May Goings on at The Museum at FIT

Talk and Walk Eco-Fashion: Going Green and Eco Chic: Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion Wednesday, June 9, 10:30 am Fashion and Textile History Gallery, MFIT Visit two exhibitions that explore sustainability in fashion. First, tour Eco-Fashion: Going Green with co-curator Jennifer Farley at The Museum at FIT, and then visit Eco Chic: Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion at Scandinavia House (58 Park Avenue at 38th St.). This event is organized in collaboration with Scandinavia House. Workshop "The Origomu Project" Tatiana Pages Tuesday, June 15, 10:30 am MFIT Lobby Led by Tatiana Pages, workshop participants will craft unique jewelry pieces from recycled and renewable materials. Please provide your own recyclable materials (more information regarding materials will be provided upon registration). To learn more about this project, visit www.origomu.com. Lecture "Sustainable Fashion Futures" Mathilda Tham Thursday, June 17, 6pm Katie Murphy AmphitheatreFred P. Pomerantz Art and Design Center, NW corner 7th Ave and 27th St. Dr. Mathilda Tham will discuss how fashion and our relationship with it can incorporate more sustainable ideas, practices, and processes. Dr. Tham is a Visiting Professor in Fashion at Beckmans College of Design, Stockholm. This event is organized in collaboration with the Consulate General of Sweden. Talk and Tour Eco-Fashion: Going Green Wednesday, June 23, 10:30 am Fashion and Textile History Gallery, MFIT Co-curator Colleen Hill will lead a tour of Eco-Fashion: Going Green, an exhibition that surveys 250 years of fashion’s complex relationship with the environment. The show features brands such as Martin Margiela, EDUN, Bodkin, FIN, and NOIR. Programs in July and August are listed on the MFIT website.

CURRENT EXHIBITIONNight & Day Rochas (Olivier Theyskens), evening dress, black chantilly lace, black and silver cellophane, spring 2004, France, Gift of Maison Rochas - Photograph ©MFIT 2009 December 3 – May 11, 2010 The Museum at FIT presents Night & Day, an exhibition examining how the rules that dictate appropriate dress for women have changed over the past 250 years. Featured are more than 100 day and evening garments, textiles, and accessories displayed in chronological order that illustrate the conventions for appropriate dress for a particular time of day, activity, or occasion and how these conventions continually change. Curated by Molly Sorkin, Night & Day reveals the evolution of the rules that govern fashion, including eras when strictly observed etiquette was the norm and other times when more flexible guidelines prevailed. The exhibition includes work by designers such as Christian Dior, Charles James, Yves Saint Laurent, and Olivier Theyskens for Rochas. Visit the online exhibition

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONEco-Fashion: Going Green FIN, marble print dress in organic bamboo satin, Fall 2010, Norway. Gift of Per Sivertsen of FIN. - Photograph by Eileen Costa ©MFIT. May 25 - November 26, 2010 The Museum at FIT presents Eco-Fashion: Going Green, an exhibition exploring the evolution of the fashion industry’s multifaceted and complex relationship with the environment. By examining the past two centuries of fashion’s good—and bad— environmental and ethical practices, Eco-Fashion: Going Green provides historical context for today’s eco-fashion movement. Presented chronologically and featuring more than 100 garments, accessories, and textiles, the exhibition uses contemporary methods for “going green” as a framework to study the past. The objects displayed touch upon at least one of six major themes: the re-purposing and recycling of materials, fiber origins, textile dyeing and production, quality of craftsmanship, labor practices, and the treatment of animals. Curated by Jennifer Farley and Colleen Hill, the exhibition features some of the finest examples of 21st-century sustainable fashions by current, cutting-edge labels, including Alabama Chanin, Edun, FIN, and NOIR. Visit the online exhibition.

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONJapan Fashion Now h.NAOTO Autumn/Winter 2008. Photograph courtesy of h.NAOTO September 17, 2010 - January 8, 2011 Japan Fashion Now will explore how Japanese fashion has evolved in recent years. Japanese fashion today embraces not only the cerebral, avant-garde looks associated with the first wave of Japanese design in the 1980s, but also a range of subcultural and youth-oriented styles, such as the Elegant Gothic Lolita style and the Cosplay phenomenon. In addition, Japanese fashion often has a strong component of realism and an obsessive interest in perfecting classic styles.Contemporary Japanese fashion is significant globally, precisely because it mixes elements of the avant-garde (pushing the aesthetic envelope at the level of “high” art) and elements of realism (such as high-tech fabrics or an obsession with the perfect pair of jeans) with popular or subcultural elements, especially those associated with electronic manifestations, such as animated cartoons and videogames.

MUSEUM PUBLICATION American Beauty: Aesthetics and Innovation in Fashion Book Cover This beautifully illustrated book is the first to examine the relationship between innovation and aesthetics as expressed by American couturiers and fashion designers from the late 1910s to the present day. The book reveals that great design and great style are consistent elements in the work of American’s best fashion designers. Patricia Mears introduces many great forgotten figures, as well as many familiar names. Work by lesser-known figures, such as Jessie Franklin Turner, Ronaldus Shamask, and Charles Kleibecker, is discussed alongside pieces by more celebrated creators, such as Halston and Charles James; work by designers of the past is juxtaposed with that of present-day designers such as Rick Owens, Yeolee Teng, and Maria Comejo. James’s grand and structurally imposing gowns from the 1950s appear alongside contemporary Infantas by Ralph Rucci; the section on draping juxtaposes 1930s gowns by Elizabeth Hawes and Valentina with more contemporary garments by Jean Yu and Isabel Toledo; clothing cut into pure geometric shapes, such as circles, triangles, and rectangles, is illustrated by World War I–era teagowns by Jessie Franklin Turner, Claire McCardell’s mid-century rompers garments, and modern sportswear by Yeohlee and Shamask. While the United States may be best known worldwide for its casual mass-marketed garments, Mears demonstrates that artistry, innovation, and flawless construction are the true marks of American fashion. Barnes & Noble, FIT affiliated bookstore

MUSEUM INFORMATION The Museum at FIT is dedicated to advancing knowledge of fashion through exhibitions, programs and publications. The Museum is open to the public free of charge,Tuesday - Friday, Noon - 8pm, and Saturday 10 am - 5pm. Located on the Southwest corner of Seventh Avenue at 27th Street in New York City, the museum can be reached by subway: 1, C, E, F, V, N, or R, and by bus: M20 and M23. Penn Station is close by at 31st Street for the Long Island Railroad, New Jersey Transit, and Amtrak. For more information, be sure to visit our website at www.fitnyc.edu/museum or phone our information line at 212-217-4558