FIDM Museum Blog

1970s Gunne Sax dresses

 

Gunne Sax's aesthetic has been described as feminine, nostalgic, Victorian, old world and romantic. Though the brand is now closely associated with formal and bridal wear, its origins date back to late '60s San Francisco. In 1969, San Francisco boutique Gunne Sax needed a house designer. Enter Jessica McClintock, an elementary school teacher with a life-long interest in fashion. When a friend told McClintock of the opening at Gunne Sax, she applied immediately. In a testament to the freewheeling spirit of 1960s San Francisco, McClintock was hired despite her lack of formal training in fashion design or clothing manufacture. In the beginning, McClintock designed small collections of about 20 garments. Within a few months the San Francisco department store I. Magnin started retailing Gunne Sax dresses. The mood of Gunne Sax was based on McClintock's personal vision: "I brought to [Gunne Sax] my own concept of clothing based on romance--nostalgia created by a mixture of prints, ribbons, laces, muslins and braids. It was 1969, the "mini" era was ending, and the Gunne Sax "Country," "Edwardian," and "Prairie" era was beginning."¹ 

Gunne Sax by Jessica McClintock
c. 1975
Gift of Roxanne, Byrnadette & Frank DiSanto
95.817.1

In the archives: Silver paper headdress, c. 1860

 

First published in July 2010, this post explores the connections between a delicate nineteenth century headdress in our collection and dress of the ancient world.

 

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

One of the most frequently occurring revivals is that of ancient Greek and Roman dress. This can take the form of a draped garment inspired by Greek and Roman statuary or the presence of a motif like the Greek key. In the nineteenth century, the influence of Greek and Roman dress was seen in the slim, light-colored, empire waist dresses popular at the beginning of the century and the artistic or aesthetic styles that emerged in the 1860s. Also popular in the nineteenth century were jewelry and accessories inspired by the styles of ancient Greece, Rome and other ancient cultures. In 1864, Godey's Lady's Book noted the popularity of historic revivals in jewelry: "Roman, Greek and Egyptian [jewelry] are greatly in demand."²

Silvered paper headdress
c. 1860
Museum Purchase
2008.25.2

Delicate headdresses made of jewels, ribbons and real or artificial flowers and leaves were popular in the late 1850s and early 1860s. These were worn primarily for evening or formal dress, and often matched or complemented motifs seen on the dress itself. Whether incorporating roses, ribbons or the oak leaves seen here, this style is a clear reference to the crowns seen on ancient Greek and Roman statuary. In both ancient Greece and Rome, wreaths of flowers or leaves were awarded to Olympic athletes, military commanders and supreme rulers. Oak leaves and acorns have a particular significance, as they were sacred to the Greek god Zeus and his Roman equivalent, Jupiter.

Like many consumer goods of the mid-nineteenth century, headdresses could be purchased at multiple price-points. The most lavish, worn by royalty and wealthy aristocrats, incorporated precious jewels, gold and silver. More modest headdresses were made of leftover ribbon and fresh flowers. The silver paper headdress seen here was perhaps a less expensive version of the diamond headdresses worn by the upper echelons of society. Like some of its more expensive cousins, this delicate paper headdress was meant to tremble delicately when the wearer moved. Each leaf and flower is wired to the headband, so that the slightest movement creates a delicate, trembling movement akin to the wind gently brushing the leaves of a tree.

 

1 Baines, Barbara. Fashion Revivals: from the Elizabethan Age to the Present Day London: Batsford Ltd. 1981.
2 "Fashions." Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine Jan. 1864: 103.

 

Jeans by Gaultier

 

Jean Paul Gaultier specializes in joyfully rejecting conventional distinctions between masculine and feminine dress. 'Une garde-robe pour deux' (A wardrobe for two), a 1985 Gaultier illustration, portrays a man and women in nearly identical ensembles of wide-legged trousers, midriff-baring tops and oversized jackets. In a play on expectations, Gaultier gives the man a long pony-tail, while the women sports short hair. Gaultier's most notorious experiments in gender-bending are his skirts for men. First introduced in 1985, Gaultier played with the idea of men in skirts through the 1990s. He offered a variety of styles, including kilts, sarongs, tunics and long maxi skirts. Gaultier's comment, "masculinity is not connected to the clothes you're wearing--it's in the mind," offers a basis for his belief in this sometimes controversial mode of dressing.¹ For Madonna's 1990 Blond Ambition tour, Gaultier designed a blue velvet cone bra to be worn by male back-up dancers. This bra complemented Madonna's own outfit, a pale pink corset.

Gaultier's belief that men should adopt clothing typically worn by women is unusual in the history of fashion. Though women have a long history of borrowing and adapting elements of menswear, women's dress rarely influences men's sartorial choices. The realm of functional sportswear is one in which women have borrowed heavily from men. In particular, women adopted a feminized version of male riding attire beginning in the late seventeenth century. A woman's riding ensemble usually included a fitted jacket worn with a full skirt designed specifically for riding side-saddle. For the dedicated horsewomen, full skirts could be both embarrassing and dangerous. If a rider fell, a voluminous side-saddle skirt could become entangled, endangering the rider, or it could fall aside and reveal a woman's undergarments. For both of these reasons, by the late nineteenth century, many female equestrians began wearing riding trousers, either under their skirts or as a garment in its own right. By the 1920s, women's riding habits frequently included the style of trousers called jodphurs; some daring women even wore jodphur-based riding habits as everyday dress. These high-waisted jodphur-style jeans from Gaultier's JPG Jean's line update riding trousers in street-worthy denim.

Jodphur-style jeans
JPG By Gaultier
1995-96
Museum Purchase
2007.5.15

Knowing that they're by Jean Paul Gaultier, you should expect some kind of twist. Buttoned-up, these look like a basic and very wearable version of the ubiquitous jeans. But unbutton the high waist and a trompe l' oeil corset is revealed! The contrast of white cotton with darker denim also suggests the typical menswear pairing of white shirt with dark suit. This playful combination of masculine and feminine elements is pure Gaultier.

2007.5.15

A survey of Gaultier's work is currently on exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art. The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk will be on view through February 12, 2012. See a short video filmed inside the exhibition here.

1 Polan, Brenda and Roger Tredre. The Great Fashion Designers. England: Berg, 2009. 202.

 

Liberty & Co. evening gown, c. 1910

 

Evening gown
Liberty & Co.
c. 1910
Silk satin, silk gauze & pearl beads
Museum Purchase
2006.5.7

Liberty & Co. opened in London's West End during 1875. Founder Arthur Lasenby Liberty stocked his small shop with goods imported from the Middle East and Japan, including curios, porcelain, fans and lengths of fabric. Liberty's shop had a bazaar-like atmosphere and attracted a clientele sympathetic to the ideals of the Aesthetic Movement. From the beginning, textiles were an important part of Lasenby's retail plan. In addition to stocking imported textiles, Liberty & Co. soon began commissioning furnishing and dress textiles from known and emerging artisans. These textiles were all marketed under the name "Liberty Art Fabrics." The most distinct of these textiles were densely patterned and often borrowed imagery from the natural world. One pattern frequently associated with Liberty & Co. features overlapping sprays of peacock feathers. This pattern was designed in the late 1880s, and is still used by Liberty & Co. today. Other textiles were soft, solid color silks in a variety of weights. Whether patterned or plain, Liberty textiles were prized for their softness and graceful drape.

Project Alabama reverse applique dress

 

Contemporary fashion rarely evokes a specific sense of time or place, but the one-of-a-kind garments of Project Alabama are an exception. From 2001-2006, Project Alabama earned rack space in boutiques from Tokyo to New York City and appeared in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and many other publications. All this despite Project Alabama's location in Florence, Alabama, far from the fashion centers of New York or Paris.

The company got its start in 2001, when native Alabaman and former stylist Natalie Chanin needed something to wear to a party in New York City. Chanin deconstructed a t-shirt, cutting it apart and sewing it back together with visible stitches. The one-off shirt was a tremendous success, earning compliments and inquiries about where it was purchased. Based on the success of her spontaneous design, Chanin decided to make similar t-shirts for retail sale. At first, Chanin wanted to produce her t-shirts in New York, but quickly realized that she'd have more success producing garments with a handmade appearance if she hired sewers skilled in hand-sewing techniques. This led Chanin back to Alabama, where handwork, particularly quilting, was still an important part of local culture.

Tank dress with reverse applique
Project Alabama
c. 2003
Cotton jersey
Gift of Doris Raymond
2011.800.4

Newsprint fashion

 

A Paul Poiret c. 1911 tunic and the daily newspaper--what do they have in common? At first, the relationship between a haute couture creation and the local newspaper might seem almost non-existent, however, both are communicative devices that convey information to an observant reader. The text of the newspaper (either online or printed) is read to obtain the latest political news, sports scores, weather and cultural commentary. An outfit, whether haute couture or ready-to-wear, can be read for specific information about the wearer along with more general information regarding the place and time in which it is worn.

Clothing constructed from actual paper, sometimes even newsprint, is most often associated with the late 1960s paper dress trend and late 19th/early 20th century fancy dress costumes. This 1966-69 Wastebasket Boutique paper dress is printed with a collage of advertisements and phone book listings. To learn more about the history and context of late 60s paper dresses, read our Would you believe it's paper? blog post.

Paper dress
Wastebasket Boutique
1966-1969
Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Alfred Himelson
97.350.1

Diane von Furstenberg, c. 1976

 

Diane von Furstenberg's reputation began with one dress, the wrap. Introduced in 1973, von Furstenberg's signature dress is a one-piece wrap style that crosses in the front and ties at the waist. Figure hugging and made of synthetic or silk jersey knit in bright, colorful prints, the dress was meant to be tightly wrapped. Though von Furstenberg certainly didn't invent the wrap style, her version embodied the zeitgeist of the early 1970s. By 1975, her manufacturer was producing 15,000 dresses each week.

Von Furstenberg's wrap dress stemmed from a belief "that women wanted a fashion option besides hippie clothes, bell-bottoms, and stiff pantsuits that hid their femininity."¹ These styles, all popular in the early 1970s, attempted to minimize sartorial distinctions between men and women. In reaction to the prevalence of these unisex looks, von Furstenberg created "simple little sexy dresses that made women feel like women."² Based on the overwhelming popularity of her wrap dress, von Furstenberg was correct in assuming that women wanted something that emphasized the feminine form.

Diane von Furstenberg
c. 1976
Gift of Vivian Tellefsen
84.1976.008.3

Re-Designing History: The Competition

 

In conjunction with our current exhibit, Re-Designing History: FIDM Museum Study Collection, 1850-2000, FIDM Museum & Galleries held a design competition for currently enrolled FIDM students to re-design history by creating illustrations inspired by this high-fashion, c. 1872 fuchsia day dress from the FIDM Museum Study Collection.

Day dress
Silk
c. 1872
Gift of Steven Porterfield
S2008.897.5A-C

The competition was open to all majors on all campuses and more than sixty entries were submitted. The winning designs were chosen by a panel of judges who looked for overall creativity, visual composition, and design inspiration. The winning illustration (below) was designed by Elizabeth Teemley, a Theatre Costume Design student at FIDM. Look forward to a post from Elizabeth describing how she arrived at this illustration!

Elizabeth Teemley's 1st place illustration.

We thank all of our talented students for their entries and congratulate our three winners who used history to re-design the future.

L to R: Marc Blaskovits (2nd Place, Graphic Design), Elizabeth Teemley (1st Place, Theatre Costume Design), Katrina Andrews (3rd Place, Fashion Design)

Re-Designing History: FIDM Museum Study Collection, 1850-2000

 

Re-Designing History: FIDM Museum Study Collection, 1850-2000 is now open!
This free exhibition is open to the public Tuesday–Saturday, 10am–4pm, until December 17, 2010.

Coat
c. 1926
Silk & lamé brocade & mink
Gift of Ms. Judy Thomsen
FIDM Museum Study Collection
S2004.823.15

The FIDM Museum Study Collection contains 2,000 objects spanning 200 years: haute couture and ready-to-wear garments, accessories, non-western dress, and textiles. Study Collections are located on all four FIDM campuses: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orange County, and San Diego. Students, scholars, designers, and the public access the collections for hands-on education—school projects, personal research, and design inspiration. Individual objects are examined in Museum storage or, combinations are assembled for classroom study—such as historical construction, pattern development, and sewing techniques.

Fashion is cyclical, and savvy designers glean inspiration from previous centuries. There are countless ways to rethink retro styles: great design remains a potent source even when outmoded. Our purpose in cultivating the Study Collections is to learn from successful designers and expand the knowledge of fashion history.

Vivienne Westwood
c. 2002
Silk chiffon & gold lamé
Museum Purchase
FIDM Museum Study Collection
S2004.5.3
    
To complement the exhibition, we will host the Re-Designing History Speakers Series. FIDM Museum curators Kevin Jones and Christina Johnson, and Carolyn Robertson, head of FIDM’s History of Costume Department will provide insights into the history of fashion. A guided tour of Re-Designing History will follow each presentation. All programs start at 11am and are free and open to the public.

Saturday, November 6
Kevin Jones & Christina Johnson
An Introduction to the FIDM Museum
Doris Langley Moore: Ultimate Woman in Fashion

Saturday, November 13
Carolyn Robertson
The Early 20th Century Woman: Her Changing Self-image

Saturday, December 4
Carolyn Robertson
Art: The Compelling Force behind Fashion

Saturday, December 11
Carolyn Robertson
Embellishment: More than Decoration

 

Please Note: The exhibition will be closed on November 11, 2010 for Veteran’s Day and November 25–27, 2010 for Thanksgiving break.

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