A symbol of the exhibition is a muslin dress decorated with silk roses and taffeta by designer Anne Lou (1898-1981), who pioneered fashion created by African-American women.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art – the largest institution in the United States for the presentation and study of all types of art – is dedicating an exhibition to fashion created by women for women, reported AFP.
The exhibition is entitled “Women dress women”. A symbol of the exhibition is a muslin dress decorated with silk roses and taffeta by designer Anne Lowe (1898-1981), who pioneered fashion created by African-American women. Lowe is often ignored as a designer, although the pattern for Jackie Kennedy’s wedding dress (1953) was her work.
Three decades earlier, a now forgotten French fashion house – “Premet” – launched the “La garconne” dress. The success of this model preceded by three years the similar fashion idea of Gabrielle Chanel.
The museum has collected 80 outfits by 70 designers from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. Gabriela Hearst’s clothes are featured, using contemporary fashion to send environmental messages.
The history of women in fashion begins with sewing work in fashion ateliers. Most designers in France appeared at the beginning of the 20th century – Madeleine Bionne, Jean Lanvin, Gabrielle Chanel. Between the two world wars, women in fashion now outnumbered men.
To be able to present the designer creations of Elsa Schiaparelli, Nina Ricci or Vivienne Westwood, the Metropolitan Costume Institute searches among its collections containing 33,000 models from the entire history of seven centuries of clothing.
The exhibition was originally slated for 2020 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the suffragette movement in the United States. Its delay is a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Costume Institute’s next major exhibition will be in 2024 under the title Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.
Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art
