Back to School, Back to Blogging

Sleeveless dress with Matching Cropped Jacket
Bill Blass for Maurice Rentner, c.1963,
FRC1986.01.01 A+B

I think this dress and jacket ensemble by Bill Blass for Maurice Rentner would be the perfect outfit for me and back to school. The colour is vibrant and the jacket could come off for those warm fall days still to come. Unfortunately, it can never be worn again as a museum artifact, but I love the timeless elegance of early 1960s looks and it makes me smile on what is a dark and rainy day in Toronto.

The scent of fall is in the air. The days are shorter and the nights cooler. I am starting to yearn for the cozy comfort of my cashmere sweaters and wraps.... It must be time to get back to school, back to work.

My summer was busy, with nary a moment of rest or relaxation. I did manage to steal away from work for a few sunny afternoons reading fiction in my backyard, but otherwise I spent many days in the windowless rooms of the Ryerson Fashion Research Collection. Not only did I move the entire collection from the seventh floor of the library, but, among other things, I also supervised two students who photographed about 100 key artifacts in the collection.

It felt like I had no time to write on this blog, especially since I am editor of the Costume Journal, have a bi-weekly column for Worn Through and also have been writing exhibition reviews for Modeconnect, and am supposed to be working on the Fashion Research Collection Blog. Admittedly, I still have some hesitation about writing on this platform after that distressing discovery last fall that much of my content had been copied elsewhere. And yet, it seems that I should be making this blog my priority -- even though many, if not most, of my colleagues in academia dismiss personal blogs as folly. 

Art and Fashion at Art Toronto 2012

Art Toronto 2012
Photo by Ingrid Mida 

Henry David Thoreau once said "This world is but a canvas to our imagination." And clearly imagination has taken flight and come home to roost in the artwork on display at Art Toronto 2012 in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. This venue is jam packed with artful delights from around the world, including galleries from Vancouver, New York, London, and Japan.

Reflecting Fashion: Art and Fashion since Modernism

Wedding Dress 1967 by Christo at the Mumok, Vienna

The intersection of art and fashion is a topic that I never tire of, and the exhibition Reflecting Fashion at the Mumok in Vienna, Austria offers four floors of engaging examples that explore "clothing and fashion as an essential component of art".  The main themes of the exhibition include: Fashion as Modernism, Fashion as the eternal deputy of Surrealism, and From the Three-Piece Suit to the Deconstruction of Fashion.

Fashioning the Object at the Art Institute of Chicago

In No Time Collection 2007, Hand-knitted Dress by Sandra Backlund, Image courtesy of the AIC

Fashioning the Object at the Art Institute of Chicago is an exhibition celebrating the innovative work of Bless, Boudicca, and Sandra Backlund. The practices of this group redefine fashion design into a conceptually based interdisciplinary process that sits on the intersection of art and fashion. Not driven by market forces, the work on display is intellectually engaging and exciting. 

The exhibition curator writes:  "Bless, Boudicca, and Backlund view fashion as a critical forum for dialogue and exchange, as well as an armature for understanding our place in the world. However, they endeavor to move beyond previous practices by drawing on an even greater spectrum of ideas inspired by disciplines as diverse as fine art, performance, design, and architecture to create work that responds to the social, political, and cultural environment and explores the creative process."

Fashion and Art, Canadian Style

Fashionality: 
1. One's personality expressed in their clothing, “fashion personality.” 
2. One's nationality expressed in their clothing, “fashion nationality.”

—The Urban Dictionary

Today is Canada's 145th birthday and it seemed like the perfect day to post about Fashionality: Dress and Identity in Contemporary Canadian Art at the McMichael Gallery in Vaughan, Ontario. I've extracted parts from the press release below to present an overview of the show, and it is clear that this would have been the perfect venue for my beaded and embroidered hockey equipment from my recent show Constructions of Femininity at loop gallery.

“Fashionality” is a newly coined play on words that refers to the visual culture and semiotics of dress and adornment. Combining the words “fashion,” “personality,” and “nationality,” it signals the interplay between clothing, identity, and cultural affinity. Taking the idiom of dress as a starting point, Fashionality: Dress and Identity in Contemporary Canadian Art explores the use of apparel in the work of twenty-three contemporary Canadian artists. It considers the diverse ways in which the clothed body and the idiom of dress are employed as sources of inspiration, humour, and critique, and as sites for the exploration of issues of identity, hybridity, and self-expression. Not strictly about fashion, the exhibition explores the ways in which the subjectivities and identities of those living in Canada are expressed, deconstructed, and reconfigured, while raising some intriguing questions about the embodied Canadian subject.

Raquel Gaudard Interviews Me about Fashion as Art in the Museum

Not long ago, Brazillian journalist and editor Racquel Gaudard contacted me for an article she was writing for the publication Duetto. Her article was published last month and can be viewed here. Even if you don't understand Portugese, this publication is filled with beautiful imagery. Racquel also kindly provided me with a translation of the article into English for my blog.

When fashion in the museum became a synonym of art
By Raquel Gaudard

The 2012 calendar is full of great fashion exhibitions not to miss, however, the most awaited are – once again – happening far from Brazil.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) presents in New York, from May 10th to August 19th, “Schiaparelli and Prada – Impossible Conversations”. Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada, parted by time and linked by style connections, get an exhibition that shows how both explored different angles of similar issues in their collections.

Heading to the old world, specifically to Paris, the Les Arts Decoratifs is ready to open its doors and face a huge line of fashion lovers, coming from all parts of the world – that´s what the exhibition  “Louis Vuitton - Marc Jacobs” is expecting – from March 9th to September 16th. In view of the extended time, the foresights point to a success as great as Alexander McQueen´s show, last year. Almost 700 thousand people passed by the event, a great amount, specially if we consider the contemporary art audience.

“Fashion exhibitions are in fashion”, says Ingrid Mida, Canadian artist and researcher of the intersection of fashion, art and history. “Fashion attracts young audiences into museums, and savvy curators are aware of the seductive power of staging exhibitions that will bring people into the museum”, she analyses.

Ingrid reminds us that it was Diana Vreeland who first presented, in a museum, the work of an living fashion designer, in 1983, when she showed off an Yves Saint Laurent retrospective, at the MET. “That exhibition generated a lot of controversy, but also set a precedent that others have since followed”. For Mida, fashion shows are more accessible to the mainstream perception than the traditional contemporary art installations, fact that explains – in her point of view – the big audience created by these events.

What I'm Reading ....

Summer is my time to read. I love to lay in the backyard on a chaise and catch up on my reading.... Hot off the press from Berg are two new titles that dovetail my research: Fashion and Art as well as Victorian Fashion Accessories.

In Fashion and Art, editors Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas have compiled a selection of essays by leading scholars including Valerie Steele, Hazel Clark, Joanne Eicher and Diana Crane on the intersection of fashion and art. To date, papers on the topic were difficult to find and this book provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the discourse thereon. My initial review of this book indicates that Valerie Steele's essay on Fashion and Art in this book mirrors her comments in Milan as well as my interview with her for Fashion Projects. I am looking forward to digging deeper into these essays, especially since this is a topic that I am passionate about.

Report from Milan Fashion Tales 2012

Dolci is the word I would use to describe my trip to Milan Fashion Tales 2012. It was three days of intense focus on fashion theory and I took it all in like a sponge. Funnily enough, many people said to me "You look familiar" and when I'd admit that I was the author of "Fashion is my Muse!", they would often laugh and said they had visited before. It seems that my slog (scholarly weblog) is a fashion academic's guilty pleasure.....

The Duomo in Milan, Photo by Ingrid Mida 2012

The conference was kicked off by fashion scholar Valerie Steele who gave a talk entitled "Is Fashion Art?". She had given a similar paper last summer but revised this talk to incorporate the quote from Muccia Prada used in the Costume Institute's exhibit on Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Prada said: “Dress designing is creative, but it is not an art…. But to be honest, whether fashion is art or whether even art is art doesn’t really interest me. Maybe nothing is art. Who cares!”

Fashion Tales 2012 Milan

This afternoon I will present my paper The Metaphysics of Fashion Blogging in Milan at the Fashion Tales 2012 conference. Of course, I wanted to wear something out of the ordinary and I asked a talented friend - Anna Zygowski - to create a dress for me. She first created a digitally printed silk fabric from photos of distressed lace and then copied a style of sheath dress that I often wear. The fabric presented its own challenges for Anna, but I think the result is fabulous. Even if my paper doesn't get rave reviews, no doubt the dress will!

The abstract of my paper is:

The emergence of the fashion blog is an aspect of culture that has gone largely unexamined. Although fashion blogs seem to be a relatively recent phenomenon, the drive to document aspects of one’s life goes back many centuries. Journals, diaries, sketchbooks and albums are evidence of the urge to memorialize and share ideas, events, activities, and accomplishments. For example, Barbara Johnson, a well-to-do Englishwoman from a clerical family, made detailed notes about her wardrobe for the period 1760-1823. Her album, which is now in the archives of the Victoria and Albert Museum, includes a detailed description of each garment, fabric swatches, information about cost and trimmings as well as clipped pocketbook engravings with the styles of the day. Drawing on historic precedents and the author’s experience as a blogger, blogs are reconsidered in the context of theorist Michel Foucault’s theories on the aesthetics of existence as creative portals for identity construction. In equating bloggers to Walter Benjamin and Charles Baudelaire’s concept of the flâneur, this social media tool is also recast as a forum in which the ephemeral and transitory processes of fashion can be captured. 

What is on the Fashion Calendar in June 2012

June seems relatively quiet compared to this past month! Some of the ongoing shows and events that I would recommend include:

Cristobal Balenciaga: Collectionneur de modes (Gallery Installation Shot by Ingrid Mida 2012)

Cristobal Balenciaga: Collectionneur de modes at the Musee Galliera in Paris
Balenciaga collected garments, accessories, and books from the 18th and 19th century as part of his personal archive. The juxtaposition of these items alongside the contemporary designs created by the Spanish designer show the links between the inspiration provided by history and the end result. This exhibition was so innovative in presentation that I think it is worth a closer look. The curators were creative in their display of items that could only be shown flat due to conservation issues, as well as innovative use of relatively inexpensive design modules. 

Prada and Schiaparelli: Impossible Conversations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
The imaginary conversation of two women designers -- Muicca Prada and Elsa Schiaparelli -- from different decades celebrates the power of ugly chic as well as the connection between fashion and art. Read my review on Fashion Projects here: http://www.fashionprojects.org/?p=3904

Roger Vivier: Process to Perfection (Gallery Installation Shot by Ingrid Mida 2012)

Roger Vivier: Process to Perfection at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto
The delicate jewel-like creations of Roger Vivier remind me of candy. Exquisitely crafted with beadwork and other embellishments, Vivier shoes are truly wearable works of art.

Fashion Tales 2012 in Milan (June 7-9)
If you happen to be in Milan next week, please join me at the Fashion Tales conference at the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. I will be speaking on the Metaphysics of Fashion Blogging on Friday, June 8, 2012 at 2:30-4 pm.

Constructions of Femininity Q&A at loop Gallery (June 17, 2012 at 3 pm)
On the last day of my show at loop, there will be a question and answer period moderated by Peter Legris. I know it is Father's Day, but since most guys will be out golfing, why not get a dose of art?

Notice of copyright: 
All text and images on this blog are the copyright of Ingrid Mida, unless otherwise noted. The copying of posts, images and/or text without proper attribution is violation of copyright and legal action will be pursued.

Photos from the Opening of Constructions of Femininity by Ingrid Mida at loop Gallery

Installation Shot, Constructions of Femininity by Ingrid Mida
Photo by Patricia Njovu 

Ingrid Mida at Opening Reception Loop Gallery, May 26, 2012
Photo by Patricia Njovu

A Peak into the Gallery

Selected installation shots of Constructions of Femininity show a sampling of my work on display at Loop Gallery, Toronto.

Just prior to the opening an elderly man banged on the window, pointed at the sculpture called Isobel (named after Lord Stanley's daughter who played hockey), and asked me "What does this mean?" Not wanting to give him a long explanation, I simply replied: "Women used to play hockey wearing long skirts and it helped stop the puck". He said "Good" and continued on his way. One of the most amusing parts of this installation is watching the reaction of people passing by. I often see people stop dead in their tracks, point and then peer inside the window. It is literally a traffic stopper. Drop by the gallery if you can. The show at loop runs until June 17, 2012.

Notice of copyright: 
All text and images on this blog are the copyright of Ingrid Mida, unless otherwise noted. The copying of posts, images and/or text without proper attribution is violation of copyright and legal action will be pursued.

Constructions of Femininity

My art show/installation Constructions of Femininity at loop Gallery opens on Saturday, May 26, 2012. Work on this project has been underway for more than a year, and has happened in fits and spurts as I've juggled a myriad of research papers, speaking engagements and other things. It has been one of the busiest years of my life and at times I've wondered why I took on so much. I didn't know how I would juggle it all and I've been tempted to walk away this opportunity more than once, but my biggest fan and supporter, my husband, believed that I could do it and would not let me quit.

Constructions of Femininity is an exploration of the artifice of feminine dress and identity. This work juxtaposes the extreme silhouettes of 18th century dress with the armour of the modern day hockey warrior and was inspired by young women hockey players who have redefined femininity to include feats of courage, strength, and power. Hockey equipment has been transformed with feminine signifiers of ribbon, sequins and beading paired with silhouettes such as a romantic tutu or panier made out of armour-like mesh.

Prada and Schiaparelli: Impossible Conversations

Surreal Body Gallery
Prada and Schiaparelli: Impossible Conversations
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

At the press preview yesterday for the Prada and Schiaparelli: Impossible Conversations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it seemed like there were three times as many press in attendance as compared to last year. It was a standing room only situation during the presentations by curators Harold Koda and Andrew Bolton, and inside the galleries, it was an elbows out scenario. Perhaps after the McQueen blockbuster, fashion in the museum has gained a new level of respect by the press. Seen in the crowd were Hamish Bowles, Robin Givhan, Bill Cunningham and Tavi Gavinson. My review for Fashion Projects was posted last night and can be read here.

Prada and Schiaparelli: Impossible Conversations opens to the public at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on May 10, 2012 and will run until August 19, 2012.

Notice of copyright: 
All text and images on this blog are the copyright of Ingrid Mida, unless otherwise noted. The copying of posts, images and/or text without proper attribution is violation of copyright and legal action will be pursued.

Art, Fashion and La Parisienne

Exhibition poster designed by Ingrid Mida 2012

I've been quiet on the blog front of late, because I've been deep into my research for my thesis, which I hope might one day become a book. I created these two posters to illustrate my project which is entitled Art, Fashion and La Parisienne. 

My work was inspired by a painting called La Demoiselle de Magasin (The Shopgirl) by James Tissot which is in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario. I soon discovered that this painting was one of fifteen large scale works in a series called La Femme à Paris painted by Tissot in 1883-85. Tissot made plans to issue series of etchings of the paintings, which were to be accompanied by short stories by leading authors of the period, including Émile Zola, Paul Bourget, Charles Gounod, and Alphonse Daudet. Despite Tissot’s earlier success as a painter, this series of highly polished paintings was not well received in either Paris or London. Tissot abandoned his plans to create prints of the paintings and the accompanying short stories.

La Femme à Paris  is a provocative series of narrative works showcasing the modern Parisian woman during a period of rapid change in the nineteenth century.  The series illustrates women from a range of income levels and occupations, rendered in precise detail using high key colours.

During the latter part of the nineteenth century, fashion and art were closely linked in Parisian society. Fashion was a subject of study and inspiration for artists, playwrights and poets. Descriptions of outfits worn by society women to the theatre, the opera and other social gatherings were routinely reported in the press. Many artists in France were influenced by the writings of Charles Baudelaire on fashion and modernity, especially his essay “The Painter of Modern Life” which was published in instalments in 1863 in the newspaper Le Figaro. In this essay, Baudelaire identified fashion as a way that artists could capture the processes of modernity in their work.

Using James Tissot’s series La Femme à Paris from 1883-85 as inspiration, my research will encompass an analysis of a selection of artworks, fashion plates and gowns from 1874-1886 to illuminate the intersection of art, fashion and modernity in the theme of la Parisienne.

I'm heavily immersed into my research, and I find the work utterly captivating. I now understand the origins of the modern icon of la chic Parisienne, images of which regularly grace the pages of blogs like French Essence, Fashion, Art and Other Fancies, Style in the City and of course, The Sartorialist.  

Although my blog posts might be a little less frequent, you can also find me on Pinterest, Facebook or Twitter.

Notice of copyright: 
All text and images on this blog are the copyright of Ingrid Mida, unless otherwise noted. The copying of posts, images and/or text without proper attribution is violation of copyright and legal action will be pursued.

My Upcoming Show at Loop Gallery

My upcoming exhibition at Loop Gallery in Toronto is entitled Constructions of Femininity and will run May 26 - June 17, 2012. In this exhibition, I explore the constructs of feminine dress and identity through photography, sculpture and textile works.

In this piece called "Samantha", hockey equipment has been transformed with feminine signifiers of ribbon and sequins and paired with a romantic tutu made out of armour-like mesh. The hockey-themed sculptures have been created to honour the young women hockey players who have redefined femininity to include feats of courage, strength, and power.

Notice of copyright: 
All text and images on this blog are the copyright of Ingrid Mida, unless otherwise noted. The copying of posts, images and/or text without proper attribution is violation of copyright and legal action will be pursued.

A Conversation with Jeanne Beker about Fashion and Art

Jeanne Beker: AGO Collector's Series 2011

Jeanne Beker's personal art collection is whimsical, eclectic, and captivating - descriptors that can also be used for the woman herself. In a one-on-one interview with this fashion powerhouse, Jeanne and I had a lively conservation about fashion and art and she also gave me a tour of her favourite artworks now on display as part of the Art Gallery of Ontario's 2nd Annual Collector's Series Exhibition.

The Birthday Party by Marion Perlet

For Jeanne, each work of art in her collection evokes a memory. She said "They really serve as a kind of visual diary for me of my travels, certain stages I was going through in my life, of certain changing aesthetics I've had over the years." One of her favourites is an oil painting by Marion Perlet called "The Birthday Party" in which the artist painted her memories of her birthday party as a child. Jeanne said "This was a cherry pie but my girls always thought it looked like a pepperoni pizza. It sat right over our table in the kitchen of our old house and now it hangs in my dining room and it just makes me feel good. And yet, there is something about the look in their eyes, some of them look a little dysfunctional, or that they have their grudges or own stories to tell or their own feelings about themselves, their particular plight - they are your typical dysfunctional family I think."

Harold Koda on Fashion in the Art Museum at the Bata Shoe Museum Founder's Lecture

Harold Koda (Photo by Karin Willis)

Last night, Sonja Bata introduced The Founder's Lecture series at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto as being part of a new initiative to bring "one truly outstanding personality" related to fashion to speak about their work. Harold Koda, the "rock star of fashion curators",  is the curator in charge of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, was the first speaker in the series.

Harold's talk was entitled "The Arrangement: Fashion in the Art Museum" and traced the history of the costume collection at the Met from its earliest incarnation in 1947 as a resource collection for the fashion industry through to the present as one of the largest costume collections in the world.

The history of the Costume Institute is a story of personalities - from Diana Vreeland through to Richard Martin and Harold himself. An engaging speaker, both brilliant and humble, Harold kept all of us in rapt attention throughout his talk.

A Conversation with Valerie Steele on Fashion and Art

Valerie Steele 2007 Photo by Aaron Corbett (Courtesy of Valerie Steele)

Dr. Valerie Steele is a renowned fashion scholar. She is the Director and Chief Curator of the Fashion Institute of Technology, editor of the journal Fashion Theory and has written numerous books including  The Corset: A Cultural History; Paris Fashion; Fifty Years of Fashion: New Look to Now; Fetish: Fashion, Sex and Power; and Women of Fashion: 20th-Century Designers. She has curated more than twenty exhibitions including the current exhibition at FIT called Daphne Guinness.

In August, I spoke with Valerie about the convergence of fashion and art as part of my series of interviews with curators on the topic. The transcript of that interview was published on Fashion Projects and can be found here.

Notice of copyright: 
All text and images on this blog are the copyright of Ingrid Mida, unless otherwise noted. The copying of posts, images and/or text without proper attribution is violation of copyright and legal action will be pursued.