On this and that...

Dress Collection of the Lousiana State Museum
Photo by Ingrid Mida 2013

I don't usually ramble, but have not written on this blog in over two weeks. It feels like no time and a lifetime all in one. People often ask me how I get so much done, and yet I often wonder where does the time go?

If you missed it, there was an article written by Nathalie Atkinson of the National Post about my work in editing the Ryerson Fashion Research Collection called "Lanvin in the Library". My elderly mother, who was once a librarian, loved the title, and finally understood what it is that I do - to her, I'm like a librarian for old clothes! I've also had lots of questions about whether I ever try on clothes in the collection, and that is something that is strictly forbidden by International Committee of Museums Practice Guidelines. Doing so would be considered highly unethical. I cannot say that I haven't been tempted to do so - who can resist a Dior after all - but I must resist and I do. I've never, ever done so and shudder with horror and yell out "THAT IS NOT ALLOWED" when someone looks like they are going to....

I couldn't be more pleased with the coverage for the Collection. A very generous and kind donor (who prefers to remain anonymous) offered to cover the cost of the cataloguing software for the collection. This the first step in helping to ensure its longevity. Funding at the university is very, very tight, and since all fundraising efforts must be co-ordinated by the Development Office, technically I am not even allowed to ask for money.... But, I believe so very passionately in what I do and just love to help students, and hope and pray that a generous donor will step forward to help ensure this collection lives on.

Engaging Students with Objects

Black silk parasol with cream cordwork embroidery, c.1900-1910.
FRC 1989.02.001

The weather looks lovely in New Orleans for this coming week. I'll be flying down south on Tuesday afternoon to speak at the ITAA Conference on the topic of Engaging Students with Objects: Preliminary Experiments in Reviving a Dormant Fashion Research Collection.

Thanks to the support of Dr. Lu Ann Lafrenz,  a grant from the Learning & Teaching Office at Ryerson University, and the work of two very talented students - Jazmin Welch and Kate O'Reilly - (who worked together to photograph 160 garments, accessories and other artifacts that I selected for this project), I have lots of beautiful images to chose from to illustrate my talk.

Here is the abstract:

Balenciaga Evening Gown, c.1957-1962
FRC1992.01.019 A

Seeing a dress in a photo is a very different experience than feeling the weight of the fabric in hand, examining the details of cut, construction and embellishment, considering the relationship of the garment to the body or searching for evidence of how the garment was worn, used or altered over time. Study collections offer students the opportunity to engage with actual objects, offering physical specimens for design inspiration and material culture studies. Susan Pearce conveyed the narrative power of artifacts when she wrote: “Objects hang before the eyes of the imagination, continuously representing ourselves to ourselves and telling the stories of our lives in ways which would be impossible otherwise”(1992).

120 Years of French Lingerie at the Design Exchange

Our mothers used to spend a lot of time and money on lingerie and I think they were right. Real elegance is everywhere, especially in the things that don't show. 

Christian Dior 

19th century corset
Carolle Patrimony
Photo by Ingrid Mida 2013

Lingerie shapes a woman's body, creating curves or flattening them depending on the fashionable silhouette of the time. In the exhibit of French lingerie at the Design Exchange, curator Catherine Orman combed the archives of French lingerie manufacturers to create a display that traces the history of women's undergarments from the later part of the 19th century to the present day.  

Fashionable Lingerie and the Lingerie Française Exhibit at the Design Exchange

"Your frocks cannot hang perfectly unless your lingerie is cut to fit you perfectly underneath. Lovely lingerie is the basis for good dressing."

Christian Dior

Toronto's Design Exchange hosts Lingerie Française, a retrospective covering over 100 years of French lingerie  from eleven renowned French lingerie manufacturers — Aubade, Barbara, Chantelle, Empreinte, Implicite, Lise Charmel, Lou, Maison Lejaby, Passionata, Princesse tam.tam and Simone Pérèle. Presented chronologially, the exhibit includes 125 artifacts of luxurious lingerie from corsets to matched bras and pantysets.

This travelling exhibition, which has included stops in Paris, London, Shanghai, Dubai, Berlin and New York, is intended to convey  the influence lingerie products have been exerting on society from the late nineteenth century up to the present day. The exhibition is sponsored by French association PROMINCOR and Défi-La Mode de France.

 Catherine Orman examining the Balmain gown
(That's my hand and hair just visible on the left)
Photo by Robert Ott, 2013

Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of having the curator of this exhibit Catherine Orman come to visit the Ryerson Fashion Research Collection. Although I was so tired (from several very late nights working on my book proposal) that I was barely coherent, we chatted about two recent corset acquisitions for the Collection, as well as some of my favourite gowns, including a Pierre Balmain couture gown called Marie Antoinette from 1955-1959 as well as a Lanvin wedding gown from c.1925-35.

The exhibit at the Design Exchange is on now until October 13, 2013. Admission is free. 

Design Exchange, 234 Bay Street, Toronto. 

Memories of a Dress

From London to Chicago.... it feels like a whirlwind. This weekend, I will be attending the Costume Society of America Mid-west conference in order to present my project: Memories of a Dress. 

Peach and cream silk evening gown c.1910-1915
Ryerson Fashion Research Collection
Photo by Ingrid Mida 2012

Here is the abstract for my talk:

Clothing is material memory, carrying the imprints of our body, absorbing sweat and stains, and straining with the stress of wear, especially at seams, hems and closure points. Although museums and study collections generally seek to collect items in near-perfect condition, there are stories hidden in the marks and stains of living. In a poetic essay, Peter Stallybrass describes how the clothes of his late colleague Allon White triggered sensory memories. “He was there in the wrinkles of the elbows, wrinkles that in the technical jargon of sewing are called ‘memory’; he was there in the stains at the very bottom of the jacket; he was there in the smell of the armpits” .

The Ryerson University Fashion Research Collection is a repository of several thousand garments and accessories acquired by donation, with the oldest garments dating back to 1860. For several years, this collection was dormant and largely unknown by the student body, and in editing the collection I examined each and every item within the storage facility. It was during the process of handling of each piece that I was haunted by the traces of the makers in the hand-stitching and the turns of the hem, and by the traces of the owners in the faint sweat stains under the arms and the worn patches at the elbows. There is such poignancy in these pieces, because they are still beautiful, but not to a pristine, museum-like standard. Some of these garments are in an advanced stage of decomposition, literally crumbling into dust due to the presence of weighted silk, and embody a duality of beauty and decay, life and death, emptiness and nostalgia, memory and transience. These fragments, which mirror the fragmentary nature of the records, became the source of my curatorial obsession.

In this project called Memories of a Dress, I created a series of photographs focusing on the rare historic garments in the Collection, and manipulated those images to suggest narratives that evoke the concepts of memory, fragility and transience. Roland Barthes in Camera Lucida defined photography as an artistic medium that was intimately linked with death as “a witness of something that is no more”, and this project fixes the process of decomposition in time, marking a moment that has already passed as the items continue on their trajectory into dust. 

Introducing the Ryerson Fashion Research Collection Blog

CN Tower Jumpsuit, c.1970s
Ryerson Fashion Research Collection
FRC2013.99.003

As you may know, I am the Acting Curator/Collection Co-ordinator for the Ryerson Fashion Research Collection and recently started a Collection blog. This new blog at www.ryerson-fashion-research-collection.com is part of the effort to create a digital portal into the Collection and was supported by a grant from the Learning and Teaching Office at Ryerson University. I invite you to visit the blog and subscribe by email if you wish to receive the posts that way. I'll be rolling out the 100 key artifacts over the course of the year. Here are some of my favourite dresses, although truth be told there are many more....

Fashion Postcards

18th Century Gowns in Store from the Museum of Costume in Bath

When I visit an exhibition of fashion in the museum, I am often tempted to buy the exhibition catalogue, but sometimes they are so heavy that I know that it will tip my luggage into the overweight category. At those moments, I often will buy a handful of postcards - just to remember the highlights. I have a box full of them and I also occasionally get one in the mail (like the beautiful one from the Museum of Costume in Bath, which I have yet to visit).

Here are some of my favourite fashion postcards.

YSL from YSL Foundation in Paris

The House of VIktor&Rolf, Barbican Gallery in London

A Summary of Fashion Exhibitions

Oyster Dress
Alexander McQueen, Savage Beauty
Photo by Solve Sunsbo Studio courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

I recently wrote an essay on Fashion + Curatorial Practice for an upcoming book called Fashion + X - The Medial Interactions of Clothing edited by Dr. Rainer Wenrich. In attempting to figure out how to approach the topic of fashion in the museum, I looked back at the many fashion exhibitions that I've visited and written about since 2008. I thought it would be fun to revisit those here. The links are active and will take you back to my review and more pictures!

Yves Saint Laurent Retrospective, 1962-2002

Montreal Museum of Fine Art, May 28 - September 28, 2008. 

Flowerbomb Gallery, The House of Viktor&Rolf
Installation Shot by Ingrid Mida 2008

The House of Viktor & Rolf

Barbican Art Gallery, London. June 18 - September 21, 2008.

Costume of the Court and Royal Ceremonies in Europe 1650-1800

Palace of Versailles, March 31, 2009-June 28, 2009.

Isabel Toledo: Fashion from the Inside Out.

FIT Museum, June 17 - September 26, 2009.

On a Pedestal

Bata Shoe Museum, April - September 20, 2010. 

The Concise Dictionary of Dress.

Blythe House, London. April 28 - June 27, 2010.

What's on the Fashion Calendar in September 2013?

Other than the rollout of Fashion Weeks around the world, there is a long list of fashion-related events and exhibitions on the calendar for September 2013. My picks for the month include:

Interwoven Globe
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

September 16, 2013: The Opening of Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500-1800 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

This is the first major exhibition to explore the global circulation of design through the trading of textiles from the 16th to the early 19th century through the medium of textiles.  This exhibition features 134 works in order to tell the visual history of design, exploring the interrelationship of textiles, commerce, and taste.


September 18, 2013: The Opening of Farandole: Perspectives on Western Metis Culture at the Textile Museum of Canada.

This show, a combination of textile art, fashion and art installation, promises to be a visual feast -- combining the couture garments crafted by French fashion designer and embroiderer Pascal Jaouen adjacent to a room-sized embroidered textile installation by Franco-Manitoban visual artist Colette Balcaen.


September 20-21, 2013: Uncommon Beauty, The CSA Mid-west Conference in Chicago.

At this annual conference of the mid-west section of the Costume Society of America, I will present "Memories of a Dress".


September 25, 2013: David Bowie at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.

On its first stop on its world tour, this exhibition from the Victoria and Albert Museum celebrates the David Bowie's collaborations in the fields of fashion, sound, theatre, art and film. presenting more than 50 stage costumes plus music videos, set designs, photographs and excerpts from films and live performances. Organized thematically, the show immerses visitors in a spectacular and interactive trip through Bowie’s numerous personae and legendary performances, with particular attention paid to his artistic influences. (And of course, if you have not seen it yet,  combine your visit with a tour of Ai Weiwei: According to What? also at the AGO).


September 28, 2013: Alaia at the Palais Galliera, Musee de la Mode de la Ville de Paris.

After being closed for several years, curator Olivier Saillard will reopen the newly renovated galleries of the Palais Galliera with a retrospective of the work of designer Azzedine Alaia. On display will be 70 garments tracing the trajectory of the designer's career set amongst a scenography by designer Martin Szekely. Alaia is known for his highly sculptured dresses that hug every curve, articulated through his mastery of cut.

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.

College Fashions in Vogue, August 1937

Cover Vogue, Inccorpoating Vanity Fair August 15, 1937

Fashion magazines have used the back to school theme as inspiration for their August issues for many years. I recently found an issue of Vogue dated August 15, 1937 with College Fashions as the theme. 1937 was a turbulent year in history with the Spanish Civil War, the Hindenburg disaster, the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and the rise of Stalin. In spite of the unrest, all was rosy on the fashion front.

Published twice a month, there were three Vogue magazines at the time- American, French and British. Edna Woolman Chase was Editor-in-Chief of all three. 

The August 15, 1937 issue of the magazine was 166 pages and features a model wearing a green and red plaid wool dress that is "reminiscent in style of the Grossman jersey dress, adopted by the emanticipated woman of 1918", but with the "casual chic of youth in its pleated skirt and white pique collar." 

The magazine features college themed advertisements as well as editorials on topics like: 

Voted most popular

College endowment

Compulsory for campus

Cut out for college

School directory

Autumn landscape colours

Puzzle parties

Most likely to succeed

Professor Shop-hound

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. 

Fashioning the world into art: Ai Weiwei at the Art Gallery of Ontario

Portrait of Ai Weiwei,
Courtesy of the Art Gallery of Ontario 

Ai Weiwei is an artist unlike any other of our time, crafting transgressive installations, assemblages and sculptures that address the complexities of human existence. His artwork is deeply personal and yet universal in meaning in its distillation of culture, politics and power. Although Ai Weiwei invokes social media as part of his creative practice, his sculptural and installation work is imbued with powerful emotions that cannot be conveyed through photos. This is art that you need to be in the same room with to truly appreciate the subtleties thereof. 

Ai Weiwei: According to What?  opens at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto on August 17, 2013 as its sole Canadian venue.

In writing this review, it might appear that I am ignoring my self-imposed rule that an exhibition relate to fashion in some way, and yet it is a little known fact that Ai Weiwei moved to the USA in 1981 to attend Parsons The New School of Design. It was during this New York sojourn, where he found inspiration in the works of Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp. Off to one corner and easy to overlook is one of Al Weiwei's early works called Château Lafite from 1988. This sculpture is made from a pair of Chinese shoes strapped to an empty bottle of Chateau Lafite wine as a play on the word "feet".  In my own reading of it, I might offer that this sculpture could also be read as a critique on the adoption of the western symbols of status by the ruling class of China.

"Château Lafite", by Ai Weiwei 1988, Chinese slippers and Empty Bottle of Wine
Photo by Ingrid Mida 2013

Just as there are fashions in clothing, there are fashions in art. The work of Ai Weiwei might be in fashion, but it is one that will endure the test of time. Thoughtful, powerful and hauntingly beautiful, each piece resonates with the power and emotion of human existence. Three of my favourites included: