FIDM Museum Blog

Silver paper headdress, c. 1860

Anyone interested in the history of fashion quickly realizes that fashion is a series of cyclical repetitions. Contemporary silhouettes, colors and design details reference recent and historic styles, often with only slight modifications to bring a garment into the present moment. This cycle isn't new or unique to contemporary culture; documented revivals of historic fashions exist in the nineteenth century and earlier. Fashion historian Barbara Baines has suggested that revivals of historic dress styles are due to a number of factors, including nostalgia and an interest in associating oneself with specific, perceived characteristics of the past. In addition to these psychological factors, concrete events like an archaeological discovery, museum exhibition or period film can inspire a revival of historic styles.¹

Bohemian dress for children

Bohemians were figures of both fascination and fun in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A typical Bohemian was often artistically or politically inclined and was willing to step outside the bounds of conventional society. The highest Bohemian ideal was to be true to one's own inner passions, regardless of societal or economic pressures. This interest in nonconformity led Bohemian dressers to a variety of innovative dress styles: non-Western garments, comfortable work or sport clothes, and costumes born of their own imaginations.

Long associated with working artists, the "art smock" attained special prominence in notoriously Bohemian Greenwich Village during the late teens. The loose, unstructured fit marked its wearer as a woman willing to reject the boundaries of fashion and propriety in the pursuit of an "artistic" life. A woman who was willing to wear such a free and easy garment was assumed to adhere to ideals of personal, social and sexual liberation. Smocks could be purchased in several Greenwich Village boutiques, including the Village Store and from the studio of batik artist Alice Muth. The 1922 Greenwich Village guidebook by Anna Alice Chapin noted that it was common to see "girls in smocks of 'artistic' shades-bilious yellow-green, or magenta-tending violet" when visiting the area.

Transforming the Rudi Gernreich Archive

If you read this post, you'll know that the FIDM Museum houses an extensive Rudi Gernreich Archive. The Archive numbers nearly 1,000 items and includes not only garments and accessories, but patterns, furniture, scrapbooks and other miscellaneous items. We received the objects that now comprise the Rudi Gernreich Archive soon after Gernreich's death in 1985. At that time, the objects were placed in a separate storage area, away from the bulk of the FIDM Museum collection. Though intentions were good, objects were not always stored with an eye to long-term preservation.

Pages from one of the Gernreich swatch books.

John Galliano for Christian Dior

When creating a collection, fashion designers typically mine multiple sources for their inspiration. This inspiration takes visual form on what is usually called a “mood board,” a group of visual references intended to guide the look and feel of a particular collection. These visual cues can be culled from literally anywhere, but often consist of images related to historic personages, places, movies, non-Western cultures and sometimes single words.

Evening coat
Christian Dior by John Galliano
Fall 2004 Ready-to-wear
Museum Purchase
2005.5.171