Out of the crate: Fashioning Fashion at LACMA

Timeline Installation photo by Ingrid Mida 2011

There are only a matter of weeks left to see The Fashioning Fashion exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This extraordinary display of garments and accessories spanning 1700 to 1915 is unparalleled in its importance to fashion history due to its breath, its quality and the excellent condition of the pieces. Included in the nearly 160 examples of fashionable dress, undergarments and accessories are a number of extremely rare pieces. And while the exhibition catalogue Fashioning Fashion illustrates each and every garment in the collection in lavish photographs, there is really nothing like being there to fully appreciate the workmanship in these garments and accessories.

Timeline Installation Photo by Ingrid Mida 2011

This collection was purchased in its entirety from two dealers who had each separately amassed collections of historic textiles and dress for more than 25 years. They wanted their combined collection go to a single museum. Director Michael Govan said "After seeing these rare objects, it was clear that we should bring the collection to Los Angeles, as my first major collecting initiatives after arriving at LACMA. This acquisition has catapulted the museum's holdings of European costume to the highest category of quality."

Lady's chemise, panier and corset 1750-1780 LACMA
Photo by Ingrid Mida

The heavy gray box-like structures displaying the garments initially seemed to detract from the delicate beauty of the garments on exhibit. But then I recognized the allusion to the garments emerging from shipping crates. The "crates" are painted gray like the neutral backdrops that costumes are typically photographed against in a museum. Raised up on platforms, the crates elevate the displays to allow easy viewing by all. And on occasion, their layout allows a playful peak at what is yet to come. Close to the ceiling of the gallery, the red lettering of the FashioningFashion labels add a punch of colour to the cavernous space and seem to reference the red steel beams of the building directly across from the Resnick Pavilion. In the end, I concluded that the contrast of the modern installation with the historic fashion pieces was a very clever thing to do and oh so LA.

Tailoring installation, LACMA photo by Ingrid Mida 2011

The white mannequins and paper wigs create neutral forms which focus the viewer's attention on the clothes and not the carrier, although some of the garments are suspended by wires with invisible mannequin forms (another allusion to modernity perhaps?)

Men's Waistcoats 18th century France, LACMA Installation photo by Ingrid Mida 2011

Normally it is easy for me to pick out a favourite garment from an exhibition but this time I fell in love with all of it. The extraordinary workmanship and beauty of the garments on display make it impossible to choose just one. So rare is it that a museum puts its entire collection on display that this is a once in a lifetime event.  I hope it stays burned into my memory.

Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915
Closes March 27, 2011
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wiltshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA, 90036
323-857-6000

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....

My Fantasy Fashion Calendar for 2011

A new year always holds so much promise and potential. This is my fantasy calendar for the first half of 2011.

Fashioning Fashion 

I'd begin my tour in Los Angeles to attend  the fifth R. L. Shep Triennial Symposium on Textiles and Dress entitled On Fashioning a Collection: Vision and Viewpoints at LACMA. This event which will be held on Saturday, January 15 begins at 10:00 am and  will focus on the museum's recently acquired collection of European costumes and textiles. Held in conjunction with the exhibition, Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700–1915, currently on view, this daylong program features international scholars Akiko Fukai (Director and Chief Curator, Kyoto Costume Institute) and Pamela Golbin (Chief Curator, Twentieth Century and Contemporary Collections, Musée de la Mode et du Textile, Les Arts Décoratifs, Musée du Louvre, Paris) as well as Fashioning Fashion co-curator Sharon Takeda and other experts in the field. Rounding out the program will be a conversation between curators and collectors as well as presentations by LACMA experts. The symposium is free but tickets are required. Please call 323 857-6010 to reserve a ticket.

My next stop would be at Loop Gallery in Toronto to see my series of limited edition black and white chromogenic photographs on display in a show I called Vanitus Vanitum: All is Vanity.  These photographs reference the transitory nature of beauty and life and seek to portray a journey of grief and acceptance. My opening reception is on Saturday, January 22 and the show runs until February 13.

Chanel 2010

On Sunday, January 23rd, I'd fly to Paris to attend the Spring Summer 2011 Haute Couture designer runway presentations which run from Monday, January 24th to January 27th. Of course, I'd have front row seats at the Dior show on January 24th at 2 pm and Chanel on January 25th at 11 am.

In March, I'd jet back to Paris for the Fall Winter 2011-2012 Ready to Wear runway presentations which run March 1-9th. Then it would be off to San Francisco to attend the opening on March 26th of the exhibition Balenciaga: Spanish Master at the de Young Museum. This exhibition which originally opened at the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute in New York will be expanded to include more garments from the Spanish couturier Cristobal Balenciaga. The show runs until July 11th.

In May, I'd attend the retrospective of Lee Alexander McQueen's work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This exhibition entitled Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty opens May 4 and will run until  July 31, 2011 and features approximately 100 garments created during the designers 19 year career. Signature pieces such as the bumster trouser, the kimono jacket, and the origami frock coat will be on display along with a selection of garments from the Alexander McQueen archive, the Givenchy archive, and private collections.

This is my fantasy.... It's a full schedule, but I'd make it work if I had to ;)

Fashioning Fashion at LACMA

This exquisite embroidered French evening mantle c.1891 graces the cover of the sumptuous book "Fashioning fashion: European Dress in Detail 1700-1915". Published in conjunction with the inaugural exhibition by the same name, this catalogue presents nearly two hundred items from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's recently acquired European costume collection. The book is filled with glorious colour photos of the costumes along with numerous detail photos of the luxurious textiles, exacting tailoring techniques, and lush trimmings used during this period.  

Curated by Sharon S. Takeda and Kaye D. Spilker of LACMA, the Fashioning fashion exhibition presents over 160 examples of European fashionable dress, undergarments, and accessories covering the period 1700-1915. This collection of clothing and accessories was acquired several years ago and many items are being exhibited for the first time. The exhibition is organized into four thematic sections—Timeline, Textiles, Tailoring, and Trim.

Timeline presents a chronological look at both men's and women's fashions. The women’s visual timeline is illustrated with dresses in various shades of white to focus attention on the evolving fashionable silhouette. The men’s timeline begins with luxurious and colorful examples of eighteenth-century aristocratic men's dress and concludes with a subdued 1911 pinstripe suit, a style that has remained relatively unchanged for a century.

Installation view, Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915.
Photo: © 2010 Museum Associates/LACMA.

Textiles are often the most expensive component of fashion and this section presents an assortment of textiles—from silk to cotton, gauze to velvet, plain to printed. The choice of fabric - medium, weight, colour and pattern - all affect how fashion is fashioned. 

Tailoring explores the manipulation of textiles through cutting, stitching, and padding in order to create the idealized shape or fashionable silhouette of each era. With the advancement of tailoring tools and techniques, styles were able to change in dramatic ways, accentuating or minimizing different body parts.

Trim celebrates the artistry of embroiderers, quilters, and lace makers, especially in the highly embellished garments from the eighteenth-century 

Fashioning Fashion examines the transformation of fashion over a period of more than two centuries, and adds contextual commentary to show how political events, technical inventions, and global trade profoundly affected style. This is  one of the three exhibitions opening LACMA’s new Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion, a 45,000-square-foot building by Pritzker prize-winning architect Renzo Piano. The installation was designed by renowned opera stage designers Pier Luigi Pizzi and Massimo Pizzi Gasparon.

If you cannot get there before the exhibition closes on March 27, 2011, I suggest you buy the book. You won't be disappointed. It is one of the most beautiful fashion books I've ever seen (and I own a lot of books!). And even John Galliano, who wrote the preface, said "Fashioning Fashion takes you through fashion and time with the sumptuous variety of an extraordinary collection. I promise, it cannot fail to inspire you."

Title: Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail 1700-1915

Author: Sharon Sadako Takeda and Kaye Durland Spilker

Published by: Delmonico Books: Prestel (New York) 2010 

Category: Non-fiction, costume history

Number of Pages: 224

Los Angeles County Museum of Art • 12-8 M/T/Th • Closed Wednesday • 12-9 F • 11-8 S/S

5905 Wilshire Blvd • Los Angeles California 90036 • 323-857-6000 • publicinfo@lacma.org