FIDM Museum Blog

Moving a museum collection

Heather Vaughan, of the dress studies blog Worn Through, interviewed our very own Christina Johnson about the process of moving our collection into compact storage. This was a HUGE project that took place over several months in 2008. You can read Christina's account of the move and see before/after photos of our storage facilities here.

Betsy Bloomingdale interview in Vestoj

Check out issue #1 of the new fashion periodical Vestoj: The Journal of Sartorial Matters for an interview with Betsy Bloomingdale about wearing haute couture. Titled "Good Time and Passing Time: A Conversation with Betsy Bloomingdale," the interview was conducted by Kevin Jones and Christina Johnson, co-curators of the recent FIDM Museum exhibit, High Style: Betsy Bloomingdale and the Haute Couture.

You can read more about Vestoj here. Their blog lists several stores in Europe that carry the journal, but for those of us in other locations, it might be a bit tricky to find a copy. Post a comment letting us know where you found your copy!

As a special treat for our dedicated readers, here is another ensemble featured in the High Style exhibition catalog. Copies of the catalog are available from the FIDM Museum Shop.

Evening gown
Marc Bohan for Christian Dior
Spring-Summer 1963
77.116.3
Gift of Mrs. Alfred Bloomingdale

77.116.3 Detail of hand-dyed silk organza flowers

Floating forms

A well-designed and well-installed museum exhibit appears effortless, as if the objects on display were always meant to be viewed in that exact context. Despite this apparent ease, museum exhibitions require a tremendous amount of long-range planning. Christina Johnson and Kevin Jones, co-curators of High Style: Betsy Bloomingdale and the Haute Couture spent three years planning the exhibition. An important aspect of their planning was deciding how to best display the garments. As you've seen from the images we post on this blog, the FIDM Museum has an extensive collection of dress forms and mannequins. Christina and Kevin decided, however, that Betsy Bloomingdale's haute couture garments would be best displayed on floating forms. Unlike mannequins or dress forms, floating forms do not extend beyond the boundaries of the garment. This allows you to focus entirely on the garment, without the distraction of legs, arms or facial characteristics.

As you might imagine, creating floating forms is a complicated process. All of the floating forms used to display the garments in High Style were created by Carolyn Jamerson, FIDM Museum Study Collection Manager. Carolyn worked on the floating forms for almost a year! She recently gave a presentation about the process and we're going to feature a brief overview today. 

Preserving the Ann Getty Fashion Collection

Behind every great museum is a great library. The FIDM Museum is fortunate to have access to the FIDM Library, which houses a great collection of design oriented books. Today's post focuses on a preservation project completed by Rachel Clarke, FIDM Library Catalog Coordinator. It is a shorter version of an article published in the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of the American Archivist. Congratulations Rachel!

Presentations abroad!

As mentioned in this post, FIDM Museum staff are constantly engaged in collection oriented research. Currently, Christina Johnson (Collections Manager) and Kevin Jones (Curator) are at the Fashion & Materiality symposium hosted by the Centre for Fashion Studies at Stockholm University in Stockholm, Sweden. Click on the link above for more information on the conference and the other presenters. Today's post consists of their respective presentation abstracts and images. Enjoy!

“In my case the face was created.”¹ Fashion and Identity in the Life of Marlene Dietrich

by Christina Johnson

Marlene Dietrich was married to the same man for over fifty years. She did not gain notoriety in Hollywood until age thirty. She was a mother and grandmother. She was self-conscious to the point of obsession regarding her perceived bodily imperfections. She was a recluse for the last ten years of her life. She longed to be accepted, admired, and loved. These personal facts are in direct opposition to Dietrich’s public identity. She was a bisexual siren with multiple lovers. She was a self-assured woman who took pride in showcasing a “perfect” body, eternally youthful and beautiful. She basked in the admiration and awe bestowed upon her from legions of fans and friends. A glamorous public identity was materialized by Marlene Dietrich through her appearance.

This paper will study fashion and identity in the life of Marlene Dietrich focusing on a rare group of her garments and accessories from the FIDM Museum in Los Angeles. This significant collection is comprised of over fifty personal wardrobe and movie costume ensembles in addition to twenty pairs of custom shoes donated by Dietrich to a now-defunct museum from 1964 to 1966 before arriving at the FIDM Museum in 1990. These pieces date from her early career in Berlin, her Hollywood years, USO tours, and stage performances.

Snapshot of Marlene Dietrich during her USO tour
1944-45
Museum Purchase

Marlene Dietrich purchased this paisley gown in Los Angeles in the early 1940s and wore it frequently, as evidenced by the many extant photographs. During her 1944-45 USO tour, she was photographed wearing the gown onstage, as seen in the snapshot above. Dietrich also wore the gown in the 1948 film, A Foreign Affair. The image below shows how this illustrious gown is stored at the FIDM Museum.

Gown worn by Marlene Dietrich
Irene
c. 1941
Department of Recreation and Parks, City of Los Angeles, FIDM Museum
INV. 3633

This embellished jacket was part of Dietrich's personal wardrobe.

Evening Jacket worn by Marlene Dietrich
Travis Banton/Howard Greer
c. 1936
Department of Recreation and Parks, City of Los Angeles, FIDM Museum
INV. 1137

Detail of INV. 1137

Hollywood Scandal! : Edith Head and Celanese “Star in Crepe”
by Kevin Jones

This is a convoluted story of eleven dresses in the FIDM Museum’s Hollywood Costume Collection. The collection came as a loan to FIDM in 1990 from the City of Los Angeles, California, after being stored in an abandoned city jail for more than twenty years. Many of the garments have been exhibited around the world as authentic; half of these gowns, though, are spurious. While dressing the costumes for an exhibition, it was noticed that some of them did not look as they appeared in publicity stills. Were these the same garments? Had they been altered? A detailed analysis of the gowns ensued. The gowns’ provenance, though, proved to be the thriller of this drama.

In 1960, the rayon manufacturer Celanese teamed with Paramount Pictures costume designer Edith Head to launch a new material called “Star in Crepe” by showcasing eleven original “Golden Era” crepe gowns in fashion shows in the United States, with contemporary interpretations of the garments to inspire consumers to purchase the new material so they too could dress like a star. The first fashion show was held at The Plaza Hotel in New York. Thereafter, identical copies of the gowns and their interpretations were worn in fashion shows around the country. Later, the costumes were donated to Hollywood Museum Associates, an organization planning a museum of Los Angeles movie history. The copy gowns were donated to various other institutions. By 1968, Hollywood Museum Associates was defunct, bailed out of debt by the City of Los Angeles who twenty years later loaned the eleven gowns to the FIDM Museum.

Which famous dresses are these? Who were the movie queens wearing such beautiful creations? Have any of the original dresses survived? Stay tuned for the ending to this most dramatic Hollywood Scandal!

Sketch of the gown worn by Greta Garbo in the film Inspiration

Gilbert Adrian design for Greta Garbo in Inspiration, 1931
Modern Screen Magazine, March 1931
Image courtesy of Richard Atkins
FIDM Museum

Actual gown worn by Greta Garbo in Inspiration

Gilbert Adrian for Greta Garbo in Inspiration, 1931
Silk velvet and rhinestones
Image courtesy of the Drexel University Historic Costume Collection, PA
Gift of Mrs. Thomas E. Burns Jr., 76-1-1ab
Photography by Dave Gehosky
Image courtesy of the Drexel Digital Museum Project , http://digimuse.cis.drexel.edu

Fake version of the gown worn by Greta Garbo in Inspiration, created in 1961.

Fake by Edith Head for Celanese Corp., 1961
Representing Greta Garbo in "Inspiration," 1931
Department of Recreation and Parks, City of Los Angeles, FIDM Museum

Image of model wearing fake Inspiration gown in 1961 fashion show.

Fake gown by Edith Head for Celanese Corp., 1961
Representing Greta Garbo in Inspiration, 1931
Model wearing the costume for a Celanese Fashion Show, 1962
Department of Recreation and Parks, City of Los Angeles, FIDM Museum

1 Dietrich, Marlene. Marlene. trans. Salvatore Attanasio. New York: Grove Press, 1989.

In remembrance

A remembrance of our friend and colleague Christie Romero by Kevin Jones, FIDM Museum curator.

It is with regret that the FIDM Museum announces the loss of one of its own, jewelry historian Christie Romero (1948-2009). Christie had been with the Museum for two years, working as co-curator on a long-ranged book project titled Adorned: Two Centuries of Jewelry and Dress, 1800-2000. Christie was best known as a jewelry historian, consultant, gemologist, and instructor of antique and period jewelry history. She had taught classes in Southern California since 1988, and at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising since 2007 in the Jewelry Design program. Christie authored three editions of the respected book Warman's Jewelry and the informative Collector's Timeline, a pocket-sized reference guide of jewelry facts.

Christie lectured throughout the country at conferences, symposia, conventions, and special events; including the annual summer conference on “Antique Jewelry and Gemstones” at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. She lectured for the American Society of Appraisers, the College for Appraisers, the Gemological Institute of America, Women's Jewelry Association, the Northwest Gemological Institute, and many other professional organizations. Christie also appeared regularly as an appraiser on the popular television program, "The Antiques Roadshow.”

Christie’s own on-line Center for Jewelry Studies was founded in the 1990s as a means to disseminate information on the history, identification, and marketing of antique, period, and vintage jewelry. The Center provided, and will continue to do so in the spirit by which she created it, quality information and programs designed to supplement the careers of those in jewelry-related fields—including dealers, appraisers, jewelers, and gemologists—as well as enhance the enjoyment of collectors and jewelry lovers.

Christie Romero

We at the FIDM Museum will miss this energetic, enthusiastic, and engaging person, whose love of life and jewelry alike will not be easily forgotten.

Featured below is an image and detail shot of a complete 19th century mourning ensemble. The image will be included in Adorned: Two Centuries of Jewelry and Dress, 1800-2000.

Mourning day dress
c. 1897-99
Gift of Rhoda Osthaus
96.999.1AB

Mourning rings
Both c. 1875-1900
Gift of Andrea Tice
2008.46.31 and 2008.46.98

Thanks!

Thanks to Heather of the dress studies blog Worn Through for her complimentary review of this blog! You can read the review here. Earlier this year, Worn Through featured an interview with our collections manager, Christina Johnson. You can read all three parts of that interview here.