Atlanta History Center

As part of the CSA Symposium, one day was spent at the Atlanta History Center.   One of the main features there is the Atlanta History Museum, which tells, of course, the story of the city of Atlanta and the surrounding area.

We were given an historical overview by a curator at the museum, and he said something that I’d never thought about, but immediately realized the truth of.  And that is that today Atlanta is strongly associated with the American Civil War purely because of Margaret Mitchell’s novel, Gone with the Wind, and the resulting blockbuster film.  Not that the war was not an important part of the history of Atlanta, and not that Atlanta was not an important aspect of the war. This is undeniable, but it was the book and movie that drew attention to the city and cemented the association.

So it’s not surprising that a large part of the museum is devoted to artifacts from the Civil War.  I just find it all so sad.  Among all the guns and flags and uniforms, you have poignant little things like this pin, which a soldier carved from his own leg bone.  It never was delivered to his sweetheart Lizzie, as he died before he could tell where to send it.

On a cheerier note, there is a nice section devoted to the game of golf, and to Atlanta favorite son, Bobby Jones.  The golf ensemble at the top of this post is a replica of a suit worn by Alexa Stirling in the 1920s.  Alexa was a friend of Bobby Jones, and was a golf  prodigy in her own right.  Below is a shot of her playing in a similar suit.

The Atlanta History Center has a very good collection of textiles, though during this visit there was not an exhibit dedicated to just clothing.  Instead, clothing and textiles are sprinkled throughout the exhibits and are used for illustration of the other themes explored.

In a large exhibit on folk arts, they have an ingenious way to display quilts where 6 or 8 quilts are mounted on slanted boards that are recessed into the wall.  You can push buttons, seen on the lower right of my photo, and the quilt you select to see will roll out for about 15 seconds, and then moves back into the darkness of the wall.

This is the Swan House, which is part of the history center complex.  At one time it actually housed the museum, but today is open to tours as a museum house.  The gardens are worth a walk though, and it is hard to believe that the city is just steps away!

California Design 1930-1965

I’d love to be able to say that these are MY photos and I was the one who got to see this exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, but the lucky museum-goer was Mod Betty, the writer and keeper of Retro Roadmap, a site devoted to mid 20th century wonderfulness.  She has kindly agreed to let me share some of her trip with you, and you can head over to her site for a few more photos.

The show includes over 300 objects of mid 20th modern design,  including clothing, furniture, and graphic design.  Looking at this I’m simply amazed.  I mean, I grew up with this sort of design and simply took it as the way the world looked, and here we are now seeing that the Wonder Bread wrapper was a work of art!

I know that this looks like a corner of Don and Megan Draper’s apartment, but it is actually a tableau at the exhibit.  I’ve got to wonder how much of the current interest in Mid-century Modern is attributable to Mad Man.  Or perhaps Matthew Weiner thought about the resurgent interest in the early 1960s and realized people were hungry for a view into that lifestyle.

All the clothes (but not the accessories) in the exhibit were made in California.  I don’t have the information on that dress or jumpsit, but isn’t it something?  The jeans are 1930s Levis and it and the satin rodeo shirt are borrowed from the Levis Archive.   The flowered swimsuit is from Cole of California, and the color-blocked one is a 1928 suit from Catalina.

On the left is the famous 1940s “Swoon Suit” designed by Margit Fellegi of Cole of California.  It was designed with strings that the wearer could adjust to the correct size, and so no elastic nor zipper was necessary, thus saving rubber and metal for the war effort.

The dress and suit are by Rudi Gernreich.

Patio clothes!  Left to right:  De De Johnson playsuit with skirt, Louella Ballerio playsuit with skirt, Levi Strauss bra and pants, Cole of California by Margit Fellegi bathing suit with skirt, Joseph Zukin of California playsuit.

Swimsuits, left to right:  Rudi Gernreich, Mary Ann DeWeese lobster suits, Cabana set, unknown, and another stunner from  Cole of California by Margit Fellegi.

And this one is not clothing but I had to include it.  I love this idea for displaying record album covers.  The thrifts are full of covers with outstanding graphics, so this would be fairly easy to duplicate.

If you are in southern California, get your act together and go see this before it ends on June 3, 2012.  And a big thanks to Betty for the use of her outstanding photos.

Photos copyright Beth Lennon.

The Charleston Museum – Charleston Couture

While in Charleston my sister and I were able to pay a visit to the excellent Charleston Museum.  I’ve written about the Charleston Museum before, and to read more about the museum you can visit that earlier entry.  On this visit, there were four exhibitions in the Historic Textiles Gallery.  The museum has a varied collection of textiles, and now that they have a gallery devoted solely to textiles, there is always something of interest to people like me.

This year they have dedicated the first display cases to the four seasons.   For summer, the curator put together a range of swimwear, accompanied by appropriate ephemera and accessories.   The Charleston Museum collection is made up mainly of things that do have a connection to the city and to the surrounding area, and most of their exhibits are historical in nature.  Oftentimes, the items chosen are not only interesting fashion, but they also add to the story of the city.

Such is the case with the blue eyelet swimsuit and cover-up in the top photo.  Vintage fashion people will be interested to know that the set dates to 1959 and is by Rose Marie Reid.  History buffs will be interested to know that the original owner was the daughter of the man who developed the Isle of Palms, and that the owner and her husband developed Kiawah Island.  Today both are famous beach resorts in the Charleston area.

The Charleston Museum has been collecting clothing for a long time the red striped suit was donated to the museum by its original owner, May Snowden, in 1925.

The tan checked suit in this photo belonged to Charles Hume Haig of Charleston, who wore it as a young man in the late 19th century.

Note the Jantzen diving girl on the two piece suit from the 1950s.  The blue knit suit in the top photo is also a Jantzen, and has a Charleston store label.

Much of the Historic Textile Gallery is now housing an exhibit called Charleston Couture.  The exhibit is a chronology of fashionable clothing that was worn by Charlestonians, though not all of it is, strictly speaking, haute couture.   It is a good opportunity if you, like me, need more exposure to items before 1920.

All the 18th and 19th century dresses above came from Charleston estates, but in all cases, it cannot be determined with certainty who the original wearers were.  The museum has good educated guesses for them though, using what they know about the age of the dress, the women in the household and other historical clues.

The Charleston Museum is really good about showing not just dresses, but also menswear and accessories.

The ivory dress is by Charles Frederick Worth and it is a true beauty, but the pink and black dress has the more interesting history.  It was made by Pauline Seba in 1890 for the trousseau of a prominent Charleston woman.  Seba, a Black woman,  was probably born into slavery in 1862, and rose to become one of the few Charleston dressmakers of the late 19th century who labeled their work.  Mme. Seba, Robes, Charleston, SC.

Another piece from Worth, this evening coat is made from black net, covered with glass beads.  The sleeves are cut-work lace, covered with black chiffon.

Mariano Fortuny, of course.   The two Delphos dresses belonged to the same woman who owned the Worth coat.  Can you just imagine what her closet was like?

The black stenciled coat is also by Fortuny, and it belonged to Charleston artist Elizabeth O’ Neill Varner.  Several years ago the coat was in an exhibit at the museum, and due to the lack of space, was shown flat.  What a difference it makes seeing it on a form!

So much prettiness!  The black 1920s was made by Francois Bacus, in Luneville, France.  The firm employed embroiderers in the art of broderie de Luneville.  The pink robe de style was inspired by the work of Jeanne Lanvin.  As for the stunning one shouldered black number with the train, no label was mentioned in the exhibition notes, but it was owned by Gertrude Sanford Legendre, a wealthy South Carolina/New York  socialite and woman after my own heart, so it is possible the label was removed.

The green gown was worn by Eleanor Rutledge Hanson in 1932 for a court visit at Buckingham Palace.  Note the matching jacket.  The little sequined jacket is from Hattie Carnegie, but there were no details given for the black dress with the spectacular sleeves.  Oddly, the coral dress is from Lee Clair, a line of “better” cocktail wear for juniors.

The black and white ensemble is from Bill Blass, and the red dress is by Estevez.

There was also a quilt exhibit, and one on Lowcountry embroidery.  I’ll be showing a spectacular piece from it later on.

A Light-hearted Look at the Surrealist Hat.

The great thing about having a blog is that all kinds of wonderful learning opportunities find their way into my email inbox.  The problem is that I’m located about 600 miles away from most of them, and I can’t just hop onto a plane whenever I want to attend a lecture in NYC.  I do, however, have friends in such places, and one, Monica Murgia, attended a recent lecture on Surrealistic hats, given by Dilys Blum.  Her report:

Thanks to The Vintage Traveler, I attended a talk on Surrealist Hats by Dilys Blum.  (That’s her above, with Monica)  Blum is a costume and textile curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  She divulged her  fascinating research on the topic, complete with a feast for the eyes.  I was dazzled by over 120 images, illustrating the origins and legacy of Surrealism.  Here are some of the highlights:

La Revolution Surrealiste: This French magazine was dedicated to Surrealist art and design.  The magazine published 12 issues from 1924 to 1929.  While the magazine initially was concerned only with fine and decorative arts, it laid the groundwork for surrealist images and how they would be photographed in fashion. It was also a forum for disseminating scandalous and revolutionary ideas, as well as reproductions of surrealist art.  Contributors included Man Ray and Rene Magritte.   (Photo montage by Magritte. Title of image is “Je ne vois pas la [femme] cachée dans la forêt”.  Image courtesy of musee-magritte-museum.be)

Wigs & Surrealism: Surrealist headwear wasn’t limited to hats.  Wigs played a major role in the movement.  Elsa Schiaparelli, the surrealist couturiere of the time period, was one of the first to make surrealist wigs.  She commissioned many of these by Antoine.

Antoine, born Antek Cierplikowski, became the first celebrity hairdresser.  He started his career in Paris around 1901, and quickly became a trendsetter for his avant-guard styles.  He was the first to dye women’s hair lilac or blue, and also introduced hairstyles that used bold streaks of blond on dark hair.  (Very Surrealist, don’t you agree?)

In 1931, Schiaperelli was photographed by Man Ray in a wig by Antoine.  (Image is courtesy of sfmoma.org)   Schiaperelli loved the wig so much, she had several comissioned.  She wore a blond version for skiing, and a silver for vacationing.

You may see the parallel in Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fall 2006 collection.  The hats were made of hair. ( Image courtesy of coolspotters.com)

A Head of Roses:  A prominent motif in Dali’s paintings were figures with heads of roses. Such works include:

Necrophiliac Springtime

 Woman with a Head of Roses

Dali’s cover for Vogue in December 1938.

These images inspired a series of Bonwit Teller displays and publicity photos of a phantome woman with a head of roses hat.  This hat completely obscured the face, in accordance with Dali’s paintings. (Image: A scan image from the book Happy Times. Image by Jerome Zerbe.  Photo Courtesy of wandernvisuals.com)

Dali also collaborated with Sheila Legge to promote the International Surrealist Exhibition in London of 1936.  Legge, a fellow surrealist artist, appeared as The Phantom of Sex Appeal.   Legge is dressed in a white satin dress, wearing a hat with roses and ladybirds.  (photo  courtesy of manchesterconfidential.co.uk)

Surely Phillip Traecy’s Butterfly hat for Alexander McQueen’s FW2006 bears a striking similarity to the version worn by Legge.  (Photo courtesy of wicked-halo.com)

Clearly, hats can fit the category of “art to wear”. And what better way to pay homage to an artist than to wear something in his or her honor? I was left wondering if this idea was what inspired Philip Tracey to create this hat , which resembles Dali’s mustache.

photo by Philippe Halsman

That really made me want to be there!  My thanks to Monica for sharing this with us.

And ironically, I got a notice from Jillian at the Bard Graduate Center.  They will be having a fantastic book sale:

On December 8th through the 11th, and the 15th through the 18th, we will be featuring a 70% discount on many of our current and extensive backlist of BGC Gallery Publications, including:  Knoll Textiles,  Shaker Design,  Marimekko: Fabrics,  Fashion,  Architecture,  and The Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory.   This sale is a great compliment to our two current exhibits, Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones and American Christmas Cards, 1900-1960, now showing at our gallery. We are also selling copies of the accompanying book to American Christmas Cards, which has just been featured on Amazon’s Top Ten Hot New Releases in Graphic Design.

Information about visiting the Gallery can be found at    Bard Graduate Center:  Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture  18 West 86th Street, New York, NY 10024

Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones at the Bard Graduate Center

One of the things I’ve been preaching is that you need to look for fashion where you live.  Even here in the mountains of North Carolina, there are some incredible textile and fashion resources, and more still within a few hours drive.

But still, I do get jealous whenever I read about some of the fashion history opportunities available to those of you in the big cities of this world.  The current envy-inducing show is at the Bard Graduate Center in New York City.  This exhibition, Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones started out at the Victoria and Albert in London, and is now at the Bard Graduate Center through April 15, 2012.

Milliner Jones has curated an exhibit that was pulled from collections across the world.  Among the 250 or so hats are included a baseball cap worn by Babe Ruth, a pair of Mouseketeer ears, and hats designed to be worn with couture collections.  There is even a hat with the William J. label, which was the short-lived label of photographer Bill Cunningham.  To see some of the exhibits, there is a slideshow at New York Magazine.

In conjunction with the show, the Bard Graduate Center has planned a series of special events including talks and lectures about, of course, hats.  As a special bonus to The Vintage Traveler readers, the BGC is offering $5 off the $20 addmission to a special lecture, Est-ce un chapeau? (The Surrealist Hat) with Dilys Blum  which is on Thursday, November 17, at 6 pm.

“This lecture by textile curator Dilys Blum explores the Surrealist hat from its origins in the art of the Dada and Surrealist movements through its fashionable incarnations in the work of Elsa Schiaparelli and others from the 1930s through the 1950s and, most recently, by contemporary designers such as Stephen Jones and Philip Treacy.  Dilys Blum is senior curator of costume and textiles at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.”

To register, email:  programs@bgc.bard.edu,  or call 212.501.3011.  Indicate promotional code HATS EXHIBITION/BLOG READER.

For a full listing of the special events, there is an online program brochure.   General admission is $7, but the BGC is open late on Thursday evenings, and it is free after 5 pm.  You can’t beat that deal!

 

 

 

Givenchy

Silk and Straw Bonnet

Graham Smith

Balenciaga

Caroline Reboux

Paulette

Michael of Lachasse

Caroline Reboux

All images courtesy of the Bard Graduate Center

Charleston Museum, Threads of War

Last week I was finally able to see the new textiles gallery at the Charleston Museum in Charleston, South Carolina.  There were a few weeks left on the opening exhibit, Threads of War, which focused on  clothing and textiles from the American Civil War.  This was totally appropriate, as this is the 150th anniversary of the war, and it started in Charleston.  Visitors to the city hear a lot about the war because it played a huge role in the city’s history.

The Charleston Museum itself has an interesting history.  It is the oldest museum in the US, having been founded in 1773, with displays opened to the public in 1824.  These were the days of collecting “curiosities” and the Charleston Museum had its share.  Through the 19th century the collection of Egyptian artifacts, stuffed birds and pickled snakes grew.

But it was the early years of the 20th century that brought a change in the emphasis of the collection.  The museum began collecting the history of Charleston, and as a result, they now have an amazing collection of Charleston artifacts, including clothing and other textiles.  Today the museum primarily tells the story of the city of Charleston and the surrounding Lowcountry of South  Carolina, both through their historical collection and the older natural science collection.

For years, the textiles were used within the exhibits that tell the history of the city, and as a result, only a very small part of the textiles collection was ever on view.  Starting in the mid 2000s, the museum started doing special exhibits that focused on the clothing collection.  The problem though, was a lack of exhibit space.  I can remember one such exhibit called the Age of Glamour,  in which the exhibit was in the hallways,  divided between two floors, and most of the garments were shown flat against a wall or laid flat.  One of the display areas was flooded with natural light.

With the new textile gallery, all of these problems are now solved.  The space was designed specifically for the display of textiles.  My only complaint is that, like the rest of the museum, the entire display is behind glass.  For most of the objects, you cannot see the back, which in the case of clothing can be very important.  Hopefully there will be times when a garment that is meant to be viewed in the round will come out from behind the glass, and be put on a pedestal on the viewing floor!

One great feature, which for come reason I do not have a photo of , but that you can see here, are the series of viewing drawers.  They were full of accessories and photographs.

A real strength of the textile collection is that these things were for the most part gathered from the community over the years.  In most cases, the museum knows who wore each garment, and in many cases even who made them.  It’s a history lovers dream!

It’s not just the textile hall that is interesting.  There are artifacts on all aspects of Charleston history, including its long history of tourism.

 

The Tennesee Aviation Museum

 

A few weeks ago I went with Tim to that most tacky of American places, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.   It’s a quick getaway from our home, and despite the presence of a sinking Titanic and Dollywood, and way too many cheap outlets and souvenir shops, the place has a few things going for it.  There are several great antique malls in nearby Sevierville, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is just down the road.  For the past several years Tim has wanted to visit the Tennessee Aviation Museum, and I’d always been grateful (having already spent quite a bit  of my life looking at antiquated aircraft) that we were in too big a hurry to actually stop.

This trip though, he was determined to make that visit, and I’m not too proud to admit that I was wrong to resist.  Yes, there was a hanger full of old planes and plane parts, but there was also a wonderful exhibition hall with all kinds of historic artifacts, including of course, clothing.  It was all very interesting, as there was a whole section devoted just to World War II, but it was not, strictly speaking, a military museum.  There were exhibits about early mail planes, and flying preachers and women pilots.  All in all, it was time well spent.  It just goes to show that fashion history can be found in the oddest places!

The top photo is a flight suit of an early mail pilot.  Do you think he looks like Lindburgh?

There were lots of uniforms, as might be expected, and I liked that included were several uniforms from the Women’s Air Corps and Women Air Force Service Pilots.

I  was happy to see another example of a silk escape map.

Probably the world’s most perfect shorts.  These are Korea era Air Force exercise shorts.  Can’t someone reproduce these?