The Museum at FIT in August 2012

THE LATEST NEWS CURRENT EXHIBITION Fashion, A-Z: Highlights from the Collection of the Museum at FIT, Part Two  UPCOMING EXHIBITION Ivy Style  UPCOMING EXHIBITION Fashion & Technology  LINKS WE LIKE A world of fashion is on the web MUSEUM PUBLICATIONIvy Style MUSEUM INFORMATION

THE LATEST NEWS ... What's Happening ... **2012 Artistry of Fashion Award** On Wednesday, September 12th we're bestowing our annual award on the inimitable Oscar de la Renta at a benefit luncheon at Lincoln Center in New York City. The date is fast approaching so visit our website to learn more about the event! **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.

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. Read more here.

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.

UPCOMING EXHIBITION Fashion & Technology  Jean Paul Gaultier, Jumpsuit, Multicolor nylon/spandex, 1996, France, 96.66.1, Museum Purchase .  November 27, 2012 - May 8, 2013 Fashion & Technology will examine how, throughout history, fashion has engaged with technological advancement and been altered by it. Time and again, fashion’s dynamic relationship with technology has both expanded its aesthetic vocabulary and streamlined its means of production. In recent years, designers have made technology a focal point of their collections, but as early as the mid-eighteenth century, technological advancements were shaping fashion design and fabrication. The development of aniline dyes, the sewing machine, synthetic fibers, and zippers have all sent fashion in new directions. More recently, so have wireless circuitry and the creation of fashion design software. Technologies outside of the fashion industry also contribute to change within it. These include global transportation, the internet, blogging, online retailing, and the increased speed of global communication through digital platforms and social-media outlets. The goal of this exhibition is to analyze the impact of technologies on the nature of fashion and its design, and to question whether these developments push the industry forward or ultimately set it back. Fashion & Technology will begin with a display of examples from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as a 1780s suit made with a machine-knit textile, and an 1860s dress produced using synthetic dyes. From there, it will showcase prominent developments from different time periods, travelling chronologically all the way to the present day. The exhibition will feature objects exclusively from The Museum at FIT’s costume collection alongside a selection of textiles and accessories that highlight the multifaceted nature of technological developments. The use of video monitors and computers will enhance the exhibition, offering the opportunity to showcase works by small, cutting-edge design teams, such as the Dutch label Freedom of Creation, alongside pieces by fashion icons such as Elsa Schiaparelli, André Courrèges, Issey Miyake, and Nicholas Ghesquière for Balenciaga.

LINKS WE LIKE A world of fashion is on the web Ato Boldon of Trinidad and Tobago sports futuristic glasses at the men's Olympic 4x100m semifinals in Sydney, Sept. 29, 2000  Olympic spirit The olympics have started and while The Museum at FIT has been posting images of olympic fashion past and present on Facebook, no one can capture the spirit of the Olympics better than the riotous Ab Fab duo.(Video) What's in a logo? With the appointment of Hedi Slimane as head designer for Yves Saint Laurnent, there is word that the iconic "YSL" logo, designed by Adolphe Mouron Cassandre in 1961, will be refashioned. News of Queer Style is out Valerie Steele made an informal announcement about the museum's forthcoming exhibition on Queer Style (September 2013) and if the posts, tweets, and comments are any indication, people are getting excited. We know we are! Lost and found bras and panties An historic find of 15th century undergarments in an Austrian castle has the academic fashion world all a-buzz. The discovery got extensive press coverage, but this piece, written for BBC History Magazine, is by far the most acurate and best contextualizes the find. Street style: the Edwardian version Photographer Edward Linley Sambourne sure gives today's street style blogger The Sartorialst a run for his money with these wonderful unposed photos of women on the streets of London and Paris from the early years of the twentieth century. The Museum at F.I.T.: A Personal Journey We've had many people walk through our doors, but we don't often get to hear back about our visitors experiences at the Museum at FIT. And certainly not at length. This blogger, however, wrote a very thoughtful piece about his affection for the museum and the value the exhibits provide. "It is how the collection is used that makes for such a fulfilling visit...If you have never been to this museum before, you must put it on your bucket list."

MUSEUM PUBLICATIONIvy Style Book Cover Many of the most familiar sartorial images of the 20th century can be traced to the prestigious college campuses of America. The "Ivy League Look," or "Ivy Style," was once a cutting-edge look that for decades led the evolution of menswear. Far more than a classic way of dressing, Ivy Style spread beyond the rarified walls of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton to influence countless designers. Focusing on menswear dating from the early 20th century through today, this elegant book traces the main periods of the look: the interwar years when classic items, such as tweed jackets and polo coats, were appropriated from the English man's wardrobe and redesigned by pioneering American firms such as Brooks Brothers and J. Press for young men at elite East Coast colleges; then from 1945 to the late 1960s, when the staples of Ivy Style—oxford cloth shirts, khaki pants, and penny loafers—were worn by a new, diverse group that included working-class students and jazz musicians; and finally the current revival of the Ivy look that began in the early 1980s. Ivy Style celebrates both high-profile proponents of the style—including the Duke of Windsor, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, and Miles Davis—who made the look their own, and designers such as Ralph Lauren, J. McLaughlin, Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Bastian, and Thom Browne, who have made it resonate with new generations of style enthusiasts. Edited by Patricia Mears, deputy director of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology; With contributions by Christopher Breward, G. Bruce Boyer, Christian Chensvold, Patricia Mears, Masafumi Monden, and Peter McNeil. Available from Yale University Press

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. For more information, be sure to visit our website at www.fitnyc.edu/museum or phone our information line at 212-217-4558 For Press Information about any of our exhibitions or programs, please call the Office of Communications and External Relations, 212-217-4700

The exhibitions and programs of The Museum at FIT are supported in part by the generosity of the members of the Couture Council