By Kat,
March 11th, 2010 at 5:00 am
(Exhibitions)
“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.
Click here for more details.
“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.
Click here for details.
“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.
Click here for details.
*Thank you to the Costume Society of America for this information.
Comments
By Heather Vaughan,
March 10th, 2010 at 5:00 am
(Museum Life)
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?
Additional Resources:
Anderson, Gail. Reinventing the Museum, Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on the Paradigm Shift
. AltaMira, 2004.
Knell, Simon J.Museums and the Future of Collecting
. Ashgate, 2004.
Malaro, Marie. A Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections, 2nd Edition
: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998.
Weil, Stephen, ed. A Deaccession Reader
. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998.
Weil, Stephen. Rethinking the Museum: and Other Meditations
. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990.
*Deaccesioned: Sophie Pink Satin Damask Ballgown, 1947 (Augusta Auctions)
Comments
By Lauren Michel,
March 8th, 2010 at 5:03 am
(Conferences and Calls for Papers, History of Dress, Museum Life)
Kimono, 1870s
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 bids will 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 Art Museum (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
Four Mod Serendipity Dresses, 1965
2 Comments
By Kat,
March 8th, 2010 at 5:00 am
(Academic Research & Related, Conferences and Calls for Papers)
ARTstor Travel Awards 2010
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
Email submissions should be sent to travelawards@artstor.org.
Please email userservices@artstor.org if you have further questions.
How to register for an ARTstor account.
How to build an image group.
Further details may be found on ARTstor.org.
Comments
By Monica Sklar,
March 8th, 2010 at 5:00 am
(Uncategorized)
Here at Worn Through we frequently talk about the professors’ side of things, how to teach etc, but once in a while I thought we should focus on what a student is up to—particularly when something truly exciting happens. Also, I wanted to highlight a student accomplishment because it is in part be a reflection of positive classroom experiences. Those of us who are teaching can learn from their successes.
Jillian Granz with Suzy Amis Cameron and James Cameron at the unveiling of Amis Cameron's dress. Photo by Jim Peck
A friend of mine and fellow UMN grad, Theresa Winge, PhD who is an assistant professor at Michigan State University, hipped me to her award willing student Jillian Granz. Theresa said she couldn’t be more proud of Jillian’s recent win of a significant design competition.
Jillian designed a gown for Suzy Amis Cameron (James Cameron’s wife) to be worn to THE OSCARS!
Theresa recently started teaching at MSU, and as part of her role there she created a new course–Innovative Approaches to Apparel Design. In this class, students created a red carpet worthy gown that met the criteria of sustainability and submitted their designs to the Red Carpet Green Dress competition hosted by Suzy Amis Cameron.
Theresa said, “Since the competition was open to anyone in the world, I prepared the students for the unlikelihood of someone winning from class. We were in it for the experience. The students designed creative and thoughtful designs, ranging from a newspaper dress to no-waste patterning gown. Each submission was a design to be proud of.”
Low and behold one of the students in the class, Jillian Granz, did win and Suzy Amis Cameron would wear the gown it to the Oscars!
Jillian Granz-Photo by G. L. Kohuth
Here is the link to the story and short video clip from MSU.
Jillian works on Suzy's fitting-Photo by Jim Peck
I spoke with Jillian over email to get some details of her experiences with the competition, as well as some insight into her design process and thoughts on fashion education. Below is our conversation:
Please fill us in on the basic info of the contest.
The contest is called Red Carpet Green Dress and it was to raise money for a school that Suzy Amis and her sister Rebecca founded called Muse. The school is a green school and teaches students about sustainability so the dress had to be sustainable as well. I participated in the contest for my class Special Topics: Innovative Approaches to Apparel Design.
Please tell us about your garment, inspirations, palette, fabric choices, etc./Why do you think your garment was selected as the winner?
The dress was inspired by no-waste patterning. I had to do alot of research on sustainable fashion and after finding this technique I found that it was really appealing to my design aesthetic. The dress was also inspired by Suzy Amis, she was the client so i did follow some of the silhouettes that she typically wears and also some colors that she suggested she liked.
What are some of your experiences with fashion design, particularly with formalwear?…Tell us about your fashion education at MSU–what year are you, what are your focus areas, favorite classes, etc.
Michigan State has a really great Apparel and Textile Design program. It is my last year at MSU, and there are so many new classes being offered that I didn’t get to take that it makes me sad I am graduating in May and can’t take them! We really focus on women’s wear and I have just really started to design more formal wear than seperates/more casual looks.
What are your carer plans after graduation?
After graduating I am still not sure what I am going to be doing, or where exactly I want to go. Hopefully this competition will get my name out there and it will still be fresh in people’s minds when i am searching for a job.
Do you follow pop culture, celebrity culture?–how meaningful was it for you to have this garment selected to be worn in the public eye?
I do follow pop-culture and celebrities a little bit. I do like to keep an eye out for what they wear on the red carpet and things like that so it is really exciting that my dress will be worn on the red carpet, as scary as it is too.
What role do you think your fashion education played in your preparedness to enter and win this competition?
I really think that my education played a large role in winning the contest. If not for the class that i am in i wouldn’t have heard about the contest at all. I really think that us doing these more public contests is great and taking a class about innovative ideas in fashion is really great and the fact that we discussed sustainable design and no-waste patterning really helped in my design process.
Note-I grew up in Michigan, went to Michigan State for my first year of college, and later attended Wayne State Univ. for my B.S. an Eastern Michigan Univ. for my M.S. Michigan is an awesome place with a highly sophisticated, cool, unique, and edgy design sensibilities, as well as has its finger on the pulse of what is going on internationally. However, being a state so rocked by economic and social forces, long before the current meltdown, it is tough for an aspiring fashioninsta to get ahead and accomplish all of her goals. This has created a very DIY approach to fashion, which works parallel but not often intermingled necessarily with some of the more mainstream outlets for fashion such as bigger budget affairs and high end designing and retailing. Plus, although the world loves Detroit’s music scene, our fashion scene has struggled to get exposure. In this it is easy for someone with fashion interests to get mired in frustration and feelings of defeat due to lack of immediate opportunities.
My point is that for a fashion student to set a lofty goal achieve it gracefully, beating out national competitors, is a real coup, and speaks for the hidden gems around the country, such as in Michigan. Not everything is on the coasts, no offense to them. Applause to Jillian for reaching such heights and Theresa for empowering her students with the know-how to blast off!
Comments
By Monica Sklar,
March 5th, 2010 at 5:00 am
(Academic Research & Related)
This is probably the last semester of my graduate studies (although I may chip away at that dissertation for a few months into the summer) so I figured it was a good time to reflect on what grad school was like. We receive a lot of emails to the blog from potential and current students, as well as faculty discussing grad school issues, so why not jot a few thoughts down in some posts. On a monthly basis I’ll write this new column that will probably be passed onto a current grad student come fall.
To start….One of the things on my mind this semester has been the idea of getting involved in your institution or other arenas within the field during grad school. I’ve been thinking it over lately as my calendar is packed with meetings of committees I’m on, societies I belong to, and whathaveya. Sometimes these things prove themselves highly significant, and other times one has to wonder…I’m writing this from a student point of view, not a many-years-on professional’s point of view, so I have to speculate what will prove valuable in the long run. But, some things have already proven themselves worthwhile or not in the short run and I think I have a decent take of the direction things are moving with some of these endeavors.
Overall, I think getting active and trying out a bunch of things during school is really fab because it gives you some first hand experience and simultaneously is doing service within your community which is generally a good thing.
Speaking from the point of view of an aspiring professor, there are no would-be professor internships. You cannot go off to NYC or London for the summer and give being a professor a try. Yet much of grad school, particularly at the PhD level is training would-be profs. So the best you can do is get as involved as possible during graduate school to see which angles you like within the field, trying to weed through the pros and cons. Try to figure out if you like research, teaching, committee work, advising, administrative stuff, grant writing, and other tasks. Also, it is good experience if it turns out you’re not interested in being a prof, but like certain aspects, you can grow those aspects in other careers incorporating say grant writing for a nonprofit, or costume history research into museums, publishing, or design.
I thought I’d address a handful of ways to get involved, but obviously there are tons.
1.) One way to get really involved is that you can teach adjunct, which I did for a few years and strongly recommended as a great trial period. It’s a good way to get your feet wet, focus on the classroom, and develop some teaching skills. It’s also a route to get a feel for what style personality you want to be show as a teacher, i.e. how involved or detached, how nice or strict, supportive or distant, etc. Let’s be real, that stuff takes figuring out. You also get practice at projects, syllabus development etc, in fairly low risk situation as there’s no tenure, promotion, or advising involved, you’re just responsible for that one class.
Being TA or instructor via your grad program is highly recommended as well, and often is good because you get tossed into classes you may not have hand picked and have to learn to teach anyway. Adjunct work sort of takes it to another level because there is little supervision and advice the way there is with TA work. It’s all you. I’d say do both if you can.
2. Being on committees at your school is another way to get some experience. This is only an option at some schools, but it might be worth asking if your school doesn’t offer this option up because they may let you sit in. My school PhD school encourages grad students to sit on committees; my Masters school did not. Since I didn’t get this chance during my Master’s I’ve soaked it up during my PhD to mixed results. I’ve served on 4 committees and often it’s been more than one at a time. I don’t know if I’d suggest doing that. One a year is plenty. They can be quick, or surprisingly time consuming.
Basically, they are groups of faculty, staff, and sometimes students who meet regularly on a topic such as curriculum, events, budgets, etc. Honestly I haven’t loved all 4 and have found that like everyone else there are aspects of university life I enjoy more than others, and hopefully when I’m a full-time prof I can pick and choose my committee work wisely based on these experiences. Committees give a grad student huge insight into politics, budget, competition, and repetitiveness throughout the universities and the organization and disorganization that is throughout. They also help you develop a higher profile and build your relationships within the institution and sometimes with outside parties that often are on them like alumni and local design professionals. This can be a great way to make networking connections if you haven’t worked in those arenas.
But, note that you should try to be on those that are at times the truly work for you and on topics that honestly interest you because these can also be a huge waste of time as you struggle to fit meetings into your calendar on a topic you don’t want to work on. If you can, scope out who is on the committee first, as there is sometimes a vast difference in whether faculty and staff see you as a interactive adult with valuable contributions representing the graduate student perspective, or an interloper or child taking space who is stupidly doing this for free (remember-this is part o what they’re getting their salaries to do, and we’re paying tuition for this time).
That said, some committees are extremely worthwhile and you’ll come out of that time feeling accomplished, well connected, and newly educated in the intricacies of the field in ways the classroom cannot prepare you for. Student groups, honor societies, and the like can prepare you in some of the same ways as you mingle with peers and get some resume lines, but if you can be part of something with people who are at many points in their careers, instead of exclusively your peers, it’s a good birds-eye view of your potential future.
3.) A third way I wanted to chat about getting involved was participating in research beyond the classroom. Whether you want to be a research school or a teaching school, there’s going to be some research involved. Plus, you’ll be teaching aspects of research within many of your classrooms. If you decide not to go the prof route, there’s often still some research involved in lots of other careers in our field.
Taking research you’ve done in a class and extending it is one option. Try to present it at a conference, write it into a manuscript for publication, or if it started a little rushed or thin, consider the class project a pilot and redo it bigger and better. But only do all this with projects you actually care about. I’ve gotten a little stuck extending some projects I’d be fine with letting go of, and let go of some projects I wished I published on (but now the data is a pretty old), so be careful with how you manage your time.
Another option for research is to get onto team projects that professors or classmates are working on so you can participate without over-extending yourself. Careful again of time management, as team projects require lots of meetings etc, but, often you can get a lot more done in a group than on your own, and it’s a way to delve into some topics to broaden what themes you pursue and what methods of research you’re familiar with.
One final way to get into research is to be a participant in other people’s research. I’ve done this a bunch. It helps others out as everyone is always looking for human subjects, and gives huge insight into the research process from many angles. It has made me a better researcher to have occasionally been on the other end of the interview questions, the survey scales, the camera, and the body scanner. Careful what permissions you give, because if these are your colleagues you may see your name or image up in lights at a national conference alongside a quote you wish all your current coworkers didn’t see. So make sure to be thoughtful about your privacy, but, again, participating can really give you an empathetic view of your future subjects and ideas about what you’ve liked and disliked about others’ research strategies.
So there’s a ton of other ways to get involved. Graduate assistantships, national and regional societies, jobs, blogs, are just a few. Find one or two each year and mix it up. You may find you are surprisingly perfect for something that was unexpected, or a terribly fit for something on paper you thought you’d love. You’re paying a ton for this time, and probably not getting much in salary in return (trust me, I know how much those RA positions pay…urgh) and so you want to maximize your tuition dollar. It’s not to say you cannot try things out throughout your entire career, I certainly plan to, but it’s nice to do it while in grad school with the limited risk and more of a trial-and-error attitude. Perhaps it can help us zero in on where we’ll be our most successful. And again, much of this is service work, which is a contribution to making the general community of our field stronger and how can you not support that.
For future Rat Race posts I’ll talk about things like choosing a research subject and collaborators, maintaining your personal life during hectic schedules, and whatever else is on my mind. If you’ve got a subject you’d really like to know about drop me a line.
Comments
By Lucy Collins,
March 4th, 2010 at 11:01 am
(Exhibitions, History of Dress, Uncategorized)
The highly conceptual women’s clothing brand Rodarte, a label founded by the design team of sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy, has been the recipient of many awards including the Council of Fashion Designers of America 2009 award for Womenswear Designer of the Year. The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s current exhibition “Quicktake: Rodarte,” on view February 11th – March 14th, 2010, takes a look at what makes Rodarte clothing more than just “cool.” (I should note too that Rodarte was one of the most recent designers to collaborate with Target, showing that despite the incredibly sophisticated nature of Rodarte garments, they still can manage to appeal to a broad range of consumers.)
The most striking feature of the garments in the exhibition is the constant interplay between hard and soft. There is an avoidable homespun feel, yet each piece feels strangely future-oriented. Re-shaped and re-formed, these garments are the epitome of collage. They are clearly falling apart, yet intentionally held together. As such is seems that they are the embodiment of the simultaneous decay and reconstruction that characterizes our current social environment.
At the risk of being overly dramatic, I’m inclined to say that Rodarte’s clothing also represents the spirit of the contemporary woman – a phoenix rising out of the ashes, a forward-thinking “fierce” being, yet one who still revels in tulle and pastels reminiscent of the ballet, and who still values craft and homespun materials which highlight the essence of femininity.
Chains, studs, intricately manipulated leather, crocheted metallic yarn, pale pink tulle — one hundred percent tough, yet entirely delicate. A few of the garments are characterized by gathered and wrapped gauze, covering the frame like a corpse or a mummy. There are certainly gothic elements at work in the clothing, but somehow there is a freedom or a power still latent in the overall effect.
Spider webs of crochet cover the chest and the legs of the mannequins, wrapping them in cocoons, but again this body covering feels like armor, preparing the wearer for action. Encased in feathers, leather, and tie-dye, snakeskin and puckered yarn, these bodies looked “dipped;” thev’ve been “treated” rather than dressed. The garments possess a true tactile quality. A person wants to touch them. This haptic visuality that informs the clothing appeals to the new shifting emphasis on touch versus sight. We no longer want to be seen, but felt as well.
Rodarte is adored by young starlets for the brands’ indescribable “it” quality, but this show at the Cooper-Hewitt demonstrate the designers’ staying quality as craftswomen deserving of actual recognition for the quality and innovation apparent in the garments they create.
3 Comments
By Heather Vaughan,
March 3rd, 2010 at 5:00 am
(Academic Research & Related, History of Dress, Uncategorized)
*
As I’ve been diving back into text research for an in-depth project, I thought it might be helpful to divulge some of the wonderful electronic resources that I regularly use when doing historical research. These resources are great for mining quotes, finding little-known references and other such tid-bits. Much of the availability of these sources is thanks to Google, and often the things you find are just the tip of the ice-berg (with more research almost always needed via a library):
Google Scholar (free) Links to both primary and secondary sources including patents, scholarly articles, books and occasionally newspaper articles.
Google News (free) Searches many major historical newspaper/periodical literature, but often requires payment to read the complete article.
Google Books (free) A really good way to search for references in books without indexes (but keep in mind not every book is available to search, so a visit to the library is almost always still necessary).
Newspaper Archive (paid) Has a vast amount of smaller, regional newspapers available for search.
Ancestry.com (paid) Includes census data; birth, marriage an death certificates; some newspaper searching; some photos; Military and draft records; and an easy way to organize family relationships.
L’Officiel de la Mode, 1921-2010 online (free) A marvelous database of historical issues of this french fashion magazine (with many articles in English).
Bibliothèque nationale de France (free) I’m still working this one out – but it seems to be a large vault of text and image history specific to France.
Worldcat (free) Includes listings for nearly every book and article ever published.
California Digital Library Collection (free) Less well-known and older newspapers in a searchable database.
Historical San Francisco Chronicle For those with academic library access, Proquest has recently added this newspaper to its database, a huge help for me personally.
Some new resources have also recently come forward, or are in the planning processes, that readers may find useful. These include The House of Fraser Archive and Screen Search Fashion:
1. “Selling Fashion: Realizing the Research Potential of the House of Fraser Archive, University of Glasgow Archive Services,” by Clare Paterson. Textile History, Vol. 40, No. 2, November 2009. (Maney Publishing)
Abstract: “The House of Fraser Archive is a rich resource for the study of the development of fashion retailing in Britain since the mid-nineteenth century. It is, however, underexploited by textile, fashion and retail historians. During the summer of 2009, the University of Glasgow Archive Services will complete an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project which seeks to improve the accessibility of the Archive. Adopting a progressive approach to archival description, the project is developing an innovative online catalogue, providing fuller access to information about the Archive and the resources contained within it.” [Details on the House of Fraser Archive Project here]
30 May 1953, Coronation Fete at Horley Cricket Club
2. Screen Search Fashion
“A new website featuring fashion on film in Britain in the 1920s and 1930s has been launched. Screen Search Fashion has been developed by Screen Archive South East, at the University of Brighton, UK, in partnership with the Royal College of Art and funded by the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning through Design (CETLD)”
Tangentially, the College Art Association Blog recently listed two new online databases recently made available from the Frick Collection: a directory that helps those researching the history of collecting art in the United States and a collection of inventories from the Dutch Golden Age. The FIDM Museum blog also recently put together a list of the resources (both on and offline) that they regularly use.
Sigh, now if only Women’s Wear Daily were available online…
*San Francisco Call, Volume 79, Number 99, 8 March 1896 — MOURNING GOWN. [illustration] Via the California Digital Newspaper Collection.
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By Tove Hermanson,
March 2nd, 2010 at 3:07 pm
(History of Dress)
Until the article I recently read, mannequins in their practical form held little interest for me; however mannequins in art have always attracted me, most likely due to my obsession with fashion coupled with my fascination with unsettling representations of people (and who doesn’t love to be unsettled?). Incorporating mannequins — invented to market and sell fashion ideas — into non-consumerist functions is another aspect of mannequin art I find appealing.
Artists James Rosenquist (1933-), Jasper Johns (1930-), Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008), and Andy Warhol (1928-1987) were all window display artists in their early careers, in addition to (previously mentioned) author L. Frank Baum (1856-1919), so it should be no surprise that there’s a significant amount of crossover between “high art” works incorporating the lowly, functional mannequin, and “low art” window displays incorporating fine art. Modern art provided inspiration for window designers such as Robert Currie (1948-1993) and Candy Pratts-Price (1950-), who injected surrealist elements of violence, sex, and macabre humor into their 1970s windows. Artists like Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) and Andy Warhol and industrial designers like Donald Deskey (1894-1989) and Henry Dreyfuss (1904-1972) also played major roles in transmitting 20th-century movements such as minimalism and pop art to the audience on the street. Barneys’ famous windows, overseen by eccentric Simon Doonan (1954-), have incorporated works by Cindy Sherman and Barbara Kruger (1945-) and often reference pop culture, as in this 2009 display with traditional female mannequin bodies topped with (arguably lowbrow) Mad Magazine’s “Spy vs. Spy” characature heads to show off trenchcoats:
The window below attracted much criticism in 2009 for Barneys, though I personally think there’s something amazing about conveying such extreme movement — mimicking gangster movies — in a frozen tableau:
The Pucci Mannequin company (mentioned before) collaborated with many “high art” artists. Ruben Toledo (1960-) collaborated with Pucci on a “Shapes” series of mannequins for the fashion collection of Ruben’s wife, Isabel (1961-):
"Birdie": Height: 5'10", Bust: 38", Waist: 32", Hips: 44"
As you can see, the dimensions of these forms are atypical for mannequins which traditionally mimic the body type idealized at the time of production. By contrast, “Birdie” is curvy, hippy, and even has a little belly. Though she probably resembles the bodies of living, breathing women more accurately than traditional spindly mannequins, she looks startlingly disproportionate because we’re not used to seeing “real woman” proportions glorified in mannequins. (The obvious follow-up question should be: why?) Designed to be functional displays, I think these work as controversial art in their own right. Most artists who use mannequins do not attempt to be realistic, though.
Hans Bellmer (1902 – 1975) anonymously published an amazing “Doll Project” (a.k.a. “die puppe“) book in 1934 consisting of photos of a crippled-looking, armless, peg-legged young female mannequin posed in 10 tableaux. Because of the high contrast shadows and close-cropped frame, my mind wavers between seeing a decrepit doll and believing it’s an unfortunate triple amputee, perhaps in a war-torn country (and in fact the Doll Project was a direct criticism of the growing Nazi oppression and violence Bellmer observed):
Bellmer’s later work became more abstract and involved arranging increasingly mutated human forms in progressively unconventional poses (often focusing on female genitalia, which store mannequins still only attempt in nipple realism — see my earlier segment for more on this). Ultimately forced to flee Nazi Germany, he was welcomed by the Parisian Surrealists who appreciated his odd style (bless them!).
The Doll, 1935-37
Cindy Sherman (1954-), known for her literally transforming self portraiture, has also experimented wildly with mannequins and dolls in her photographs. Though the joints of her mannequins are pronounced, calling attention to their inanimate-ness, they are often outfitted with exaggerated or hyper-realistic sexual and reproductive organs, wrinkles and body hair, as store mannequins deliberately omit. Sherman calls attention to our simultaneous discomfort and obsession with self-image: the ravages of age, our preoccupation with hair removal, and our uneasiness with blurred gender lines, as in “Untitled #250″ (1992):
Store mannequins are created to be sexy — sex sells, after all — but Sherman pushes this concept to depict dolls in explicitly erotic situations that are somehow distinctly un-sexy, also calling to mind a doll’s (unadvertised) function as a child’s tool to explore sexuality. The doll in “Untitled Film Still #255″ (1992) has been outfitted with realistic (if hairless) genitalia and is surrounded by ordinary household objects (hairbrush, rope) that, in the context of the doll’s doggy-style position, become S&M objects of torture and pleasure:
Helmut Newton has collaborated with mannequin manufacturers since the 1960s to create “twins” for live models, used with or instead of live models. Interestingly, he features many women with visible imperfections like scars which humanize them, while gashes at joints betray mannequins. He draws your attention to the falseness of the fashion industry, the ridiculous standards of beauty, but he revels in it too.
Violetta (below) confronts her doppelgänger, even while she mimics the imposter’s oddly positioned arm. Who (or what) is more useful in the fashion industry, flesh or fiberglass?
The two Violetta's in bed, Paris, 1991
Newton experimented with the roles of mannequins and flesh-and-blood models, often pairing realistic dummies and women together (as above) or posing mannequins in public spaces and models in interior settings to create subtle disorientation. He frequently places human models in stiff, awkward positions as though their bodies had limited range of motion like mannequins (or more morbidly, like cadavers):
Thierry Mugler ensemble, Monaco, 1998
In “Store Dummies I” (French Vogue, 1976), two incredibly realistic dress forms are posed in a Sapphic moment of seduction, one on a marble slab (morgue reference?) and the other in a state of frozen dishabille:
I love how Newton pokes fun at the fashion industry, places lifeless forms in vulgar poses to sell clothes, drawing an uncomfortable parallel between glamor mannequins, vapid models, and outright sex dolls. And speaking of sex dolls….
I must mention sculptor Allen Jones (1937-), whom I discovered while browsing in an amazing art-and-literature bookstore in Montmartre several years ago. Jones is infamous for his pieces depicting forniphilia — where sexual (S&M) objectification is manifested in a submissive partner acting as a piece of furniture. Jones substitutes human submissives acting as inanimate objects with inanimate mannequins depicting human submissives acting as inanimate objects (got that?). These women (more voluptuous than standard mannequins, closer to blow up doll proportions) are sex objects and domestic objects at once, two roles (three if we’re including being an “object”) women have struggled to define themselves outside of:
"Chair," "Table," and "Hatstand," 1969
I must also point out the rug, indicative of the era and also deliciously vulgar in its associations with bear skin glamor shots and art historical connotations of pubic hair.
Predictably Jones’ creations have been deemed misogynistic by many. He has humorously responded, “I was reflecting on and commenting on exactly the same situation that was the source of the feminist movement. It was unfortunate for me that I produced the perfect image for them to show how women were being objectified.” Gotta love the self-aware man!
If Jones’ pieces look vaguely familiar, it’s probably because Stanley Kubric attempted to mimic them in the infamous Korova Milk Bar for his distopian A Clockwork Orange (1971), after Jones refused to work for free. Kubric’s versions are stripped of their fetish gear and props (cushions and glass tabletop) and are monochromatic white, establishing a visual relationship with the white-clad gang of the film and with classical marble sculpture:
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Early Surrealist painter Giorgio De Chirico (1888 – 1978) made a similar comparison many decades earlier, between stone busts and more animate (if more abstract), jointed, mannequin-like figures. “Il Ritornante” (1918) depicts a drowsy marble bust with realistic facial hair and a dummy composed of mismatched scrap materials. It’s unclear if one of the figures is actually animated and has created the other, but regardless, a strong connection is made between the structure of the room itself and the bodies: one is a caryatid-like supportive column and the other appears to be made of ribbed sheet metal, wooden blocks, and T-square rulers. The flattened perspective makes it even more difficult to distinguish the human forms in the foreground from the cluttered tower of planks and door in the background, visually uniting the human-ish forms with the room’s architecture:
In “The Disquieting Muses” from the same year, De Chirico turned the column fluting into drapes of himation robes, topped with dress form knobs that resemble disproportionate heads. Again, there are buildings in the background and a more fully realized Grecian-like statue that has a similarly blank, oval head, blurring lines between the structures of buildings, statues, mannequins and humans:
Fellow Surrealist and Dadaist Man Ray (1890-1976) experimented with mannequins in photography around the same time. His father had fittingly worked in the New York garment industry and as a tailor, his mother was a seamstress. Times critic Sarah Rosenberg recently wrote, “Dada artists used mannequin parts… as a reflection of consumer culture and war trauma.” The mannequin below appears to be ensconced in a tangled wire bubble reminiscent of barbed wire, with a ridiculous fake mustache (disguise?) and a protective metal corset. It’s not hard to draw comparisons to Man Ray’s persecuted Russian Jewish immigrant history, which he went to great lengths to conceal even after achieving success.
Mannequin designed by Joan Miro, sculpture by Man Ray, 1938
“Mannequin with a bird cage over her head” (1938-66) is a similarly posed naked mannequin that has been gagged, her entire head and shoulders caged, some tiny arm-like appendages reaching out of one side. Places where “private” hair grows — armpits, crotch — have been decorated with whimsical flowers and feathers. It’s sinister and silly at once:
As mannequins have been anatomically perfected and increasingly incorporated into the public sphere via window displays, they have also been utilized by artists other than designers and window dressers. Humans are obsessed with self-representation: in 2-dimensional portraiture, 3-dimensional dummies, and even moving mechanical droids. Even while we understand they’re inanimate objects, when mutated, manipulated, or uncannily accurate, they have tremendous power to attract and repel (I’ll wager some readers were disturbed by at least one image I included). Like few other functional objects, they have the inherent ability to act as commentary on beauty standards, surgical manipulation, sexual taboos, persecution, and the very relationship of reality to its distorted image. Some day I’ll have my own mannequin collection, to dangle from my ceilings and to dress up and undress and to play with, but in the meantime, I’ll content myself with powerful images like these.
Additional resources:
1 Comment
By Lucy Collins,
March 2nd, 2010 at 8:25 am
(Uncategorized)
Merchandising, Textiles Professor, University of Kentucky
Merchandising, Apparel and Textiles Faculty/Assistant Professor, Merchandising, Apparel and Textiles.
Responsibilities include developing a research agenda and a teaching program commensurate with the mission of the Department of Merchandising, Apparel, and Textiles.
To apply: attach two documents: curriculum vitae with the names and addresses of three references (resume), and a cover letter (cover letter). Earned Ph.D. at time of hire in merchandising, retailing, economics, or related area are preferred. To apply for job number SM529097, submit a UK Online Application athttp://www.uky.edu/HR/UKjobs/.
If you have any questions, contact HR/Employment, phone: 859-257-9555 press 2, or e-mail ukjobs@email.uky.edu. Application deadline is March 4, 2010.
The University of Kentucky is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from minorities and women.
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