eventually, plastic laminates. We note that she became a Royal Designer for Industry, “the ultimate accolade for any designer in Britain,” in 1984.
But her professional achievements seemed in stark contrast to struggles at home. Jacques , whose career floundered in England, had a nervous breakdown, and Jacqueline became the primary breadwinner…how did she feel about that, I wonder.
And that, I realize, says more about me than I should admit to. I wanted a page-turner, a behind-the-scenes US magazine look at a woman working and thriving in WWII and beyond. This was not the authors’ intent. Instead, they provide an excellently researched, beautifully illustrated and clearly written reference, one that honors Jacqueline’s illustrious career by the purity of its focus on her work. Indeed, the straightforward tone of the text drove me to more closely examine her designs for clues. And it is, after all, this work that is being celebrated here. Job well done.
I recently gave a lecture on cross-dressing to a terrific sociology class at FIT (and yes, I wore the outfit above), and I had such ridiculous fun (and stress!) researching it that I thought I’d share with the blogosphere to spread the wealth. You don’t get the pleasure of my witty repartee, but you do get a decent, if slightly inferior, substitute. I do want to give the disclaimer that this is not even close to a comprehensive, in-depth study of cross-dressing, but rather a quickie pictorial romp through the ages. (I am also concentrating on Western fashion, which is, I acknowledge, an additional shortcoming of this essay, with the Eastern cultures embracing bisexual skirts for so long. So be it.) I included examples of both clothing that was actually considered cross-dressing in its own day, and garments that were perfectly hetero-normative then, but appear to be borrowed from the opposite sex to our modern eyes.
I’m not going to spend much time on the ancients, but I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that it took many hundreds of years to develop sex-specific clothing styles, and though the ancient Greeks and Romans from which we came did have differentiation between sexes in their draped garments (the women’s breasts were covered while men’s chests might be exposed, for example), those variations were relatively slight, immediately drawing attention to the fact that sex-specific clothes is a societal construct that was honed — as gender roles and expectations were — over time. Mighty, manly Zeus (below) wears a draped himation that could be just as easily worn by a woman, were the front flap pulled up for modesty:
Zeus marble statue wearing himation
The Medieval houppelande was a loose bodied, floor-length coat with narrow sleeves that became a symbol of gender non-specificity in the late 14th/early 15th centuries:
Les Petites Heures de Jean de Berry Duke Jean de Berry departing on a pilgrimage Bourges, c.1412
Marie de Gueldre depicted as the Virgin Mary (in a houppelande), 1415
Men wore jewelry off and on, and in the mid-16th century, they often wore a single dangling earring along with their wide, padded breeches that resembled puffy skirts. Whatever femininity this might have indicated was counter-balanced with hyper-masculine pointy beards and codpieces (which were not uncommonly erect, in case you had any lingering doubts of a man’s virility). The pointy beard mirrored the triangular waistline, and punctuated by the essential phallic sword accessory, further drawing the eye to the crotch:
"Boy with a Greyhound" by Paolo Veronese, c.1570s
It has been hypothesized that the exaggeratedly stuffed breeches of the 16th century was a sartorial salute to (or at least an acknowledgement of) an age of powerful female monarchs including Elizabeth I (1533-1603); Catherine de’Medici (1519-1589); and Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587). In the mid 1580s (just a couple years before the portrait below), Philip Stubbs wrote that apparel is a signifier of biological and social differences between the sexes. I find this somewhat hilarious, given that male clothes had so many feminine features (skirt-like breeches, emphasis on curvy legs, nipped waistline, elaborate embroidery, long hair), and also that King James I of England (1566 – 1625) — who succeeded Queen Elizabeth I — was quite probably homosexual or bisexual and it was known that he bestowed favors upon the male peacocks of the court.
Sir Walter Raleigh by H., 1588
Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, 1594
There was a growing acceptance of licentious aristocratic behavior in the 17th century in which the choice of sexual partner was not necessarily restricted to male or female, but could incorporate relationships with boys alongside mistresses without jeopardizing the ideals of “manliness.” The man below has something of the feminine about him with his loose, baggy pantaloons, festive sash, lace garter bows, and pointed toe pose with fist on hip, but this was nothing out of the ordinary for the time:
Male attire was designed to emphasize the soft, curvy lines of the male physique rather than sharp angles at this time — ironically, women wore corsets that virtually flattened their busts. Both sexes wore lace neck ruffs; lace wrist cuffs; coiffed, longish hair; and high waistlines with short pantaloons which emphasized elongated, shapely legs (hoes were often padded to achieve desired visions of muscularity):
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham by George Villiers, c. 1616. Archetypal Jacobean dandy
King Louis XIV (1638-1715) was aesthetically extravagant in many regards (the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles is testament to that), and clocking in at only 5′ 4″ tall, he undoubtedly assisted the height of men’s shoes: some of his own were 6 inches high! As modern women know, heels also help produce flexed, shapely calves which were still very much in the style of the Sun King’s time. In 1663 the English court adopted the periwig, further feminizing the men of the time (the pointed toe pose should be familiar):
King Louis XIV, 17th Century
As the century wore on, the periwigs remained, and though men’s legs were increasingly covered, the longer garments that covered them resembled female outerwear, not unlike the unisex Medieval houppelandes, but with modern embellishments like enormous cuffed sleeves:
James Craggs the Elder by John Closterman c. 1710
Post 1700, homosexual behavior was increasingly constructed as a depraved activity associated with a minority of effeminate men; by the 1720s extreme bodily gestures, affected mannerisms in speech and contrived magnificence in costume had come to indicate sexual preference (and perversion). Post-1720, the effeminacy of the previously innocuous “fop” was identified with the effeminacy of the sodomite, adding a significantly more judgmental layer to the language of male attire. The bitter irony is that there was still significant gender crossover in dress. Compare the gentleman below to his female partner: the full skirted frock coat resembles her own skirt; the wide cuffs mimic her lace ones; their gracefully pointed toes meet between them; and the long, coiffed hair is covered for modesty by the woman but styled and flaunted by the man.
detail of The Dancing Lesson by P Longhi, c. 1760
The Macaronies of the latter half of the 18th century were often accused of effeminacy, with their outrageously tall powdered wigs, the rosettes on his shoes, and the teeny-tiny three-cornered hat perched atop his sculptural headdress. Macaronies followed the general styles of the time, but typically with tighter silhouettes, often employing vertical stripes to emphasize sleek lines, as in this man’s tights:
The Macaroni. A Real Character at the Late Masquerade, by Philip Dawe, 1773.
Though the wig in and of itself is deliciously ridiculous, remember that Marie Antoinette (175501793) was commissioning equally tall wigs (for women, it’s true):
The 1830s brought male girdles that created feminine wide hips and nipped waists (again). Dandy Beau Brummell (1778 – 1840) is credited with creating the modern 3-piece suit with full-length trousers replacing shorter breeches, fitted, tailored clothes, and downplaying flamboyant color in favor of more muted, “masculine” tones. With this feat he also accelerated the separation of male and female fashion crossover. Likewise, the implication of caring about appearance now became associated with the “weaker sex,” whereas in previous centuries men were expected to primp and preen — and for the results to look like they did. Flamboyance was now expressed more subtly in brightly patterned accents like neckwear and waistcoats.
dandy, 1822
Dandies c. 1840s
I’m taking a huge leap in time now, assuming that readers are far more familiar with the 19th and early 20th century male fashions and already understand how relatively monochromatic and plain they became after Brummel’s time. With the sexual revolution of the 1960s and Glam Rock of the 1970s, there was a revival in experimentation with sexuality and gender identities. Young men once again wore ornate and ostentatious clothes that often made explicit references to days of yore when the adult population favored the resplendent over the conservative. To wit, Earl Lichfield emulating 18th century male (and yet effeminate with embroidery and ruffles) below:
Thomas Patrick John Anson, Earl of Lichfield, 1968
Open bisexual and hugely influential David Bowie (and other glam rockers) deliberately pushed gender boundaries by applying makeup, lengthening hair in deliberately female styles, and wearing high heels. Though the music movement had (and maintains) an impressive following, the gender role-play was viewed by the general public as subversive act of abnormal sexuality.
David Bowie in The Man Who Sold the World cover, 1970
Allow a detour into Tove’s childhood: at the dentist’s office in the early 1980s, I picked up a small pin of Madonna with ratty, teased bangs, heavy eyeliner and thick eyebrows. I treasured it and wore it on my daily backback. I was absolutely flabbergasted to learn from my best friend (who was a sage 3 years older) that the image was not Madonna at all, but Boy George, a regularly cross-dressing man I hadn’t heard of before!
Boy George, 1980s
Madonna, 1980s. (I know the difference now.)
On the heels of the revolutionary ’70s, the reactionary conservative Regan/Thatcher ’80s gave way to a new generation of cross dressing men, but this was mostlylimited to pop / rock stars like Georgie here, and those associated with the New Romantic music genre including Roxie Music and Adam and the Ants (whose frontman favored an 18th century pirate/aristocrat look with lipgloss and eyeliner):
Adam and the Ants
Current revivals of cross-dressing for men have dwindled again, I’m afraid. Fashion exhibitions like the Met’s “Men in Skirts” (2003-04) confirms that men in skirts are anomalies to be studied behind glass, these days. However, the Utilikilt is a modern-day skirt for the man “man enough” to wear it against gender pressures, with a manifesto including “The Utilikilts Company does not accept preconceived limitations as our own.” Interestingly, it is geared towards men in construction as opposed to gay, fey, or transvestite men, offering comfort, ventilation, cargo pants-like pockets and optional built-in tool belts. Interestingly, it has been adopted by some subcultures like punk and goth kids that are known for experimenting with gender roles in dress:
Um, and also this adorably dorky (but admirably self-possessed) highschooler:
highschooler in utilikilt
These days fashion remains a female preoccupation in the public’s eye; men supposedly dress for fit and comfort rather than style, and women commonly “make over” their men, keeping gender roles solidly separate in philosophy and image. It’s only been in the last few years that male fashion has swung back to embracing decorative, colorful elements (which the Utilikilt does not). However, I see this as a corporate marketing ploy rather than the ideal acceptance of polymorphous sexuality or the understanding of sexism as dictated by fashion. Marketers simply wanted to capitalize on the largely untapped male market (and the higher income-earners to boot) for what have become “female” products: makeup, accessories, hair products, etc. And thus, the metrosexual was born — a term indicating a heterosexual man who nonetheless adorns himself (like gay men or straight women are supposed to do).
metrosexual, 2000s
As a final note, gender flexibility in dress has almost always been more acceptable for the elite classes (this was certainly true of the 17th and 18th centuries, and perhaps today as well), where it might be viewed as “eccentric” rather than “deviant.” For middling classes, clear distinctions between feminine and masculine dress signified precious respectability, so they were therefore more reluctant to adopt gender-ambiguous trends. Though I am sickened by the capitalist manipulation it seemingly took to accept a teeny tiny bit of cross-dressing into mainstream fashion culture in the form of the metrosexual, I hope this small step develops further to legitimize gender blurring in dress (because as you can see, we have a strong history of cross-sex trends), and dissolving ideas of “heterosexual normalcy,” and opening the creative channels of personal adornment to all economic strata.
Next week, I’ll dissect female cross-dressing in history, which, though superficially similar in concept, has had different implications of oppression.
“Fashion In Fiction – The Dark Side”
October 8 – 10, 2010
Drexel University’s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design
&
The Mid-Atlantic Region Costume Society of America
Philadelphia, PA.
Roland Barthes proposed that fashion was not a just an industry, but also a set of fictions. Barthes did not wish to ignore the economic function of fashion, but rather underline fashion’s mythic dimension and suggest that fashion is a language in itself. Fashion and fiction have long existed in close proximity; writers have been driven by their experience of fashion and fashion has been developed through and by literary tropes. What makes dress and fashion such a fascinating subject for writers? How are fashion’s mythologies constructed and disseminated through fictional texts? How does fashion relate to art, popular culture, business, the body, consumer studies, and those who might read it as a form of text?
This interdisciplinary conference seeks to investigate the role that fashion has played in our culture. These “mini-narratives” can include fiction, non-fiction, cultural and historical studies, and other types of comparative, descriptive and/or empirical research. In particular, it will examine the dark side of fashion discourse, assessing the role, function, and purpose of clothes, fashion movements, style, and image in creating narratives within narratives. The dark side of fashion can include such obvious topics as gothic, punk, the color black, and vampires. Other topics that have traditionally been viewed as “dark” include polyester fabric, couture knock-offs, deviant fashion advertising, sweatshops, and child labor. Authors are also encouraged to define their own meaning of “dark”.
Papers fitting the conference theme are sought from those engaged in the fields of fashion studies, social sciences, humanities, creative writing, media, cultural studies, design, philosophy, and business.
Papers, work-in-progress and workshop proposals are invited.
Possible topics may include but not limited to:
· gothic
· feminist versus feminized discourses in fashion and display
· animated texts
· fashion in crime fiction
· graphic novels
· the semiotics of fashion
· historical fiction
· queer readings of fashion
· mystery
· textiles
· the color black
· marketing
· the body/body image
· consumer studies
· new media
· script and cinematic texts
· metaphor/metaphorical fiction
· subcultural style
Abstract Deadline: June 1, 2010
Submission Process: Those interested should send an abstracts of no more than 500 words. Everyone will be notified of acceptance by July 1, 2010.
Peer Review: All abstracts will be peer-reviewed. Those abstracts accepted for presentations will be published online as well as in the conference proceedings.
Paper Submission for Possible Publication: Those interested in having their papers published may submit the entire manuscript for possible book publication.
This term, one of my classes is a basic fibers and textiles course. If you went to college or university and studied fashion design, you have probably taken this course yourself. One way to illustrate many of the topics in the course is through films and video clips. Above is a film made by Welsh sheep farmers and sponsored by Samsung, one of my favorites to introduce the topic of sheep and, therefore, wool. Nevermind that the majority of my students are too young to know what pong is (or is that was?).
There are many films you may wish to add to your library which are not the typical $150 for 15 minutes of video produced by educational film services. The films below are relatively easy to find and relatively inexpensive.
Mill Times
Mill Timeswith David Macaulay: This begins with a simplistic discussion of how fiber became clothing for people living on farms in Colonial America over 200 years ago and covers the rise of textile miles in the United States, including early mill technology and workers’ rights. The film alternates between the main educational program and an animated fictional account of an Englishman who opens a mill in New England (no, it is not Samuel Slater, just someone very similar). I always skip the animated part of the film, 1) because it is not essential for conveying the facts, and would be a waste of valuable class time, and 2) because the costumes of the characters are so historically inaccurate it almost hurts my eyes to look at them. Cartoon characters’ costumes aside, the rest of the film is quite good, in terms of its historical facts and coverage of America’s early textile industry.
Basho to Spun Steel
Basho To Spun Steel : Comtemporary Japanese Textile Design: This one is older (1998) and only available on VHS, but do not let that turn you off, and do consider adding it to your collection. Perhaps, if you are an instructor, you can have your media services department on campus translate it to DVD for you, if you no longer have a video cassette player for your classroom. It begins with Japanese artists handcrafting yarn and fabrics, using techniques that are centuries old, including raising silkworms, reeling cocoons, spinning yarn, collecting natural dyestuffs and dyeing, and handweaving. It then transitions into textile production with current technology, including modern computerized looms, heat-setting, and roller printing, including fabrics commissioned for Issey Miyake. I like to use this film because of the wide variety of examples it has which correlate with typical lecture topics in a class like this one.
Real Men Knit
Real Men Knit: This film never fails to amuse and engage my classes. First, it amuses them, and then, second, it intrigues them and holds their attention. It is basically a brief history of knitting and men’s traditional and current involvement in handknitting, first as an industry, and today, as a hobby, or for some, as in the case of Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably, who are among the interviewees in the film, the craft from the point of view of successful textile designers (if you missed my post on Kaffe Fassett, my college is not far from his home town, Big Sur, and in my classes I promote him every chance I get). The film is also an excellent segué into a discussion of gender and gendered crafts and technologies.
Lastly, below are two versions of a 24-second film of alpacas on a Devonshire farm. The first one I came across several years ago when preparing a lecture on specialty hair fibers. The second one I discovered recently, when I went to look up the first one in preparation for another lecture. My students definitely responded positively to both of them in a recent class meeting. You will have to let me know which one you like best.
“ELEMENTS OF STYLE: FASHION AND FORM AT THE BEINECKE”
Through March 27 Yale University [New Haven, CT]
This exhibit pays homage to Strunk and White’s classic grammar primer, “The Elements of Style,” first published 50 years ago, and considers the idea of style as it relates to sartorial expression and prose/poetic form — the role of clothing and design in literature and everyday life, and the artful way in which words appear upon the page. “Elements of Style” highlights literary artifacts such as Gertrude Stein’s embroidered waistcoats and Muriel Draper’s hats, while it also draws attention to the evocative relationship between text and texture, fabric and paper, as well as the book artist’s continued fascination with sewing and the decorative arts.
“OUR FACE FOR THE WORLD: THE CLOTHING OF JAMES AND ELIZABETH MONROE”
Through March 31 The James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library [Fredericksburg, VA]
This exhibit highlights how the Monroes used fashion: it was the good impression that the Monroes made at the French court, where fashion and image was everything, that allowed the United States to retain France as a powerful ally and eventually to complete the Louisiana Purchase. Appearance was important at home, as well: the Monroe family had to change their style to fit the American view of what a statesman and President should be. It was their public appearance during the Monroe Administration that created the presidential image that we still have today. Everything from the suit that James Monroe wore during the negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase to Elizabeth Monroe’s wedding gown will be on display.
“LACE IN TRANSLATION”
Through April 3 The Design Center at Philadelphia University [Philadelphia, PA]
These European and Canadian art/design teams explored
the historic Quaker Lace Company collection of The Design Center at
Philadelphia University for inspiration, and were commissioned to create
new, site-specific works for installation in the Center’s galleries and on
its adjoining grounds.
The responses to my January post on storage issues facing museums with costume collections, were both interesting and insightful. It seems that even more institutions are preparing to move their collections than I had originally anticipated. It became clear, however that a discussion of museum deaccessioning policies was needed (deaccessioning is regularly a part of pre-move collection evaluation). As Lauren mentioned on Monday, many have received notice that Augusta Auctions would be hosting a large auction of items deaccessioned from several reputable museums, including the Brooklyn Museum’s Costume Collections (Auction preview in New York is March 23rd, and the sale is the following day).
Deaccesioned: Printed Lame Opera Cape, Mid-1920s (Augusta Auctions)
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term “De-accession” did not appear in the English language until the early 1970s.
De-accession:
“trans. To remove an entry for (an exhibit, book) from the accessions register of a museum, library, etc., usu. in order to sell the item concerned. Also absol.
1972 N.Y. Times 27 Feb. II. 21/2 The Museum of Art recently de-accessioned (the polite term for ‘sold’) one of its only four Redons. 1973 Time 26 Feb. 43/2 ‘De-accessioning’ pictures the barbaric museum jargon for preparing to sell. 1974 J. GOLDMAN Man from Greek & Roman v. 33 You deaccessioned, you took something off your shelves and sold it. 1981 Times 16 Feb. 4/1 The sale of Japanese art included a group of 38 lots of Japanese lacquer ‘recently de-accessioned by the Metropolitan Museum in New York’. 1987 London Rev. Bks. 19 Mar. 5/4 Curators may soon be tempted to start..‘de-accessioning’ what their recent predecessors have..acquired.
Hence as n., the act or process of de-accessioning; de-ac cessioned ppl. a., de-ac cessioning vbl. n.
1973 Newsweek 29 Jan. 76 Richard F. Brown, director of Fort Worth’s Kimbell Museum of Art, felt that..the ‘principle’ of de-accession is right although he might ‘disagree with the particular object chosen for de-accession’. 1973 Art in Amer. Jan.-Feb. 24 In order to illustrate..Mr. Hoving’s policy, he should show all the de-accessioned works. 1973 New Yorker 31 Mar. 83/1 Money gained through sales or ‘de-accessioning’, in museum parlance is often used for acquisitions. 1976 Times Lit. Suppl. 24 Dec. 1604/2 The acquisition by Mellon from the Hermitage of famous paintings… This early twentieth-century instance of sensational ‘de-accessioning’ as it was to be uneuphoniously called by later adepts of the technique.”
Obviously, there is controversy tied up in the notion of a museum vetting its collection. One of the best ways to combat controversy is to have a clear and transparent accession and de-accessioning policy. Whenever money exchanges hands, legal issues arise, and should be considered as well. As with previous posts, my intention here is to provide readers with resources for further research.
Deaccesioned: Embroidered Blue Silk Chinese Export Shawl, Early 20th Cent (Augusta Auctions)
A good discussion of the ethical and budgetary issues associated with de-accessioning are discussed in this article from the San Jose History Association. They outline some key criteria involved when evaluating an object:
“the object is not relevant to the museum’s mission,
the object has deteriorated beyond usefulness,
the object is hazardous to other collections or staff,
there are multiple examples of the same object in the collection, and
the object is wrongly attributed or fake.”
Example policies can be found by joining the Museum Documents Listserve, along with other useful policies regularly set by museums. An article by Derek Fincham, of Layolla University College of Law, titled “Deaccession of Art and the Public Trust” outlines many of the legal aspects of de-accessioning (but be warned, it is 54 pages long). The National Parks Service discusses it’s policy on Deaccesioning in Volume II of its Museum Handbook. Other resources include a number of books, articles and thesis projects. None of these, however, seems to directly address specific issues relevant to costume and textile collections.
Deaccesioned: Two Pair D'Orsay Evening Shoes, 1920-1930 (Augusta Auctions)
For those currently involved in the deaccessioning/moving process, consider these questions (I encourage you to respond to any in the comments below):
What do you think is the best way to prevent controversy and ethical dilemma’s with respect to de-accessioning?
What is your institutions policy? How does it relate to your museums mission and collection policy?
How often do you de-accession? What is your process for decision-making?
What departments/professions are involved in the decision-making process?
Whom do you notify when de-accessioning?
Do you keep records of items that you have de-accessioned? What sorts of information do you keep?
How does ‘budget’ play into the decision to de-accession an object?
If private individuals purchase the objects, are they given any provenance records? Are they told of any potential contamination? (or are contaminated articles disposed of differently?)
What special concerns apply to de-accessioning articles of dress?
Are employees of the given institution permitted to purchase (or otherwise obtain) de-accessioned items?
What else do you think is important for the Museum community to consider? What do you feel the general public should know?
Coming soon is the Augusta Auction Company’s latest antique and vintage clothing and textiles auction. Preview in New York City on Friday, March 23rd and Saturday, March 24th. Auction starts at 12 noon March 24th. If you can not be in New York City for the auction, despair not!Absentee, phone, and internet bidswill be accepted. Nearly 400 catalogued lots, this auction is especially interesting as its contents are consignments from a number of prominent American museums, including: Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection,Museum of Fine Arts – Boston, Chrysler Museum (Virginia), Montclair ArtMuseum (New Jersey), and the National Heritage Museum (Massachusetts).
Two Mainboche Lamé Dresses
The sale features antique clothing, accessories, Asian & middle Eastern garments & textiles, rugs, tapestries, lace, ecclesiastical objects, and more from the 15th to 20th centuries. If you visit the Augusta Auction Company web site, you can view online galleries of consigned items, with more to be posted over the next few weeks. The auction catalog is schedule to be posted online March 10th.
The following information comes from an email sent by the auction company:
Lots to be sold include rare textiles and clothing objects from the 15th Century right up to the 1990’s, including…designs from many of the top fashion names of the twentieth century – Elizabeth Hawes, Bonnie Cashin, Halston, Claire McCardell, Chanel, Ferragamo, Mainbocher, Phillip Hulitar, Sarmi, Stavropoulos, Galanos, Elizabeth Arden, Rudi Gernreich, Eta Hentz, Pierre Cardin, Balenciaga, Zandra Rhodes, Geoffrey Beene, Lilly Dache, Gucci and many others.
Rose Pink Evening Gown, 1910
If you are at all like me (and I suspect you may be, if only a tiny bit, since you are reading Worn Through), you have already asked yourself, “Why are museum pieces up for auction?”
Taken from the Augusta Auction Company web site, here is the explanation, really quite simple:
Garments and textiles offered for sale from most of the museum collections include pieces that no longer fit the criteria of the museums’ collections policies, duplicate other pieces in their collections, or are pieces that are no longer exhibited. Many have been in museum storage for decades. All are new to market and have not previously been offered for sale. The museum collections are sold to the highest bidder, free of any minimum bids or auction reserves. Proceeds from auction attendees’ purchases go directly to the museums’ acquisitions funds or to support their conservation efforts.
See? You can add a treasure to your own collection, and feel good about doing so, knowing that the proceeds from your purchases go directly towards supporting the museums.
Here are a few more of the promised highlights of the March 24th sale:
Featured items include 1940’s posters from Charles James, donated by the designer to the Brooklyn Museum, a c. 1750 Chien-Lung Imperial palace hanging, a 15th C tapestry of Roman Soldiers, a 1770 dated Aubusson tapestry, a large 19th C. Meiji embroidery depicting mythical beasts, hand-woven and embroidered shawls, 16th & 17th C. ecclesiastical textiles & silk brocades, other early European embroideries, Victorian through late 20th C garments, shoes, hats, 19th C beaded purses & 20th C pocketbooks, silk lingerie and so much more.
Even if you do not plan to bid, if you are a collector it can be useful to check the results of this auction, as they can help you to determine the current market value of any similar pieces in your own collection (although, bear in mind that the museum provenenance adds to the value of these auction items), or even the potential auction price of a special something for which you have been searching and saving up.
To tempt you, below are some examples from the online gallery.
Elizabeth Hawes Evening Gown, 1945
Embroidered Chinese Export Robe, early 20th century
Orange and Gold Stavropoulos Evening Ensemble, 1982
Five research travel awards in the amount of $1,500 each
While the digital age is opening up new approaches and techniques for using images of the world’s cultural heritage as evidence in teaching and scholarship, there is no substitute for engagement with original works and sites, for research in archives that hold primary source material, or for attending conferences with colleagues engaged with similar issues. In recognition of this need, ARTstor will provide five research travel awards in the amount of $1,500 each (to be used by September 1, 2011) to help support the educational and scholarly activities of graduate students, scholars, curators, educators, and librarians in any field in the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences.
To be considered for a research travel award, applicants must create and submit an ARTstor image group (or a series of image groups) and a single accompanying essay that creatively and compellingly demonstrates why the image group(s) is useful for teaching, research, or scholarship. The five winning submissions will be determined by ARTstor staff. These submissions will help ARTstor to understand better the uses that scholars and teachers are making of ARTstor’s content and tools and will provide us with insights into how we can continue to improve our efforts to serve the educational community.
All graduate students, scholars, curators, educators, and librarians who are at least 18 years of age and associated with institutions that subscribe to the ARTstor Digital Library are eligible to apply for the ARTstor Travel Awards. See if your institution has ARTstor access.
Deadline for proposal application: April 1, 2010
Winners announced: May 1, 2010
Awards will be made by: June 1, 2010
Awards to be used by: September 1, 2011
pictures the designer. White-haired with bangs and a pixie cut, an aquiline face, one graceful hand rests on her chin; the other holds a smoldering cigarette. She looks into the camera; her gaze is direct, yet not quite serious. Although she is in her 50s, her skin is lineless, glowing. The image does not reflect the hardship of her experiences—WWII displacement; a beloved husband later described as a “bad tempered old man.” Instead, what shines through is the pert curiosity of one who claimed her “inner age” to be eight years old. It is the face of a woman you’d hope to sit next to at a dinner party.
with David Macaulay: This begins with a simplistic discussion of how fiber became clothing for people living on farms in Colonial America over 200 years ago and covers the rise of textile miles in the United States, including early mill technology and workers’ rights. The film alternates between the main educational program and an animated fictional account of an Englishman who opens a mill in New England (no, it is not Samuel Slater, just someone very similar). I always skip the animated part of the film, 1) because it is not essential for conveying the facts, and would be a waste of valuable class time, and 2) because the costumes of the characters are so historically inaccurate it almost hurts my eyes to look at them. Cartoon characters’ costumes aside, the rest of the film is quite good, in terms of its historical facts and coverage of America’s early textile industry.
: This film never fails to amuse and engage my classes. First, it amuses them, and then, second, it intrigues them and holds their attention. It is basically a brief history of knitting and men’s traditional and current involvement in handknitting, first as an industry, and today, as a hobby, or for some, as in the case of Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably, who are among the interviewees in the film, the craft from the point of view of successful textile designers (if you missed 
. AltaMira, 2004.
. Ashgate, 2004.
: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998.
. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998.
. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990.
