#museumatfit

[mahoganygold213]

Cristóbal Balenciaga Fall Winter 1950 Haute Couture, pink silk tulle and satin evening dress with silver metal embroidery. This dress was worn by Dovima in Harper's Bazaar 1950 photographed by Richard Avedon

[museumatfit]

#WeLoveDolls: Estelle

"When I was four, I learned to sew by making Barbie clothes.

I traded my toy gun and holster set to my sister for her. I re-named her Estelle, because I didn’t buy Mattel’s Barbie “teenage fashion model” story.

The sissy kid in Oklahoma got bullied because he sewed and played with dolls.

In my mind, Estelle was a grown-up 27 year old. Her story: she lived in a Big City, and did grown-up things. My refuge.

We both eventually landed in New York, with designing as my career.

In early 2020, Covid came. Everyone was locked inside with the deadly pandemic raging outside. How to keep myself sane in this crazy time? That thing that kept me company, soothed my nerves, and provided escape from the harsh world outside. I played with Estelle and made lots of doll clothes.

The silver lining of this—the Doll Couture books!"

-Kenneth King, New York

.kennethdking on Instagram

To contribute your own story visit The Museum at FIT website!

[professorpski]

Elizabeth Hawes: Along Her Own Lines Until March 26, 2023

This show at the FIT Museum in NYC only runs a month which hardly seems long enough in light of its subject.

Elizabeth Hawes (1903-1971) was both a designer, who made couture clothing and then tried to work for a ready-to-wear garment company, and a writer. She found she could not make money with custom-made clothing because her own perfectionism made it too costly, and that garment manufacturers expected a frenetic creativity that was impossible to achieve. She wrote best-selling books about the fashion industry and about garment design, and then began to advocate for the rights of workers and improvements in their conditions.

This show look at all these different aspects of her life and works, and shows some of the garments she designed like this purple wool coat from 1950 with a contrasting lining.

For more info plus images, go here: https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum/exhibitions/elizabeth-hawes/index.php

[defunctfashion]

Tom Ford for Gucci | c. 2004 ・・・ In a glorious act of camp, Tom Ford paid homage to his own work in his final show for Gucci after highly publicized contract negotiation failure. He exaggerated and pumped up his own vampy aesthetic in the collections slinky, sequined evening gowns. This memorable look captures the über-femininity of 40s Hollywood but is heightened by the acid green fabrication and the dyed-to-match fox stole. ・・・ #green #tomford #gucci #sequins #ootd #fashion #couture #fur #metcamp #beauty #glanour #notesoncamp #museumatfit https://www.instagram.com/defunctfashion/p/BwuYi3xAA9w/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=15p7n259w7b0

[professorpski]

Designing Women: Fashion Creators and Their Interiors at Museum at FIT

Now through May 14, 2023, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology has a show on women fashion designers who also did interior decoration from the late 19th Century onward. As both kinds of designing were part of the decorative arts, this made perfect sense to them. The same principles about the art of composition were used to design both. In fact, one of my early fashion books actually explains how to make each room of a house as harmonious as a woman’s clothing.

You see here a yellow, fur-trimmed tea gown from around 1918 which is attributed to Lucile, then a remarkably fluffy evening cape by Jeanne Paquin, evening cape, 1987, France, and lastly a painting by Henri Gervex which he called “Cinq Heures chez Paquin” or Five Hours at Paquin from 1906 which gives you the idea that women spent a lot of time picking out their purchases at the designer’s salon.

For more images and more information on visiting, go here: https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum/exhibitions/designing-women.php

[professorpski]

Now through November 12, 2023, you can see this show at the Museum at FIT in NYC which has designers from Latin American countries & those of Latin American heritage who live in the United States. This includes work by Adolfo, Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera, Isabel Toledo, and a raft of other designers. The curators have also put lots of info and pictures online, so if you can't make it to New York this summer, you can enjoy parts of this show.

[museumatfit]

#MyMFIT / Pink: The History of a Punk, Pretty, Powerful Color (2018)

I first visited the Museum for the 2018 "Pink" exhibition and I completely fell in love! The way it was displayed and explained was amazingly inspiring for me as an artist.

[defunctfashion]

Alexander McQueen | c. 2007 ・・・ Densely embellished with a cascade of beaded golden tresses, this gown was part of a collection inspired by witches. McQueen was researching his own family history and discovered he was descendent of a victim of the Salem Witch Trials. This reference underscores the power associated with hair in folklore and mythology. McQueen’s aggressive and sexual fashions polarized audiences and he was often accused of misogyny. But his “perverse” and transgressive aesthetic was more about himself than about real women. After a collection inspired by Joan of Arc, McQueen said, “Anyone can be a martyr for their cause. Maybe I was a martyr for homosexuality when I was six.” ・・・