fashion

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Willi Smith: On the Record
American designer Willi Smith (1948-1987) hoped to solve what he called “the problem of getting dressed,” or the disconnect between fashion and diverse lifestyles, by using affordable, adaptable clothing as a tool to liberate people from stereotypes of race, class, sex, and gender. Smith’s brand WilliWear relied on collaborations with artists like Bill T. Jones,...
Three people sit working at large textile looms in front of a high wall of shelves filled to the brim with vibrant and colorful yarn and other kinds of thread; a fourth person stands and watches their work.
Behind the Design: The Dorothy Liebes Papers
How can an archive draw a map through a nearly forgotten designer’s four-decade long career? How can an 8 x 10 inch fabric swatch embody a design era, from material choices to color palette? What role can invoices and order books play in filling in key gaps and bringing that era to life? Designer Dorothy...
Arab Fashion and Identity
ARAB FASHION AND IDENTITY The Contemporary Muslim Fashions exhibition showcases the diversity of Arab and Muslim fashion styles and highlights Arab participation in the global and regional fashion industry. Join Cooper Hewitt for an engaging discussion about fashion and identity in the Arab world and diaspora, moderated by consulting exhibition curator Reina Lewis. Panelists include...
Image features the decorative title page of Volume 1 and colored engraving of man's costume featuring a waistcoat. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Keeping a Watch on Waistcoats
Marie Antoinette and her entourage of costumers were obsessed with discovering the latest fashion trends in clothing, accessories and hairstyles. Despite the predominance and popularity of French fashion trends in the eighteenth century, the scarcity of printed fashion news and illustrations led to the publications of the first fashion plates in early British magazines for...
Image features a blouse with a round neckline and stitched pleats on either shoulder. Three snap closures on left proper shoulder. Long sleeved with banded cuff and snap closure. At the waist, belt loops are sewn on the seam. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Thematic Textiles
Inspired by the popularity of their printed series of fabrics entitled American National Parks (Spring 1927) and Wonder Caves of America (Fall 1927), H.R. Mallinson & Company maintained their creative momentum by returning to other American themes first visited during the “Designed in America” campaigns of the World War I period. Motivation also came from...
Birds, in and out of open cages, on a feather-textured background. Printed in indigo, yellow and red on a white ground.
You go, I go, you leave, I leave
Author: Lila Stone In celebration of the third annual New York Textile Month, members of the Textile Society of America will author Object of the Day for the month of September. A non-profit professional organization of scholars, educators, and artists in the field of textiles, TSA provides an international forum for the exchange and dissemination...
Image features: Black cotton taffeta with a single vertical column of white embroidery down the center. The 37 three-dimensional embroidered motifs include butterflies, birds, flowers, and the word PEACE. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Forest Parade
Akira Minagawa opened his first minä perhonen fashion boutique in Tokyo’s Shirokanedai district in 2000, and began showing his collections in Paris in 2004. Forest Parade, introduced as part of the Spring/Summer 2005 collection, has become an iconic design for the brand. “Perhonen” means butterfly in Finnish, and this design includes butterflies, birds, flowers, branches,...
Image features a woman standing next to a tree blooming with golden apples and a pond with a white swan. Holding a fruit in her hand, the woman is pictured from the side wearing a checked day dress, matching cape, and feather plumed hat. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Fashioning Desire
George Barbier’s Au Jardin des Hespérides (Garden of the Hesperides) appeared in 1913 in Gazette du Bon Ton. Translated as the “Journal for Good Taste,” it was intended for an elite readership concerned with high-society culture and entertainment, as well as the latest developments in fashion and beauty. The publication was led by the publishing...
Image features squat round clear glass bottle encased in a gold-toned metal sleeve with six jingling bells around circumference; gold-toned flaring circular foot; removable circular gold-toned metal cap. Separate square, gold foil-covered presentation box and brown cardboard outer box. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Ting-A-Ling, the Perfume Bottle that Sings
This festive little perfume bottle embodies the creative genius of French couturier Lucien Lelong, active between 1919, when he opened his first couture house, and 1948, the year he retired. Lelong was influential in shaping the world of haute couture throughout much of the twentieth century. Among his contemporaries were Chanel, Worth, Patou, Lanvin and...