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On Trend

American Fashion On Exhibit

The Costume Institute, New York City America conveys uniquely American expressions of innovation, high-
lights the compelling stories of both designers and wearers that center
The Costume Institute’s In America is a two-part exhibition on view on opportunity and self-invention, and amplifies the voices of those
through September 5, 2022. who are often left out of dominant fashion narratives. The Museum is
Part One, In America: A Lexicon of Fashion, in the Anna Wintour located in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Costume Center, celebrates The Costume Institute’s 75th Anniversary Fashioning America is organized by Crystal Bridges and curated by
and establishes a modern vocabulary of fashion. This Exhibit features a guest curator Michelle Tolini Finamore, PhD, a leading fashion curator
fictional American home constructed of transparent walls that intersect and historian.
and overlap. Examples of 20th- and 21st-century fashion is displayed,
reflecting the customs and behaviors of the imagined occupants.
Part Two, In America: An Anthology of Fashion—open in the Maine Historical Society, Portland
American Wing period rooms—will present sartorial narratives that
relate to the Experience Maine history through fashion in a landmark two-part
complex and exhibition Northern Threads: Two Centuries of Dress at Maine Historical
layered histo- Society. Organized by themed vignettes, Northern Threads shares stories
ries of those about Maine people, while exploring how the clothing they wore reveals
rooms. Here is social, economic, and environmental histories. This re-examination of
the chance to MHS’ permanent collection is an opportunity to consider the relevance
explore the of historic clothing in museums, the ebb and flow of fashion styles,
development and the complexities of diverse
of American representation spanning 200 years
fashion by of collecting.
viewing narra- There exists a broader myth that
tives that relate to the complex and layered histories of those spaces the people in Maine historically did
featuring women’s and men’s historical and contemporary dress dating not have access to, or care about
from the 18th century to the present in vignettes. fashion. As evidence to the contrary,
Northern Threads aims to dispel this
myth through two installations.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA The first (March-July 2022)
includes garments, military
LACMA presents the first McQueen uniforms, and accessories from
exhibition on the West Coast, Lee circa 1780 through 1889.
Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, The second installation (August–December 2022), called
Muse, now through October 9, 2022. Representing Every Particular: John Martin’s 19th Century Fashion
The exhibit explores the artistic process Illustrations, includes selections from 1890 through 1980.
and innovation in fashion and art, A companion exhibition in the Wadsworth-Longfellow House
examining McQueen as both a concep- featuring family clothing is schedule for the summer season. Stay tuned!
tual and technical virtuoso.
Displaying select McQueen gar-
ments from the Collection of Regina J. Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, LA
Drucker alongside artworks largely
from LACMA’s permanent collection, Sporting Fashion: Outdoor Girls
the exhibit synthesizes the designer’s 1800-1960 will be taking place at
proficiency in tailoring and dressmaking with both encyclopedic and museums across the country through
autobiographical references that spann time, geography, media, May 2024 when it will open in a
and technology. larger format at FIDM in Los
Angeles. The exhibition to explore
the evolution of women’s sporting
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, AK attire in Western fashion over this
160-year period, with the clothing
Cowboy boots. Bathing suits. drawn from the exceptional
Sneakers. Hollywood gowns. Denim collections of the FIDM Museum.
jeans. Zoot suits. Fashioning America: The variety of sportswear has for
Grit to Glamour is Crystal Bridges’ first women are placed on specially
exhibition dedicated to fashion and the designed mannequins of these women
first to present American fashion as a in the outdoors persuing their
powerful emblem of global visual cul- passions. The schedule is as follows:
ture, amplified by movies, television, red Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN through Oct. 16, 2022.
carpets, and social media. From dresses Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA, Feb. 11-May 7, 2023
worn by First Ladies to art-inspired Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, NY, June-Sept 2023
garments to iconic fashion moments Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH, Oct. 2023-Jan. 2024
that defined a generation, Fashioning Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, FL, Feb-May 2024

30 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles