Analogue Chic

Archive for the ‘Fashion Anthropology’ Category

{apologies in advance for poor quality phone-photos – a.c.}

Yesterday, slapped myself out of a heat wave-induced stupor to head to Hartford for the afternoon.  Husband and I had tickets to Cirque du Soleil Ovo, and we stopped at the Wadsworth Atheneum before heading to the big tent off I-91.

In an ideal world, I would have the status where I could command a private viewing of any museum I chose to visit, with perhaps just a few other, quiet, appreciative patrons, if they could be found.  In real life, construction was being done to the Wadsworth, making it really difficult to focus in the Sol Lewitt exhibit. Oh, and best of all, a group of 11 year olds being shepherded around by 1 blessed docent (poor thing). 

The highlight of my visit was the 19th century costumes, Part I of a 3-part special exhibit the Wadsworth is putting on this year.

While the costume and textile galleries are unavailable during building renovations, the 1870s Goodwin Parlor of the Wadsworth Atheneum offers an excellent opportunity to explore these and other themes of Victorian fashion, including the parallels between interior decorating styles and costume design.

The costume and textile exhibits have been hidden away, for one reason or another, every single time I’ve visited the Wadsworth.  But they chose a great setting to display the half-dozen gowns from the 1870s– the prevailing Victorian penchant for embellishment is clear in the dresses and the furnishings.  This is one of my favorite periods of Western costume history, as fashion starts to get sexy again – love the bustle.

Costumes and textiles are notoriously difficult to display in a way that is remotely interesting.  I will regret to my dying day that I missed the Dangerous Liaisons exhibit at the Met, because that, to me, is the ideal.  I’m always interested to see what museums do with their mannequins from the neck, up.  Very often they are headless.  I like how the Wadsworth has replicated period hairstyles with white ribbon.

The exhibit is titled "The Upholstered Woman", after this Mark Twain quote:

When the visitors swept into the drawing-room they filled the place with a suffocating sweetness procured at the perfumer’s. Their costumes, as to architecture, were the latest fashions intensified; they were rainbow-hued; they were hung with jewels—chiefly diamonds. It would have been plain to any eye that it had cost something to upholster these women.
- Mark Twain, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1874)

You can see another take on this concept of fashion as social marker in an earlier post I wrote, here.

Also, check out my list of other fashion-related exhibits around the US and the world, here.

The Upholstered Woman: Women’s Fashions of the 1870s and 1880s

Part III: Women’s Fashions of 1885-1890
April 13 – September 4, 2011

The Wadsworth Atheneum

600 Main Street, Hartford, CT

Hello there,

‘Twas just a garden in the rain…

A misty-moisty morning to visit the wedding dress exhibit and flower show at the Danbury Museum on Saturday.  Lovely plants and beautiful dresses, unfortunately served to highlight how badly the Museum needs better exhibit space.  So donate generously!

You can read my write-up, with photos, over at The Mercurial.

[Updated June 15]

It’s more than just "here’s a bunch of clothing from our collection"– it’s a really illustrative survey of what women from this little part of Connecticut were wearing on their wedding day.

I’ve been informed by Museum staff that, with the Flower Show completed, some dresses will be coming out of the glass cases and onto dress forms, with some other items also going on display.  I was just cringing looking at some of those heavy dresses on hangers, and the trains folded up in the case.  It will be great for visitors to get a little closer to the details.

Having been involved with several small museums in Connecticut, I completely understand the limitations of funding on everything from roof repairs to paperclips.  The Museum is quite proud of the recent renovations to the central building, Huntington Hall.  I’m sure it’s a vast improvement on its previous setting.  On a personal note, I just have to say the style of the building is quite a visual jolt when you see it surrounded by the historical buildings and garden.  A building with flexible exhibit space, with climate control and adaptable lighting, on one floor, and offices, etc. on a separate floor, in a more harmonious style on the exterior, would be an ideal starting point for tours of the rest of the buildings.

So again, visit often, and donate generously!

If you’re traveling this summer, check out one of these fashion-related exhibits in the US and Europe.  If you know of any others, drop me a line, and I’ll add them here.  [Updated 6/6; 6/17; 7/12]

NYC

Metropolitan Museum, Costume Institute

May 5, 2010–August 15, 2010

American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity

[...] the first Costume Institute exhibition drawn from the newly established Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Met. It explores developing perceptions of the modern American woman from 1890 to 1940 and how they have affected the way American women are seen today. Focusing on archetypes of American femininity through dress, the exhibition reveals how the American woman initiated style revolutions that mirrored her social, political, and sexual emancipation. "Gibson Girls," "Bohemians," and "Screen Sirens," among others, helped lay the foundation for today’s American woman.

Metropolitan Museum, Howard Gilman Gallery

June 8, 2010 – October 17, 2010

Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players: Leon Levinstein’s New York Photographs, 1950–1980

Born in West Virginia in 1910, Levinstein moved to New York in 1946 and spent the next thirty-five years obsessively photographing strangers on the streets of his adopted home. Early in his career, Levinstein was quoted in Photography Annual 1955: "In my photographs I want to look at life—at the commonplace things as if I just turned a corner and ran into them for the first time." With daring and dedication to his subject, Levinstein captured the denizens of New York City at extremely close range. He used his superb sense of composition to frame the faces, flesh, poses, and movements of his fellow city dwellers in their myriad guises: sunbathers, young couples, children, businessmen, beggars, prostitutes, proselytizers, society ladies, and characters of all stripes.

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For centuries, it was easy to identify an upper-class woman by the amount of fabric she was wearing– yards and yards of it.  This has implications from art history to the hijab debate in Islam.  Nowadays, the opposite may be true ("It’s better to be cold and stylish, than to be warm and frumpy.").  But there is still a class of women, even in our modern democratic society, whose role it is to be fertile and look attractive for their husbands.  I’m talking about you, Fairfield County.

Here are two artists who deal with women (and men) and fabric. (Also see Shadi Ghadirian.)

Elene Usdin, Femmes d’Interieur series

In this series of pictures on “Femmes d’intérieur”, I want to play with the codes, to re-arrange them, giving a cushion or a chair or a pair of shoes the same attention as the subject. It’s my way of depersonalizing the woman, of turning her into (perhaps what she always was): the object, the woman-object. Upending things in effect poses the question: what is the social status of a woman? The reference to “great classics” of painting is a good way to illustrate how a woman is corseted by her rank and the social position of her husband or her own family.

To speak of just one of these photographs : the portrait of “Georges”, is the one of (Georges) Sand, the writer, who in her own era deconstructed the codes corseting women. I have chosen to repaint the famous portrait of her by Charpentier which shows Sand with an amused smile.
In my vision, she is inviting the viewer to sit down on her, she is the woman-chair. But attention: on the armrest there lurks an aggressive barracuda which reverses the notion of the submissive woman. A kick in the nose to what society once expected of women. And today, is their independence so much more meaningful?

Quotes via Elene Usdin.

Andre Wagner, Black Holes series

I was unable to find any artist statement or curator’s description of this series.  Many different intended meanings could be read into the series title… Optimistically, my interpretation is that this series is a commentary on the tendency of people in the West to view people of other, non-Western cultures, even people of non-European descent living in the West, as one simplified image, identified by their foreign clothing, rather than as individuals.

It appears he has digitally erased the flesh of his subjects as well as the background, leaving disembodied clothing, although you can still see wisps of hair peeking from the pallu of the girl on the left in the first photo.

All images copyright to their respective creators.

Via PSFK.

I have no doubt that new acquaintances have this image in mind when I tell them I’m an independent fashion designer.  And I’m sure a few long time friends and acquaintances were a bit taken aback by the contrast between my hyper-intellectual social activist leanings and this apparently vapid new career path.  There’s much more to be said about the implications of fashion in society, and I won’t do it here, now.

I will, however, repost this rant about the stereotype of women in the fashion industry, from fellow IFB’er, 39th and Broadway.

We’ve written before about the ridiculous notion that fashion design is an easy career path.  There’s often this absurd image perpetuated in the media that working in fashion is a simple and mindless task.  How many movies have you seen, be it a drama or romantic comedy, where the fashionable creative lead finds her true calling to be a designer three quarters of the way through the movie?  After realizing her “passion for fashion”, a brief montage ensues of her touching fabrics, wrapping a tape measure around her neck, sketching in her spacious Soho loft, running into Bloomingdale’s with her samples, and then poof, she is magically a famous and successful designer.  There, of course, is no mention of college or any educational training, no clips of raising capital or finding investors, no trips to sample rooms and negotiating price-points, no hunting for sales reps or walking trade shows, and God forbid no tech-packing!  Be it television or movies, becoming a fashion designer is always portrayed as a fun and easy afterthought that can make an adorable girl immediately successful by a simple trip to the fabric store!

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I love it when several spokes of the collective consciousness cross paths in front of me.

One of my concerns in thinking about women, fashion, and society is the issue of body image and self-esteem.  We are our bodies, and our bodies, internally and externally, are so inextricably tied with our individual identity.  At the same time, our bodies are the body politic, and reflect the broader state of the society.  If the body is not healthy, strong, confident, and most importantly loved, there are implications to the individual and the social body.

Please take note of these 2 artists who are loving and honoring women’s bodies, and giving individual women a door to the path to positive body image and self-love.

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Not that I write badly– although you can be the judge of that; I’ll admit to writing inconsistently.  It’s a symptom of too many projects (and day jobs) on my plate…

I’m a bad fashion writer because somehow this exhibit completely passed by under my radar.

"Elements of Style: Fashion and Form at the Beinecke" ran from January 19 to March 27, 2010 at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University– a mere hour’s drive from me.

The English language is rife with idioms that use clothing as metaphor: "If the shoe fits, wear it," "speaking off the cuff" and "skirting the issue," for example. [...]

This exploration of fashion and literary culture pays playful homage to Strunk and White’s now classic grammar primer, The Elements of Style, first published in its current guise fifty years ago. The "little book," as it has come to be called, has offered prosaic advice on all things prose to generations of college students. Yet its emphasis on "style," on the ease, clarity, and distinctive flair of good writing, reveals, at the same time, how the component parts of composition similarly mirror the characteristic stamp of a signature look, be it Fitzgerald’s fictional Gatsby or the Jazz Age icon Josephine Baker. The exhibition considers, then, 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. We discover that clothing, and the meaning of dress, remains a compelling literary subject, just as fashion itself is highly dependent on written language, on the power of description and, in turn, of persuasion. With a focus on the concept of the modern, "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.

Quote from the press release; links added.

Oh, and apparently Andre Leon Talley gave a talk last week.  Now I’m a really bad fashion writer.  Although, it’s weird that this event was not linked in the press release from the school’s Office of Public Affairs, or one of the other listings on the Beinecke’s web site… I hate inconsistency– wait a minute…

Thanks to Rebecca for the head’s up!

Thank goodness. I first saw one of his paintings at the Met, and my first reaction was, wow, that background looks like African prints! And it was.

Image (c) Kehinde Wiley, via Newsweek.

PSFK: How did you choose which designs to use?

KW: I went to the streets. I was in Africa with my friends, and we went out into the markets and looked at reams and reams of fabric- later figuring out which photo, which portrait worked best with what- it was really a hands on and sort of intuitive experience. There’s no concise system for it,  it was more of an ineffable process. A visceral decision about what had the right look and feel for what we were doing.

I wish he were more specific about what cities or regions he was in, because textiles are so tied to the local culture – there is really no such thing as an "African" fabric.

I’m not such a fan of his portraits, actually – I’ve never been a big modern art fan.  But I am definitely a huge fan of making art accessible to everyone, especially those who are typically not among the elite of arts patrons.

KW:There is actually a lot of conceptual overlap between the two projects. My work is about engaging the  contemporary  global street-whether it’s Harlem or Columbo, Sri Lanka. And many people say it’s  hip hop , many people say it’s a global cultural urgency which is driven by a sort of African essence- I don’t know what it is- but to engage with popular culture is something that I’m excited about. I mean, in the 21st century artists occupy many different states- and it is my job to do whatever it is I do as  well as possible.  To view the world through my eyes and make my vision resonate with the viewer.

(I thought I had previously done a post on Yinka Shonibare, but I guess not.  Anyway, I love his work – it’s the perfect combination of critique, sarcasm, rococo fashion, traditional textiles, and colonialism – it’s like we have the same brain. Google him.)

Quotes via PSFK.

If you love clothes, there is one infernally annoying quality to them: they look impeccable when not in motion—but as soon as we have to put on a coat, walk up or down steps, or sit in a chair, or reach up, they move and wrinkle and bunch up. What’s up with that?! 

This has become a pressing issue for me in my latest temp assignment – I’m taking public transportation, and have about a half-mile walk on a wide, heavily trafficked road from the nearest stop to my office.  The wind is blowing, people don’t shovel the sidewalk, I’ve got sand and salt billowing in my face… and I’m trying to look good.  After my last office job, I summarily donated my entire stock of “office wear” (slacks, button-downs, sweaters, knee-highs), and resolved to wear what I want to wear, within the confines of business casual.

Photo by Richard Avedon via Alabama Chanin.

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Just got an e-flyer from the ladies at GG2G, repurposed vinyl bag designers from Connecticut:

In the Bag: The Art and Politics of the Reusable Bag Movement

January 28-April 23, 2010 at the Nathan Cummings Foundation

We all know about the hideous, 99 cent, polyethylene bags from the grocery store…  Designers have tapped into the long-overdue social aversion to "disposable" plastic bags and are creating attractive, clever, and sustainable bags for all kinds of shopping trips. Etsy has over 1,000 listings for reusable market bags.  And labor cooperatives and other organizations around the world are producing similar bags as a source of income for their members.

I wrote a post on reusable bags almost exactly a year ago (!), there are some useful links there for making your own.

Check out the opening, or catch the exhibit if you can.