October 2013 FIT news
ONLINE EXHIBITION FOR A QUEER HISTORY OF FASHION
Our online exhibition for A Queer History of Fashion is now live! The new site features exhibition photos, videos, a queer history timeline, lesson plans, and more. For those of you not in NYC, or for another look at the exhibition, make a virtual visit toqueerfashionhistory.com.
MANOLO BLAHNIK EVENT CANCELLATION
We regretfully announce that due to scheduling conflicts, theManolo Blahnik in Conversation with Valerie Steele event has been cancelled. At this time there is no plan to reschedule; our apologies for any inconvenience. For more fall programs (which are free and open to the public), visit our website.
UPCOMING EXHIBITION: TREND-OLOGY
Trend-ology examines the vast array of sources from which fashion trends have developed over the past 250 years. Trends have emerged from high fashion runways and urban street style, but they have also derived from art, music, novels, and socio-political movements. Particular trends change every season, yet the phenomenon of the trend has come to define the modern fashion system itself. Read more about Trend-ology here.
Louis Vuitton (Takeshi Murakami),"Speedy 30" monogram handbag,multicolor printed canvas and leather, 2003, France, Museum purchase.
// PUBLIC PROGRAMS
REFASHIONED: CUTTING-EDGE CLOTHING FROM UPCYCLED MATERIALS
Tuesday, October 15 | 6:00 pm
Join Sass Brown as she presents her book, Refashioned: Cutting-Edge Clothing from Upcycled Materials, featuring 46 international designers who use recycled materials and discarded garments to create vibrant new designs. A book signing will follow the presentation. Register here.
FILM SCREENING | THE GHOST ARMY
Thursday, October 17 | 6:00 pm
Award-winning director Rick Beyer's documentary, The Ghost Army, tells the story of young artists and designers—including future fashion icon Bill Blass—who used inflatable tanks and sound effects to lure German troops across the battle lines of Europe during World War II. A Q&A with Rick Beyer will follow the screening. Register for this event.
SO80S: A PHOTOGRAPHIC DIARY OF A DECADE
Wednesday, October 23 | 6:00 pm
This event celebrates the 10-year anniversary of photographer Patrick McMullan's book, So8os: A Photographic Diary of a Decade, which documents New York and the glamour and glitz of Limelight, Danceteria, and the Cat Club during the 1980s. A book signing will follow the presentation. Register here.
QUEER ASIA IN MEDIA CULTURE
Wednesday, October 30 | 6:30 pm
Join this cross-disciplinary panel of FIT professors for a discussion of gender-bending elements and LGBTQ topics relevant to contemporary Asian art and society. Topics of gender ambiguity and sexual identity will range from cross-dressing in Korean dramas to K-pop to the bishonen (beautiful boys) of Taiwanese cinema.
Organized in collaboration with the Dean's Forum for the Liberal Arts and the FIT Presidential Scholars Program
GET SOCIAL
OBJECT OF THE MONTHWe honor Charles James by sharing this ballgown of black silk chiffon, silk satin, netting, and boning. The Museum at FIT first began collecting Charles James in 1969, and you can view more of his sculptural masterpieces in our online collections.
A QUEER HISTORY OF FASHION, THE BOOKFrom Yale University Press,A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk looks at the history of fashion through a queer lens, examining high fashion as a site of gay cultural production and exploring the aesthetic sensibilities and unconventional dress of LGBTQ people, especially since the 1950s, to demonstrate the centrality of gay culture to the creation of modern fashion.
FEATURED PRESS |
IN SEARCH OF A GAY AESTHETICGuy Trebay covers A Queer History of Fashion in The New York Times. Valerie Steele and Fred Dennis discuss the driving force behind the exhibition; as Steele says, "This was our attempt to write [LGBTQ people] back into history." See more press on the exhibition on our website.
// EXHIBITIONS
CURRENT | QUEER HISTORY OF FASHION
A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk seeks to explore the "gayness" or "queerness" of fashion by drawing attention to the historic presence of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender, and other "queer" people in the fashion system. Curated by Fred Dennis and Valerie Steele, the exhibition features approximately 100 ensembles spanning more than a century of fashion.
And don't miss the newly launched online exhibition and Facebook page!
CURRENT | RETROSPECTIVE
Don't miss your chance to see RetroSpective, an exhibition that explores fashion's relationship with its own history, and the many designers who embrace the past to create reinterpretations of every style from crinolines to "flapper" dresses. Runs through November 16, 2013.
UPCOMING | TREND-OLOGY
Trend-ology examines the vast array of sources from which fashion trends have developed over the past 250 years. Trends have emerged from high fashion runways and urban street style, but they have also derived from art, music, novels, and socio-political movements. Particular trends change every season, yet the phenomenon of the trend has come to define the modern fashion system itself.
Read more on our Upcoming Exhibitions page.
