FIDM Museum Blog

Out & About: Fred Astaire's tuxedo on exhibit at the RISD Museum

In today's post, FIDM Museum Registrar Meghan Grossman Hansen describes the process of preparing objects for transport to exhibitions at other institutions. FIDM Museum has an active loan program, and we often have 1 or more objects on exhibit at museums near or far. Beginning April 28, see a tuxedo worn by Fred Astaire in Artist/Rebel/Dandy: Men of Fashion at the RISD Museum in Providence, Rhode Island.

**********

We are always excited to see the FIDM Museum collection travel. Most recently, we sent Fred Astaire's tuxedo to join many other dapper gentlemen in Artist/Rebel/Dandy: Men of Fashion, an exhibition at the RISD Museum (April 28 - August 18, 2013). Featuring more than 200 objects, this exhibit traces the history and persona of the dandy, with a focus on well-known fashionable men.

Fred Astaire was very particular about his wardrobe, with strong preferences about cuffs, jacket length, stripe width, and other minute details. He once claimed that he took each new suit to the tailor "at least half a dozen times."¹ For Artist/Rebel/Dandy, we loaned the RISD Museum a 1930s tuxedo, waistcoat, and bow tie worn by Astaire. The wool crepe tuxedo was made by Anderson & Sheppard Ltd., a Savile Row tailor still in existence today.

Fred Astaire’s tuxedo on exhibit at the RISD Museum, loan courtesy of the FIDM Museum, City of Los Angeles, Department of Recreation and Parks (L88.1.31AB). Photograph by Erik Gould, courtesy of the RISD Museum.

 

Fred Astaire's dancing shoes

 

Tap Shoes
Worn by Fred Astaire, c. 1930s
Suede, leather & metal taps
Department of Recreation and Parks, City of Los Angeles/FIDM Museum
L88.1.125AB

By the time he first appeared in a Hollywood film in 1933, Fred Astaire was already an experienced and popular performer. Born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1899, Astaire first encountered dance classes as a toddler, when his older sister Adele was enrolled in ballet classes. Their parents believed that Adele might be talented enough for a performance career, so when the children were only 5 and 7, the family moved to New York. The family (still using their original name Austerlitz) had no connections in New York, very little money, and the name of a dance academy recommended by Adele's Omaha dance teacher. Whether by design or happenstance, once the Astaire family settled in New York, Fred and Adele were both enrolled in dance classes. Fred and Adele's teacher felt that the children had some talent, and developed a brother-sister act for the siblings. Changing their last name from Austerlitz to Astaire, the siblings began performing a comedic dance act on the vaudeville circuit.