FIDM Museum Blog

V is for Valentino

 

You've probably heard that retired couturier Valentino Garavani (b. 1932) will soon launch a virtual museum showcasing highlights from his five decades in fashion. Slated to launch on December 5, the virtual museum will use 3-D technology to create a palazzo with a series of galleries dedicated to garments, images, videos and more. A short promotional video describing The Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum can be seen here.

Many designers keep archives of their designs, sketches, press clippings and other documentation. In some cases, garments or images pulled from these archives will eventually surface in a publication or a museum exhibition. But for the most part, these archives serve only as an in-house resource or a reservoir of primary source material for the outside researcher. Some designers, including Claire McCardell, Christian Dior and Elsa Schiaparelli, made a conscious attempt to document their contributions to fashion by authoring biographies. Until Valentino, however, no individual couturier has comprehensively approached the preservation of his or her legacy. It will be fascinating to see how Valentino presents his extensive career and which garments he chooses to highlight when his virtual museum is open for viewing!

Culotte dress
Spring/Summer 1969
Valentino Couture
Gift of Laura Jarre
87.384.2

Silk plush top hat, c. 1855-60

 

In the mid-nineteenth century, a gentleman of distinction wouldn't have dared to leave his house without a hat. The most popular style of men's hat was the glossy, silk plush top hat, sometimes called a chimney pot or stovepipe. Equated with authority and success, top hats were worn by the aristocracy, bankers, reputable businessman and politicians. Because of these authoritative associations, top hats were also worn by ambitious men of the lower classes who hoped to make their way in the world. Workers charged with keeping order, including stationmasters and male servants, often wore top hats as part of their professional uniform. Unlike today's top hat, which is worn only in a few formal situations, top hats were an everyday component of the masculine wardrobe.

Top hat
c. 1855-60
Museum Purchase
2010.5.13

 

Duck dress, c. 1930

 

Day dress
c. 1930
Gift of Steven Porterfield
S2007.897.39

The charming idiosyncrasy of this dress always gets a smile. From a distance, it is simply a black day dress with a 1920s silhouette and bright red applied decoration. But take a closer look and you'll see that the red decorations are actually a series of plastic badges. Each badge features a hand-painted duck! In the close-up (below) of the sleeve cuff, the painted ducks (ostriches?) are clearly visible. Looking at the close-up also makes it clear that the painted badges are an integral part of the overall dress design. They weren't slapped on as an afterthought; the dress was thoughtfully designed to prominently showcase the hand-painted ducks. Other details, including the contrast piping at the cuffs and neckline and the metallic embroidery seen below, indicate that the dress was more than a throwaway novelty.

Court gown and train, 1907

 

Ladies attending Their Majesties' Courts will appear in Full Dress, with Trains and Plumes.¹

 

Court gown & train
London, England
Redfern
1907
Museum Purchase, Funds provided by Yvonne Hummel
2008.932.19AB

Worn only during the ceremony in which selected individuals were introduced to the King and Queen, court dress was an elegant, highly regulated uniform. Adhering to the spoken and unspoken regulations governing court dress was almost as important as having the "correct" background. Each European court had its own version of court dress, which was more or less elaborate depending on the wealth of the particular court. The court gown and train pictured above are both on display in FABULOUS!, our current exhibition.

We are fortunate to know the provenance of this court gown. It was worn by American Ann Bloomfield Gamble Post during her 1907 presentation to King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom. Edward was a popular leader; his accession to the throne in 1901 transformed the somber court of his mother Queen Victoria into "an exceptionally brilliant spectacle."¹ Alexandra exerted a major influence on fashion. Presentation at their court was a eagerly anticipated social privilege.

Holly's Harp hand-painted evening gown

 

Evening gown
Holly's Harp
1974
Gift of Gloria Strasburger
99c.059.09

The sinuous lines of Holly Harp's evening wear hearken back to the form-fitting, bias cut gowns of the 1930s. Her career began in the hippie milieu of late 1960s Los Angeles. Working from her eponymous shop, Harp created custom clothing from a hodge-podge of new and old materials. Harp's aesthetic soon shifted, moving towards what she called "grown-up glamour clothes."¹ Discarding the feathers and fringe she favored in the late '60s, Harp began working with more refined materials, including silk chiffon, panne velvet and silk jersey. Using these textiles enabled Harp to produce a range of romantic, body-conscious evening wear, including the hand-painted dress pictured above. This bias-cut, blue evening dress provides another example of Holly Harp's interest in glamour and romanticism.

Holding history in my hands

 

In today's post, Christina Johnson, associate curator and resident photography expert, describes her long-standing fascination with historic photography. She also discusses the conservation of a mid-nineteenth century ambrotype portraying two dashing urban gentleman. In previous posts, Christina has explained how photography can be used to understand fashion history. You can find her two-part series on that topic here and here.

Ambrotype
Probably United States
c. 1855-60
Glass, leather, silk velvet, metal & wood
Gift of Steven Porterfield
2010.897.25

I’ve studied fashion history since I was a little girl. When I was a teenager, I discovered my grandmother had two antique trunks jam-packed with old photographs—literally thousands of portrait photographs—dating from the 1850s to the 1950s. Grandma had inherited them from her sister-in-law, who had methodically asked for old family photos anytime a relative, however distant, died. Everyone ended up handing over all their heirloom photos to Aunt Marjorie. I spent hours poring over them, organizing and dating them by what people were wearing. They taught me fashion history. I loved looking at peoples’ clothes and their faces. I wanted to know their stories.

Research resources, part 2

 

It's been a long time since we've talked about research resources! Our last post on this topic was in February 2010--practically a millenia in terms of how fast information appears on the internet. All of the resources we suggested in that post are still excellent starting points for fashion history research. See what we recommended in February 2010 here. In the time since we wrote that post, more and more information is available on the internet, particularly primary sources.

This list of resources is only a small sampling of what's actually available, both online and offline. Because our readers are scattered all over the world, we're focusing primarily on what is available online. But, we know there are MANY great research resources out there. Leave a comment telling us what we've missed. You might just leave a tip that leads a fellow researcher to a breakthrough!

We hate to post without including an image, so here's a FABULOUS! teaser. Pictured below is the full eleven-foot train of our 1907 Redfern court gown. Look forward to a post on this confection sometime in the next few weeks.

Court gown train
Redfern
1907
Museum Purchase, Funds provided by Yvonne Hummel
2008.932.19AB