Creative Process Journal: Curation and Judith Clark

Pretentious from The Concise Dictionary of Dress
Photo by Julian Abrams 2010

Judith Clark is a curator of fashion exhibitions that are often unconventional and thought provoking, including The Concise Dictionary of Dress in 2010. In this exhibition, fashionable objects or works of art relating to the clothed body were juxtaposed alongside singular words addressing the psychology of the fashioned body, such as "armoured, conformist, fashionable, plain, pretentious, provocative, tight". The setting of this exhibition was within the confines of the storage facility of the Victoria and Albert Museum, which added a degree of theatrically and exclusivity. This was a show that required advance booking. If your name was not on the security list, you were left standing at the locked gate. All belongings had to be left behind before entry and small groups of visitors were accompanied through the exhibition by a guide. Talking was not permitted and signage was virtually non-existent. In absence of a history the object or explanation of what was being presented, the dialogue was internal, challenging the viewer to create connections and links between the words and the objects. This was a show that haunts me still.

Conformed from The Concise Dictionary of Dress
Photo by Julian Abrams 2010

In the exhibition catalogue, there is a section towards the end in which questions were posed to Judith by an anonymous panel. The fifteen questions include:

Does one need a body to bring a garment to life and why?

There seem to be two categories of embodiment implied by the commission. The ghost-like presence of clothing once inhabited and the absent body of the archivist. What sort of relationship between curator and curated do these shadows and voids suggest?

What is most interesting: finding, collection, drawing or making the exhibition?

What does the desirability of historic/vintage dress say about a particular period in time?

Her answers reveal a fierce intellect, one that is capable of bringing coherence to a divergent array of items of dress. She suggests that the absence of the living body is at the heart of curating dress, and she sees that the priority for her is not the re-enactment of history but to use dress to "talk about other things". In specific reference to The Concise Dictionary of Dress she says: "In this particular series of installations, there is a double loss of life, if you like: that of the garment without its body, and the garment out of sight, embedded within an archive. The archive is a very important ingredient here, as visitors do not expect garments to have been brought to life, but instead stored, classified and protected, and it is here that I am free to wonder: what are we storing when we are storing dress?"

For me, in storing a dress, the garment changes context when it is separated from its owner and placed in an archive for study purposes. It becomes an object with a number and is divorced from its former owner, except within the records. Yet the traces of the wearer might live on in the folds, embedded in the marks and stains of the living body. There is a story, whether it is known or not, whether it is recorded or not. When a garment is accepted into a collection, it signifies the end stage of the garment's biography because it will never again adorn a living body.

References:
Clark, Judith and Adam Phillips. The Concise Dictionary of Dress. London: Violette Limited, 2010. Print.

Mida, Ingrid. "Exhibition Review: The Concise Dictionary of Dress." June 7, 2010. Available online at http://fashionismymuse.blogspot.ca/2010/06/exhibition-review-concise-dictionary-of.html
Accessed September 9, 2012.

Mida, Ingrid. "Book Review: The Concise Dictionary of Dress." June 9, 2010. Available online at
http://fashionismymuse.blogspot.ca/2010/06/book-review-concise-dictionary-of-dress.html
Accessed September 9, 2012.

Online Historic Costume Collections

In a click of a mouse, I can visit the historic and contemporary costume collections from around the world. Although some museums and university collections welcome visiting scholars, digitizing a collection reduces the handling of fragile garments and also offers everyone a chance to see garments that are not on display.  Here are my top picks of accessible collections (click on museum name for related link): 

Dior 1947 Bar Suit, Image Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute

Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Collection: The Met has over 35,000 costumes and accessories in their collection, with the earliest piece going back to the 15th century. This New York museum sets the gold standard for online digitized collections, providing multiple images and extensive descriptive information and provenance details for each item.

Victoria and Albert Museum Collections:  Although the storage and research facilities for this London based museum collection are currently being renovated (scheduled to reopen in October 2013),  the V&A website gives access to images from their extensive costume collection and also provides videos, articles, suggested books, and related material. An inviting and friendly website, the fashion related section is organized by period, with links to all related material available on the site. Like the Met, the information provided for each fashion item is extensive, including multiple viewpoints, photos of related accessories, marks and inscriptions and exhibition history. 

FIT Museum Collection: FIT Museum currently has over 50,000 garments and accessories in its collection. Although they have pieces going back to the 18th century, their focus is on contemporary fashion and they seek to add new pieces that "make fashion history". They have an extensive online collection and are adding to that regularly.  FIT has a smaller study collection of approximately 1200 pieces that is accessible to students, faculty and visiting researchers.

Kent State University Museum: Kent State has one of the largest study collections in the world with over 40,000 pieces including historic pieces from the 18th and 19th centuries to the present. While only a small sampling of items have been digitized, this museum believes in accessibility and welcomes students, faculty and visiting researchers.

Drexel University Historic Costume Collection: An online collection featuring detail closeups and 360 degree views of 129 selected pieces from the collection. Of particular note are the photos related to the conservation of an 1885 gown by Charles Frederick Worth (link here).

Chicago History Museum Costume & Textiles Collection: This museum's costume collection includes over 50,000 costumes and textile artifacts from the mid-18th century to the present, and is one of the largest in the world. Recently launched, the digital collection features multiple views of nearly 400 costume and textile artifacts.

Book Review: Seventeenth-Century Dress Patterns, Book One

The cover of this book with the ghostly x-ray image of a slashed satin bodice from 1630 is but a hint of the extraordinary contents within. Edited by Susan North and Jenny Tiramani, Seventeenth-Century Dress Patterns (Book One) includes patterns for items from the Victoria and Albert Museum collection including several waistcoats, a mantle, a smock, hood, gloves and other items. Enhanced by colour photographs, x-ray images, highly detailed patterns, cutting instructions, technique descriptions and images of paintings, the book is intended to provide experts and home-sewers with the means to replicate these pieces as well as minimize the repeated handling of the objects from the museum's collection. Seventeenth-Century Dress Patterns is extraordinary in its content and its beauty and also builds on the cumulative work of Janet Arnold as well as other dress historians like Norah Waugh and Dorothy Burnham.

This is the first book in a new pattern book series published by the Victoria and Albert Museum. The new format was the inspiration of Jenny Tiramani, who not only worked as a costumer for the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre from 1997 to 2005, but also completed Janet Arnold's last book Patterns of Fashion 4 (after Janet's untimely death). Last year, I heard Jenny Tiramani speak at the Royal Ontario Museum when she visited to research some items from the museum's collection (read the post about her talk here). Her attention to detail, willingness to share her knowledge and her charm are reflected within the pages of this meticulously crafted book.

Title: Seventeenth-Century Dress Patterns, Book One
Edited by: Susan North and Jenny Tiramani
Publisher: V&A Publishing, London, 2011
Category: Non-fiction, Historical Dress
Number of Pages: 160

Cartes des Visite and Fashion History

White has been the choice of most brides since the time of Queen Victoria's wedding to Prince Albert in 1840. But surprisingly other colours such as black, blue or brown were also worn in the 19th century by brides who favoured a more practical choice of gown to be worn again. 

From the Halmrash studio, 529 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis

In this particular photograph, the bride is wearing a dark gown, probably dark blue or black silk. Undated, it took a bit of sleuthing to date this photograph.  

In the Victorian era, collecting cartes de visite of friends, family and prominent persons was a popular pastime. These small  2⅛ × 3½ photographs were supplanted in the early 1870s by the larger sized "cabinet cards" which measured  4½ by 6½ inches. Cabinet cards remained popular into the early 20th century when Kodak introduced the Brownie camera. When I see a tray of cartes de visite or cabinet cards in an antique market, I am compelled to bring them home. Once I bought so many that the vendor asked me if I was buying a family. What I'm actually buying is a bit of fashion history. 

The bride is wearing a black, blue, or brown dress with long sleeves and a high collar with white piping detail and white buttons for the collar opening. The bodice is slim fitting and appears to be a type of corset overlay with two rows of white buttons. The skirt seems to be softly draped across the front and has a small ruffled hem. Her white veil is sheer and to the floor with flowers or other ornament as a type of tiara. 

How would a historian date this dress?

The image is a larger cabinet card for a starting point of at least 1870. But the absence of a bustle suggests that it must be later than 1880. And since the sleeves are not overly extreme in shape as was common in in the mid-1890s, I'm guessing that this dress would be dated somewhere between 1898-1903.

To check, I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum website which offers a treasure trove of information on historical dress and discovered that they have a database of wedding photos. There is a similar style of dress worn by Sarah Poortvliet in her marriage to Fobbe William Hoekstra dated February 14, 1901. How cool is that?

Yohji Yamamoto and the Crinoline

Yohji Yamamoto Fall/winter 2011

Crinolines seem to resurface periodically in contemporary fashion. Their exaggerated proportions and sculptural properties take on a decidedly modern twist in Yohji Yamamoto's Fall/Winter 2011 collection. And the apocalyptic hairdos almost seem to foretell the tragedy of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Yohji Yamamoto Fall/Winter 2011

Yohji Yamamoto, Fall/winter 2011

Yohji Yamamoto Fall/winter 2011

These women are not languishing Victorian wallflowers. Instead the effect is strikingly powerful and modern. Seeing this riff on crinolines makes me want to wear one. I wish I could hop across the pond to see the retrospective of Yohji Yamamoto's work which opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on March 12, 2011. 

To see more examples of crinolines in contemporary fashion, see this earlier post here. 

What's on the Fashion Calendar for March?

The worlds of fashion and art have collided and there seem to be an unprecedented number of promising exhibitions on the calendar.

Worth Evening Gown and shoe by Isabelle de Borchgrave 2004
Photo by Andreas von Einsiedel
Courtesy of the Legion of Honor

Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave recently opened at the Legion of Honor Museum of Fine Arts in San Francisco. In this exhibition, over 60 paper sculptures from the studio of Isabelle de Borchgrave depict the history of costume. Taking inspiration from paintings, photographs, sketches and museum collections, this artist paints and manipulates paper to look like fabric, which is then styled into the dress silhouettes of the past.  I recall seeing her work in a show called Papier a la Mode at the Royal Ontario Museum  and I've been a fan ever since. In fact, I often revisit her exquisite work inside the beautiful book Paper Illusions, The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave. 

In Los Angeles, the Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915 exhibition at LACMA will close at the end of the month. This exhibition examines the changes in fashionable dress over a period of  two hundred years and considers the evolution in textiles, tailoring techniques, and trimmings in the presentation of the museum's relatively recent acquisition of a major European collection. With an incredibly beautiful book filled with breath-taking photos, I'm almost breathless with anticipation at finally getting there.

Also in Los Angeles is the unpretentious FIDM museum where there is an exhibition of  the 19th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design . The Academy award winning costumes from Alice in Wonderland by Collen Atwood are included in the exhibition as are costumes from The Kings' Speech, The Kids are Alright, The Tempest and other movies from 2010.

Installation shot of Punk Garments, 1977-78
From Zandra Rhodes: a life in textiles
Photo by Anthony Scoggins
Courtesy of the Mingei Museum

And of course, there is the exhibition of Zandra Rhodes: A Lifelong Affair with Textiles at the Mingei Museum. This iconic textile artist, fashion designer and costumer will be speaking about her opera costume and set design work on March 19th in San Diego.

Textiles are the first step of the process of creation for designer Yoji Yamamoto.  He once said "Fabric is everything". Using a variety of traditional Japanese techniques and other more common weaves such as gabardine and tweed, Yamamoto has all his fabrics made in Japan to his own specifications. He became internationally renowned for his unconventional designs that incorporate unusual pattern cutting and often seem oversized, unfinished, non-gender specific, or constructed out of non-traditional fabrics like felt or neoprene.  Yoji Yamamoto retrospective at Victoria and Albert Museum opens March 12.

So many places to be, so little time....

The First Fashion Blogger: Barbara Johnson's Album of Fashion

Although fashion blogs seem to be a relatively recent phenomena, the act of documenting one's selections of clothing and fabric choices goes back as far as the 18th century. Barbara Johnson, a  well-off Englishwoman from a clerical family, made detailed notes about her wardrobe for the period 1760-1823. Her album includes a detailed description of each garment, fabric swatches, information about cost and trimmings as well as clipped pocketbook engravings (plates that preceded the illustrated fashion journals) with the styles of the day. Her album survives today in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was reproduced into book format in 1987 because it is too fragile to be handled.

Even as a reproduction, this album is important for several reasons. According to Madeleine Ginsburg, assistant curator at the V&A Museum,  "the album is unique for the length of time it covers, for the practical details and the hints it gives of the circumstances of her long and fashion-conscious life." (Essay on "Barbara Johnson and Fashion" by Madeline Ginsburg, pg. 18 from the book.)

Not only does this album reflect the changes in silhouette and style over time, it also mirrors the graceful aging of a woman who knew was appropriate for her figure. Stylish to the end, her choices of fabric, silhouette and trims reflect her status as an elegant and respected woman.

Also notable in the album are her frequent purchases of mourning dress. Apparently, 18th century mourning requirements were as strict as in the Victorian age with three periods of mourning, categorized by degree. First degree required the most sombre dress in fabrics without colour, either in black or white, without sheen and with little or no trimmings and plain white accessories. Over time, the requirements relaxed but the mourning period was typically at least a year and was adopted after the deaths of family, close friends and in certain cases for the deaths of members of the Royal Family.

This book is a fascinating archive of fashion history for the period 1754-1832 and an important resource for fashion scholars and bloggers alike.

Title: Barbara Johnson's Album of Fashions and Fabrics
Edited by: Natalie Rothstein
Published by: Thames and Hudson, 1987
Number of Pages: 208

Exhibition Review: Grace Kelly, Style Icon

Grace Kelly

Photograph by Erwin Blumenfeld New York, 1955. 

© The Estate of Erwin Blumenfeld 2009

The thing that made her stand out is what we call 'style'. 
McCall's magazine 1955

Classic beauty, cool elegance, and impeccable style are the words that come to mind when I think of Grace Kelly. And even though she died nearly thirty years ago, I seem to have lots of company in my admiration for this legendary actress and princess. On a daily basis, there are crowds of people attending the Grace Kelly: Style Icon exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the shows are selling out.

Installation Shot copyright of V&A Images 2010

On display are an exquisite array of clothing and accessories that trace the transformation of the actress into a princess. The exhibition includes costumes from High Society and other movies, dresses from her trousseau, the ballerina style wedding suit worn for her civil ceremony to Prince Ranier, and an selection of haute couture gowns worn in her role as the Princess of Monaco including several fancy dress ballgowns. Several of the exhibition cases are backed with mirrors making the backs of the garments visible and the show is enhanced by photographs and film clips. Nevertheless, I heard a few grumbles in the crowd from people who were disappointed that the gown worn for the formal wedding ceremony was not on display (apparently because of its fragile condition).

Installation Shot copyright of V&A Images

Having studied the press materials and the book Grace Kelly Style in advance of the show, I had some idea of what to expect. But seeing a photo of a dress and seeing it in person do not equate! With a few exceptions, all the dresses have a simplicity of line and understated embellishments which create a harmony and elegance of form. My favourite pieces included:
* a floral silk dress made from a McCall's pattern that she wore on her first meeting with Prince Ranier in 1955 (shown in the first installation shot above),
* a stunning purple evening gown in silk by Hubert de Givenchy from 1960 (seen in the second installation shot above),
* the silk organza dress in pale blue designed by Helen Rose for the movie High Society.

My overall impression was that Grace Kelly embodied elegance, both in her clothing choices and in her life.

Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco, 1956

© Snap/Rex features

If you have the opportunity to visit this exhibition before it closes on September 26, 2010, be sure to buy your tickets in advance to avoid long line ups and disappointment. Also worth considering are the lectures and workshops listed in the events calendar.

Victoria and Albert Museum
South Kensington London SW
+44 (0)20 7942 2000
www.vam.ac.uk/gracekelly

Note: All photos in this post were provided by the Victoria and Albert Museum and are subject to copyright.

May is Museum Month!

May 18th is Museum month! When was the last time you visited your local museum and fed your brain? For me, museums are my fuel, providing inspiration for my art practice. I'll be jetting off to London this morning to do some research and visit some fabulous exhibitions in London including the following:

The Enchanted Palace 

Kensington Palace

March 26 - June 30, 2010

The Concise Dictionary of Dress at Blythe House

April 28 - June 27, 2010

Grace Kelly: Style Icon at the Victoria and Albert Museum

April 17 - September 26, 2010

I'll be back to post the winners of the Wild Rose Giveaway at Memories of a Dress on Saturday, May 22, 2010.

Note: The above photos are presented here with permission of indicated Museum press office. All photos are under copyright and not to be used without written authorization.

On a Pedestal at the Bata Shoe Museum (Part I)

To step inside the On a Pedestal exhibit at the Bata Shoe Museum is like stepping back in time. The dim lighting,  the Renaissance inspired decor, the reproductions of period paintings hanging in ornate frames and even the period music evoke a time long ago when elegant dress for upper-class women and courtesans was defined by the wearing of tall, pedestal-like shoes.

Velvet covered wooden platforms ornamented with silver lace and silk tassel

Italian 1580-1620

Copyright of Bata Shoe Museum 2010, Toronto, Canada

The history of elevated footwear goes all the way back to ancient Greece and Rome when they were linked to "oriental adornment and concepts of the exotic". During medieval times, elevating footwear was a gender and religious identifier. In the 16th century, such footwear reflected cultural influences, familial status and standards of feminine beauty. At the end of the 16th century, the heel was introduced from the Near East and chopines were eclipsed by the mule and slap sole shoe (which I will discuss in an upcoming post).

Curator Elizabeth Semmelhack guides us through these developments with exquisite examples of such highly provocative footwear including this pair of red velvet chopines from the 16th century which are part of the Bata Shoe Museum collection. Adding much to the understanding of the women that wore such elevated footwear are the reproductions of paintings which illustrate chopines in context. Particularly amusing is the fact that the women in the paintings are often in a state of undress, having kicked off their chopines to luxuriate in comfort!

Italian 16th century red velvet chopines

Copyright of Bata Shoe Museum 2010, Toronto, Canada

Although I've seen chopines before, it never occurred to me that chopines were hidden underneath women's billowing skirts. In fact, the wearing of tall chopines meant that skirt lengths had to be substantially lengthened and necessitated a significant increase in the amount of expensive cloth needed to make such skirts.  Furthermore, since a woman could not walk far on such pedestals, servants were also necessary. Thus, the wearing of tall chopines was symbolic of a family's wealth and status.

There were many more facts about chopines that I could reveal here, but I'd rather encourage you to go to the exhibition and see it for yourself. Exceptional examples of Renaissance and Baroque footwear have been brought in on loan from museums such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Museo Bardini, Florence; Castello Sforzesco, Milan,; Museum Palazzo and Mueo Correr, both Venice; Ambras Castle, Austria, and the Boston Museum of Fine Art. Although there are a few pairs of very fragile chopines that will go off display on May 5th, they will be replaced with other interesting examples of elevated footwear. The exhibition On a Pedestal continues until September 20, 2010.

The Bata Shoe Museum
327 Bloor Street West (at St. George subway)
Toronto, Ontario Canada
416-979-7799

What's on the Calendar in April?

Spring is upon us and there are a myriad of fabulous and fashionable shows to see around the world. Here are some that are on my radar.


Ongoing      The Bata Shoe Museum   On a Pedestal: From Renaissance Chopines to Baroque Heels
The Bata Shoe Museum is one of Toronto's jewels and I've been meaning to pop into this exhibition since it opened in November. On a Pedestal explores two of the most extreme forms of footwear ever worn in Western fashion, the platform chopine and the high heel. This exhibition presents some rare examples of Renaissance and Baroque footwear on loan from museums around the world as well as shoes from the museum's own collection. The exhibition runs to September 20, 2010.

Photo credit: Bata Shoe Museum 2009

April 9          Textile Museum of Canada: Lia Cook, David Harper and Stephen Schofield
Lia Cook's exhibition at the Textile Museum in Toronto is called Faces and Mazes and features her most recent series of weavings. Cook uses an electronic Jacquard hand loom to weave faces that dissolve into continuously changing maze-like patterns. As the faces fragment, a perceptual shift occurs, moving through a place of transition and ambiguity to reveal the physical, tactile nature of the constructed image. Drawing on familiar and childhood sources, Cook uses a detail, often re-photographed, layered and re-woven in oversized scale, to intensify an emotional and/or sensual encounter.

Photo credit: Textile Museum of Canada

David R. Harper embroiders portraits of people on animal skins, playing with the traditional roles of portraiture to immortalize and elevate the subject through artistic representation – just as the trophy from a hunting excursion might be a bear skin rug or a rack of antlers. These images of anonymous, Victorian-era men and women imply an emotional distance that allows the artist to poke at the slippery slope where nature and culture meet.

Photo credit: Textile Museum of Canada

Montreal artist Stephen Schofield’s one-and-a-half life-sized sculptures are intensely sensual. His patchwork figures, based on Pliny the Elder’s tale of Dibutade recounting the origin of drawing, are mapped from the male body and then expertly tailored out of old clothes. Soaked in sugar water and then inflated, the cloth becomes a taut skin that contains the human forms that hover between a highly spirited/spiritual realm and a dream world filled with personal reverie.

Photo credit: Textile Museum of Canada

April 10      Last day to see the American Beauty Exhibition at FIT in New York
I saw this exhibition in New York not long after it opened and never got around to posting about it. It is worth a trip because American Beauty: Aesthetics and Innovation in Fashion examines the relationship between the “philosophy of beauty” and the technical craft of dressmaking in the United States. Curated by deputy director Patricia Mears, the exhibition features approximately 80 garments by about 25 designers, including Halston, Claire McCardell, and Charles James, as well as some not as well known.

Photo credit of Halston gown from FIT website

If you live in NYC, this would be a lovely prelude to the upcoming exhibition on American Women: Fashioning a National Identity set to open at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of New York on May 5, 2010.

April 17       Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK: Grace Kelly, Style Icon 

The spectacular wardrobe of Grace Kelly will be on display from April 17 to September 26, 2010. Tracing the evolution of her style from her days as one of Hollywoods most popular actresses in the 1950s and as Princess Grace of Monaco, the display will present over fifty of Grace Kelly's outfits together with hats, jewellery and the original Hermès Kelly bag. Dresses from her films, including High Society, will be shown as well as the gown she wore to accept her Oscar award in 1955. These will be accompanied by film clips and posters, photographs and her Oscar statuette. The display will also include the lace ensemble worn by Grace Kelly for her civil marriage ceremony to Prince Rainier in 1956 and 35 haute couture gowns from the 1960s and 70s by her favourite couturiers Dior, Balenciaga, Givenchy, and Yves St Laurent.

Schiaparelli and Surreal Things

If you are like me and swoon when you hear the name Schiaparelli, you must find you way to Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario and see the Surreal Things show before August 30, 2009.

This exhibition, which was curated by Ghislaine Wood of the Victoria and Albert Museum, surveys the contribution of surrealists to fashion, design, photography, advertising, architecture, and theatre.

From the moment I walked into the gallery and took in the display of the fantastical ballet costumes designed for Les Ballet Russes by Giorgio de Chirico in 1929, I was grinning from ear to ear. Why had no one mentioned that fashion, costumes and jewelery were an integral part of this world class exhibit? I'm sorry that I did not go sooner.

I was blown away to stand in front of the bird cage and wooden mannequin from Schiaparelli's Paris storefront as well as twelve of her couture designs, including the infamous Skeleton Dress which features padded quilting to emphasize the ribs and spine. I almost fainted when I noticed the delicate sketches by Salvador Dali for his collaboration with Schiaparelli for the Skeleton Dress and the Dress with Drawers.

Other highlights in the exhibition included the Horst photo called Girl with Mainbocher Corset (1939), and the Man Ray photo called Model in a Dominguez Wheelbarrow (1937) where the model wears a Vionnet evening gown.

There was no doubt in my mind after seeing this exhibition that the surrealists were well acquainted with glamour and fashion. I bought the book Surreal Things (cover shown below) and intend to read it carefully before going back for another look-see. There is also a video clip on the ago website with an introduction by the curator.

Join me if you can. You won't be disappointed! By the way, this exhibition originated at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2007 before travelling to the Museum Boijmans Van Reuningen in Rotterdam and the Guggenheim Museum in Bibao in 2008. Toronto is its final stop!


Art Gallery of Ontario
317 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario
1-877-225-4246 or 416-979-6648

Museums of Costume and Textiles

Evening dress of silk organza with an underdress of silk taffeta and organza
(by Jacques Heim Paris, France, 1959)
Victoria & Albert Museum Costume Collection

Evening Dress of Hand embroidered machine-made net Britian 1817-1818
Collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum


May 18th is International Museum Day! Change up your routine, absorb a little culture and visit your local museum this weekend.

Here is my list of favourite museums that have collections of couture, costumes and/or textiles. I can attest that these museums are worth visiting!!

Victoria and Albert Museum
South Kensington, London, England
(Admission is free!!)

Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection
Kensington Palace, London, England

Musee de la Mode et du Textile Les Art Decoratifs
108 Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, France

The Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Fifth Avenue, New York City, USA

Royal Ontario Museum
100 Queen's Park Circle, Toronto, Canada

Textile Museum of Canada
55 Centre Street, Toronto, Canada

Bata Shoe Museum
327 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Canada
(Technically this shouldn't be on the list because this museum is dedicated to footwear, but what is fashion without beautiful shoes? The Bata Museum is a gem and a definite must-see!)


And here is my "bucket" list of museums with fashion and costume collections that I have yet to see:

Kyoto Costume Institute
103 Shichi-jo
Goshonouchi Minamimachi
Kyoto, Japan
(The next best thing to going to Japan would be to buy a copy of "Fashion: A History from the 18th to the 20th Century" in either the 2 volume hardcover or paperback version. This book is filled with exquisite photos of the Kyoto Costume Institute's extensive fashion collection.)

Powerhouse Museum
500 Harris Street
Sydney, Australia

Museo del Trajo
Avenida Juan de Herrera, 2
Madrid, Spain

Musees des Tissus et des Arts Decoratifs de Lyon
34 rue de la Charite
Lyon, France

Musee de la Mode de la Ville de Paris
10 Avenue Pierre 1er de Serbie
75116 Paris, France

Musee Christian Dior
Villa Les Rhumbs
50400 Granville, France

National Museums of Scotland
Chambers Street, Edinburgh

Gallery of Costume
Platt Hall, Manchester, England

Bath Museum of Costume
Bennet Street, Bath, England

Brighton Museum and Art Gallery
Royal Pavilion Gardens, Brighton, England

Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Avenue of the Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Philadelphia Museum of Art
Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, USA

Phoenix Art Museum
1625 North Central Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Kent State University Museum
Rockwell Hall, Kent, Ohio, USA

Los Angeles Country Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, California, USA

What's on in May

If I could travel around the world to see the latest exhibitions on fashion and style, these would be my stops in May.

In Toronto at the Bata Shoe Museum, the Chronicles of Riches: Treasures from the Bata Shoe Museum Collection continues through to November. This exhibit showcases rarely seen items including Napolean's black silk socks worn while he lingered in exile on St. Helena and a pair of fabulous chopines from Italy dated 1580-1620. These rarely seen silk velvet covered wooden platforms are ornamented with silver lace, tassels and ruched silk.


On Wednesday, May 6th, The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion opens in New York at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This exhibition examines the evolving ideals of beauty in the world of high fashion and features iconic models of the 20th century and their roles in projecting and occasionally inspiring the fashions of their era. Haute couture and ready-to-wear fashions from 1947-1997 are displayed alongside photographs and video footage.

In London, one of my favourite museums The Victoria and Albert Museum, continues its spring exhibition called Baroque 1620-1800: Style in the Age of Magnificence. On display are magnificent examples of Baroque furniture, portraits, sculpture, tapestries and other object d'arts. This show examines all elements of the Baroque style which was one of the most opulent styles of the 17th and 18th Centuries.

The Costume Museum of Canada in Winnipeg has two exhibitions ongoing in May. The Wedding Dress showcases interesting and wild wedding outfits worn through the decades and Women of Style explores the fashion sense of 5 Winnipeg women.

In Toronto, on Wednesday, May 20th at 6:30 pm, Alison Matthews David, Assistant Professor of Fashion History and Theory at Ryerson University, will give a talk on Tailoring in the 18th and 19th Centuries at the Textile Museum of Canada. Ms. Matthews David is an eloquent speaker and I'm sad that I'll have to miss this event, because the next day, I'll be leaving for Paris!



While in France, I'll be visiting the exhibition Court Pomp & Royal Ceremonies, Court Dress in Europe 1650-1800 at Chateau de Versailles. For more information about this unparalleled display of court garments from the 17th and 18th centuries, please see my earlier post from April 9. I'll also be doing some other fashion and art related adventures in Paris, which may lead to some interesting articles and/or blog posts.


P.S. I've decided to import some of my book reviews of fashion related posts from Blog of a Bookworm onto this blog. Over the past six months, I've really narrowed my focus. As my art continues to gain exposure (today I found my work on a blog called Vintage and Chic from Spain!), two blogs is one too many!! Fashion is my passion and my muse.

P.P.S. If you missed yesterday's tag line about the winners of the Random Acts of Kindness, they are:
Kelly of the Chic Geek
Renee of Circling my Head
Lucy of Enchanted by Josephine
Judith of Studio Judith

These lovely (and lucky) bloggers will receive a gift handmade by me in the next month or two. While I hope to post most of them before my trip to Paris, that might not happen as I'm also working on a tight deadline for an art submission. But good things come to those that wait!!

Fashion Dolls

As a little girl, I was enchanted by dolls. I only had two dolls to play with, but I also had a collection of dolls from around the world. Each time my father travelled for business, he would come home with a doll from the country that he visited. He took great delight in presenting the doll to me and I can still remember those moments in vivid detail.

Although today dolls are generally viewed as playthings, it wasn't always so. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, fashion dolls were used by dressmakers as a way of illustrating the latest styles to their potential clients. Dolls dressed in the latest Parisian styles were on display in fashionable shops along the rue Saint Honore and also sent monthly to London and to the courts of Europe. The dolls were considered "precious" and sometimes even had diplomatic immunity during times of war.

Although the most fashionable dolls originated from Paris, dolls were also made up in England and sent to the American colonies, where England was the dominant cultural influence.

The two wooden dolls shown in the photo are from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England and are known as Lord and Lady Clapham. (Although the Department of Textiles and Dress in the V&A has approximately forty dolls in their collection, only these two were on display when I visited in July 2008.) Dated from about 1695, Lord and Lady Clapham came complete with their accessories and the wooden chairs on which they sit.

Fashion dolls were popular until fashion plates and fashion journals became more established and widely accessible in the nineteenth century.

P.S. As a follow-up to Thursday's post about Aprons and Random Acts of Kindness, here is the list of winners:

Kelly of The Chic Geek
Judith of Studio Judith
Ms. Lucy of Enchanted by Josephine
Renee of Circling My Head

If you are a winner, please email me at artismylife@mac.com.

Book Review: Style & Splendour, The Wardrobe of Queen Maud of Norway

Title: Style & Splendour, The Wardrobe of Queen Maud of Norway 1896-1938
Authors: Anne Kjellberg and Susan North
Publisher: V&A Publications, London, 2005
Category: Non-fiction, fashion
Number of Pages: 112
Price: 30 English pounds

This beautiful book accompanied the exhibition of Queen Maud of Norway's costumes at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2005.

This is a magnificent book with spectacular full-page colour photographs of Queen Maud's wardrobe from 1896-1938. The book is still available on the Victoria and Albert Museum's website and will be eye-candy for fans of historical and royal fashion.

The Wardrobe of Queen Maud of Norway

While researching my last post about royal wardrobes, I remembered another beautiful exhibition of royal costumes and clothing that I saw at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2005. This spectacular exhibition was called "Style and Splendour" and featured the wardrobe of the stylish Queen Maud of Norway (seated on left of photo).

Maud Charlotte Mary Victoria was the youngest daughter of Edward, Prince of Wales and Alexandra, Princess of Wales, and granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Born in England in 1869, Princess Maud took after her fashionable mother with her slender figure and refined sense of style.

Married to Prince Carl of Denmark in 1896, Princess Maud left England to her new home in Copenhagen. After a vote in Norway in favour of a monarchy rather than a republic in 1905, her husband Danish Prince Carl was chosen to be King of Norway and Princess Maud became a Queen in 1906.

Maud lived through a period of tremendous change in fashionable dress for women, from the elaborate and decorative clothing of the Victorian age through to the light, simple dresses of the 1920s. The fact that her clothing was preserved in the Royal Dress Collection of Norway allowed a rare opportunity to see those changes in dress in person, instead of only by way of photos.

Given my penchant for historical fashion, my favourite piece was this fancy dress costume which Maud wore to the Duchess of Devonshire's Ball in 1897. This costume ball specified that the 700 guests wear allegorical or historical costumes dating to before 1815.

This pink satin dress was appliqued with silk and silver thread in a lattice pattern and adorned with silver sequins and glass beads. the lace collar and cuffs were machine made. The dress was made by Morin-Blossier in imitation of late sixteenth-century dress from the court of Marguerite.

Pink was one of Maud's favourite colours and there are many pink dresses in the collection, although she enjoyed jewel tones as well. These two evening gowns are dated from 1910-1913.



If you happen to be going to Norway, the National Museum of Art/Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in Oslo has an ongoing exhibition (until December 31, 2010) of garments belonging to Queen Maud from the Royal Dress Collection.

Otherwise, there is a beautiful book by Anne Kjellberg and Susan North called "Style & Splendour: The Wardrobe of Queen Maud of Norway". The book is available from the Victoria and Albert Museum website.

Another Mad Hatter's Tea Party this Saturday!

Illustration of The Mad Hatter from Alice and Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

I'm hosting another Mad Hatter's Tea Party this Saturday, March 14th and I hope you'll join me for some more fun and frivolity.

This is what you need to do: take a photo of a hat you made (origami, crafted, knit) or a hat that you adore and send it to me no later than Friday, March 13th at 12 noon EST at artismylife@mac.com.

If you need some inspiration, scroll back in March to see last Saturday's riotous posting and other postings about hats or visit the on-line site for the Victoria and Albert exhibition Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones (photo below). And take a peek at Judith's studio and The Chic Geek to see their fabulous hats.

Photo of Stephen Jones from Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England.

And lastly, consider this quote from John Galliano:
"Hats are the ultimate finishing touch, the piece de resistance that shows grooming, panache and style. They really complete a silhouette, whether they are modern or eccentric, work of art or functional. I think everyone should wear one -- there's nothing to fear from hats."

Quotes about Hats

Hats by Alexander McQueen, 2008 Collection


At the opening of the exhibition Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Stephen Jones had some insightful comments about hats:

"Hats are a great antidote to what's going on. It's really their purpose to put a happy face on a sad world."

"That's the thing about hats. They're extravagant and full of humour and allow for a sense of costume, but in a lighthearted way."


Here are some other famous quotations about hats:

"Fashion is a kind of communication. It's a language without words. A great hat speaks for itself." (author unknown)

"Saying you don't look good in a hat is like saying you don't look good in shoes!" (author unknown)

"I myself have 12 hats, and each one represents a different personality." (Margaret Atwood)

"I enjoy hats. And when one has filthy hair, that is a good accessory." (Julia Roberts)

"A hat is a flag, a shield, a bit of armor, and the badge of femininity. A hat is the difference between wearing clothing and wearing a costume; it's the difference between being dressed and being dressed up; it's the difference between looking adequate and looking your best. A hat is to be stylish in, to glow under, to flirt beneath, to make all others seem jealous over, and to make all men feel masculine about. A piece of magic is a hat." (Martha Sliter)

Maybe I will wear that crazy red hat after all!

Please join me on Saturday at 10 am EST for the first Mad Hatter's Tea Party!