Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700–1915

Resnick Pavilion
October 2, 2010–March 27, 2011
Image: © 2010 Museum Associates/LACMA

Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915 celebrates the museum's groundbreaking acquisition of a major collection of European men's, women's, and children's garments and accessories. The exhibition tells the story of fashion's aesthetic and technical development from the Age of Enlightenment to World War I. It examines sweeping changes in fashionable dress spanning a period of over two hundred years, and evolutions in luxurious textiles, exacting tailoring techniques, and lush trimmings.

Highlights include an eighteenth-century man's vest intricately embroidered with powerful symbolic messages relevant to the French Revolution; an evening mantle with silk embroidery, glass beads, and ostrich feathers designed by French couturier Émile Pingat (active 1860-96); and spectacular three-piece suits and gowns worn at the royal courts of Europe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The exhibition is curated by Sharon S. Takeda, Senior Curator and department head, and Kaye D. Spilker, Curator, LACMA's Costume and Textiles department. This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Image: © 2010 Museum Associates/LACMA
Woman's Dress
House of Rouff
c. 1897
Woman's Dress
House of Rouff
c. 1897

Silk twill and silk cut velvet on twill foundation.

Purchased with funds provided by Suzanne A. Saperstein and Michael and Ellen Michelson, with additional funding from the Costume Council, the Edgerton Foundation, Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer, Maureen H. Shapiro, Grace Tsao, and Lenore and Richard Wayne.

(M.2007.211.37a-b)

Man's Suit
France
c. 1760
Man's Suit
France
c. 1760

Coat and waistcoat: wool plain weave, full finish, with sequins and metallic-thread embroidery; Breeches: wool plain weave, full finish, with silk and metallic-thread passementerie
(M.2007.211.946a-c)

Purchased with funds provided by Suzanne A. Saperstein and Michael and Ellen Michelson, with additional funding from the Costume Council, the Edgerton Foundation, Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer, Maureen H. Shapiro, Grace Tsao, and Lenore and Richard Wayne.

Vest
France
1789-94
Vest
France
1789-94

Linen canvas with silk needlepoint, linen plain weave with silk supplementary warp cut-pile trim and silk embroidery
Cb. 26 1/2 in. (67.3 cm)

Purchased with funds provided by Suzanne A. Saperstein and Michael and Ellen Michelson, with additional funding from the Costume Council, the Edgerton Foundation, Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer, Maureen H. Shapiro, Grace Tsao, and Lenore and Richard Wayne.(M.2007.211.1078)

Mantle
Paris
c. 1891
Mantle
Paris
c. 1891

Wool plain weave and silk velvet with silk and metallic-thread embroidery, glass beads, and ostrich-feather trim
Cb. 35 3/4 in. (90.8 cm)

Purchased with funds provided by Suzanne A. Saperstein and Michael and Ellen Michelson, with additional funding from the Costume Council, the Edgerton Foundation, Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer, Maureen H. Shapiro, Grace Tsao, and Lenore and Richard Wayne (M.2007.211.38)

Vogue Magazine Shoots Fashioning Fashion

Lisa Love, senior editor at Vogue Magazine, visits LACMA for a photo shoot featuring some of the costumes in Fashioning Fashion. The photos appeared in the September issue of Vogue.

Looking Back on Fashioning Fashion

March 25, 2010

This Sunday marks the last day of Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700–1915, which features men’s, women’s, and children’s garments from the Age of Enlightenment to World War I. The content of the exhibition comes from our own permanent collection, and much of it from a major acquisition we made in 2008...

A Dancer Responds to Fashioning Fashion

March 24, 2011

As we bid adieu to Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700–1915, we have one more noteworthy tribute to the sleeper hit of the Resnick Pavilion inaugural season. Jean Claude Wouters, a dancer and artist who once took part in a ballet in Brussels in which he wore a crinoline very much like those that give structure to some of the garments in our exhibition...

Video

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