The Museum at FIT in July 2012
THE LATEST NEWS
... What's Happening ...
**MFIT Has Re-launched Its Online Collections ** We know it's been frustrating not being able to search our collections these past few months, but the wait is over. The MFIT Online Collections are now live with over 600 objects and 875 images....with more to come!! Hurry over to fashionmuseum.fitnyc.edu to search, browse, collect, and share online images of fashion and accessories dating from the last 300 years to the present! Or read more about the project here.
**Fashion Crosses Borders** This year's collaborative workshop, Cross-Pollination: Masterpieces from the Museum at FIT, engaged students from FIT and Mexico City's Atelier Romo. For inspiration, the students looked to the work of Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros as well as to MFIT's exhibition Fashion, A-Z: Highlights from the Collection of the Museum at FIT, Part One . The results of MFIT's third Cross-Pollination Workshop included a fashion collection, a video/art piece, a mural, and a book containing a styled photoshoot and interviews with an artist and a curator.
**Crawling the Social Web** Maybe you knew that the museum is on Facebook or Twitter....but how about Flickr, Pinterest, or Youtube? Storify? Vimeo? The Museum at FIT has a pretty extensive social web presence and we've listed them, conveniently, all in one place.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Fashion Culture: Special Programs
Fashion Culture programs and events are free unless otherwise indicated, and are organized by The Museum at FIT to provide insightful and intriguing perspectives on the culture of fashion.
Reservations are required. Space is limited.
To RSVP for a program, Register Online Here
Talk and Tour: Fashion A-Z: Highlights from the Collection of The Museum at FIT
Join co-curator Jennifer Farley for a tour of the second installment of MFIT's showcase of modern and contemporary design, featuring selections from the museum’s permanent collection of more than 50,000 garments and accessories.
Monday, August 20, 6pm.
CURRENT EXHIBITION
Fashion, A-Z: Highlights from the Collection of the Museum at FIT, Part Two
Oscar de la Renta for Balmain , evening dress in silk embroidered organza , spring 2002, France, gift of Mrs. Martin D. Gruss.
May 23 - November 10, 2012
Fashion, A-Z: Highlights from the Collection of the Museum at FIT, Part Two is the second of two exhibitions that highlight modern and contemporary pieces from the Museum’s permanent collection. More than sixty garments and accessories are featured by designers from Adrian to Zoran, including work by Charles James, Ralph Lauren, and Diane von Furstenberg. Full portraits of all exhibition objects from the two exhibitions will be included in a companion publication by TASCHEN, forthcoming fall 2012.
UPCOMING EXHIBITION
Ivy Style
Chipp, madras jacket, circa 1970. The Museum at FIT, 87.111.4, gift of Glenn Forbes.
September 14, 2012 - January 5, 2013
Ivy Style celebrates one of the most enduring clothing styles of the 20th century. While viewed today as a classic form of dressing, in its heyday, Ivy style—or the “Ivy League look” —was actually so cutting-edge that it went on to inform the evolution of menswear for decades. This exhibition examines the genesis of Ivy style on the prestigious college campuses of the United States during the early years of the twentieth century, looks at the ways in which the style became codified by mid-century, and reveals how, nearly one hundred years after its inception, Ivy style is still a thriving global influence.
Ivy Style presents three main periods of the look: the interwar years of the 1920s and 1930s; the post-war era to the end of the 1960s; and the revival from the 1980s to the present. Focusing almost exclusively on menswear dating from the early 20th century through today, more than sixty ensembles, both historic and contemporary, are intermingled in an environment evocative of an Ivy League university campus.
Period material will include suits, letter sweaters, university reunion and class jackets, athletic wear, and textiles from private lenders as well as the permanent collection of The Museum at FIT. Pioneering American firms such as Brooks Brothers and J. Press will be represented by tweed jackets, polo coats, and many other classic items. A recreation of a mid-century university shop will pay homage to the traditional purveyors of Ivy style, as well as to such sartorial staples as the Oxford cloth shirt, khaki pants, penny loafers, and madras shorts. Items from the Andover Shop, Bass, Arrow Shirts, Ralph Lauren, Jeffrey Banks, and Tommy Hilfiger will appear in the exhibition, as will examples of contemporary, new interpretations of Ivy by renowned designers such as Michael Bastian and Thom Browne. In addition, many unique Ivy League objects—period photographs, sports ephemera, and drinking glasses—will be on loan from The Cary Collection.
LINKS WE LIKE
A world of fashion is on the web
Want a chuckle? Hundreds of people have already enjoyed the pic that we reposted on Facebook that "proves" global warming via a great panty shrink. (But note, those early knickers are dated inaccurately....they're almost 100 years newer than stated.)
Not only did Yves Saint Laurent announce that ex-Dior Homme designer Hedi Slimane will be taking over the reigns... but he'll be doing so so from the west coast. YSL Cali style? In addition, since Hedi was given "total creative responsibility for the brand image and all its collections," he's using that power to change the brands name...to Saint Laurent Paris. This does not, by all accounts, appear to a be a popular move.
June in DC was home to the Seersucker Social. Who doesn't love seeing dapper men in various shades of seersucker!
Valerie Steele contributed to SHOWstudio's 'Fashion Fetish' project, a series of fashion films, performances, multi-media pieces with accompanying essays by women in fashion. Valerie's paper, entitled Eyes, discusses a video created by Daphne Guinness.
Lady Gaga was one of the bidders for a number of Alexander McQueens being sold by Daphne Guinness at auction. The couture collection was on sale to raise money for the Isabella Blow Foundation that Daphne started.
Did ya hear? This year's Miss New York winner is a student at our very own Fashion Institute of Technology!
MUSEUM PUBLICATION
IMPACT - 50 Years of the CFDA
Book Cover
IMPACT is the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, exploring the influence of the careers of America’s most influential designers over the last five decades. Anchored by Patricia Mears’s illuminating essay on the history of the CFDA, this book incorporates over 300 personal statements from the most important names in American fashion, including Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang, Ralph Lauren, Proenza Schouler, and Donna Karan. Illustrated with many never-before-seen images, this is the ultimate American fashion who’s who and a celebration of this important fashion organization. Accompanied by elegant images of these career-changing moments, this book is the definitive word on the voice of American fashion.
About the authors
Cathy Horyn is an American fashion journalist who works as a critic for the New York Times, where she also keeps a highly noted and provocative blog called On The Runway. Diane von Furstenberg is an internationally renowned designer and current president of the CFDA. Patricia Mears is deputy director at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology and was the curator of the 2012IMPACT exhibit that accompanied the publication of the book.
Available from
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, M, 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.
