I've always meant to finish documenting my one fashion history exhibition at the Fenimore Art Museum, both for personal reasons and so that there is any record of these garments and makers existing on the internet, but somehow never got around to it. But now that I've left my position there, it feels like time … Continue reading Elegant New York (2021)
Category: 20th century
Fashioning San Francisco
The de Young's show, Fashioning San Francisco, is a visual feast but lacks historical grounding or contextualization.
Strange Choices in “The New Look”
I want to start by saying that I'm not opposed to inaccurate historical fiction. There are a lot of great things that can be done with inaccuracies in historical fiction: highlighting figures who never got their due, crossing a modern story with a setting that imposes un-modern limitations. I love Our Flag Means Death, one … Continue reading Strange Choices in “The New Look”
The New Look?
I've written a lot (a lot) about why it's wrong to put Chanel, and even Chanel plus Poiret, up on a pedestal as the pivot(s) of a sharp turning point in fashion, but I've only touched on Dior and the New Look once or twice. Just like the earlier narrative compresses time to juxtapose frothy Edwardian … Continue reading The New Look?
“Dresses All Worn Long in the Evening”: Fashion in the “Provincial Lady” Diaries of E. M. Delafield
(In October, I attended the Costume Society of America Southeastern/Mid-Atlantic Symposium in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. My debut as a conference speaker! I presented this paper.) "Edmée Elizabeth Monica Dashwood (née de la Pasture)", Howard Coster, ca. 1938; National Portrait Gallery x10669 Edmée Elizabeth Monica de la Pasture Dashwood (1890-1943), better known by her punning nom de plume … Continue reading “Dresses All Worn Long in the Evening”: Fashion in the “Provincial Lady” Diaries of E. M. Delafield
