Fashion and Music
Music and dress are a reflection of society at any given point in time. The diverse population of the United States has always, and continues to, influence both music and fashion. This exhibition displays artifacts tracing the history of American music and their influence on fashion. Beginning with the turn of the 20th century, it follows the relationship between fashion and music from its beginnings in vaudeville and with itinerant country singers to the current fashion companies run by rap superstars. From folk music to hip-hop, and related dress trends, from flapper dresses to Timberland boots, this exhibit provides examples of the interplay between music and fashion trends. Moreover, it examines how human behavior is influenced by the use of dress and how music serves as a means of communication between individuals.
Over 50 examples are on display in the Gladys Keller Snowden gallery, along with interactive links to listen to the top 10 songs of the decades of the 20th century.
Marlise Schoeny, Assistant Curator, Co-curator of this exhibit
Dr. Julie Hillery, Co-Curator of this exhibit
09/24/2021-04/30/2022
Campus Fashion: 150 Years of College Style
The Ohio State University began celebrating its 150th anniversary this academic year and we are doing our part with an exhibition that takes a look at what people were wearing on college campuses for the past 150 years. The exhibit features what people wore to class, what they wore in the dorms (today sometimes those garments are the same but that was not true in the past), what was worn to football games or other activities, and what clothing was worn for special occasions related to college life such as formals or joining honors societies, fraternities or sororities.
In addition, we are featuring some student projects from design, construction, pattern-making and tailoring classes from years past. Pictures from the OSU Archives photograph collection in the exhibition highlight student life over the decades. A particular interesting series highlights the evolution of classes in Nutrition and Fashion from the early days of the Department of Domestic Science, and School of Home Economics.
Spotlights about alumni who've worn clothing in the exhibition include Grace Heck Faust, who graduated OSU Law School in 1930 (one of two female law graduates) and was the first woman in Ohio to be elected as a prosecuting attorney.
Dr. Ruth E. Moore is another notable alumna. She received all her degrees at Ohio State and was the first African American woman to earn a PhD in a natural Science. She taught at Howard University Medical College and also chaired the Department of Bacteriology from 1947-58.
Sports & Fashion Exhibit
“Sportswear” at the end of the nineteenth century was a term applied only to clothing designed for athletic purposes, the playing of sports popular at the time including tennis, golf, bicycling, bathing (what we now call swimming), ice-skating, yachting, and hunting. Later, in the early twentieth century, it became associated with spectators at sports events and then expanded to include simple, tailored clothing which preserved the informal qualities of athletic attire. Post WWII, sportswear became synonymous with casual wear worn at any time of the day, and is considered a uniquely American contribution to the fashion industry.<br /><br /><span>This exhibition, primarily of clothing from the late 19</span><sup>th</sup><span> century through the 21</span><sup>st</sup><span> century, explores the intersection of sports and fashion and how each influenced the other over the past 150 years. Full skirted bathing costumes and gym suits of the late 19</span><sup>th</sup><span> century reflect the fashion of their time, but evolved into more streamlined functional forms as women became more active in the early 20</span><sup>th</sup><span> century and beyond. When evening gowns of the 1930s had low back necklines, swimsuits had to follow suit, or was it the other way around? Was it the low-back swimsuits that influenced the low-back evening dresses?</span>
September 20, 2018 – April 26, 2019
Dior in Ohio: 1947-1997
This exhibition celebrates the fashion arts of Christian Dior in recognition of the 70th anniversary of his post WWII “New Look”. Featured garments include ball gowns, daywear and suits exclusively from Ohio museums or worn by Ohio women. In addition to Diors from our collection, are evening gowns and day dresses worn by Elizabeth Parke Firestone of Akron from The Henry Ford Museum as well as the Western Reserve Historical Society, which is also lending day and evening wear belonging to Mary Peters Bolton from Lancaster and Cleveland. Kent State University Museum is also lending garments, and other Ohio women represented in the exhibition include Dorothy Peters from Lancaster and Marilyn Maxwell from Cincinnati among others.
All Wrapped Up
All Wrapped Up: A Sampling of Fashionable Outerwear celebrates spring semester’s transition from cold wintry temperatures into wet spring months with an exhibition of the garments that help keep us warm and dry. It is a history of fashion in the guise of capes, coats, and cloaks showcasing objects of luxurious adornment, exquisite tailoring, and practical utility.
Luxurious evening wraps are most plentiful in the decades of the opulent Belle Epoque, (1871-1914) and during the flamboyant 1920s Jazz Age and 1930s era of Hollywood glamor, while attention to tailoring and design detail is well paid in the wool coats for daywear from the late 19th century through to designer examples at the end of the 20th century. Iconic examples of outerwear such as the trench coat, as well as the bomber jacket, evolved from military fashions, while other jackets such as the motorcycle and jean jacket rose out of popular culture and the working classes.
The onset of the automobile required use of an overcoat, the duster, which was worn to protect one’s clothing underneath from the dust that would come into the windowless vehicles. Later in its history, shorter car coats evolved, eliminating the longer skirts of coats that got caught up in one’s feet while trying to drive.
A look at outerwear over the decades provides insight into not only the social history and popular culture prevalent at the time of its wearing, but also a glimpse into the science and technology of fabrics and fibers in the effort to keep us warm and dry. Coated wool fibers were developed early on for use in trench coats to keep out the rain, while in later years, plastics and plastic coatings found use in raincoats. Heavy wool overcoats provided warmth because of wool’s natural thermal characteristics for decades, but when down coats emerged on the fashion scene in the 1980s, they were warmer than wool and weighed significantly less.
Coats and outerwear are often seen only as practical and functional items of clothing and are overlooked for their design merit and aesthetic appeal. With this exhibition, we hope to change that point of view and build appreciation for outerwear that, in addition to having a utilitarian purpose, can also be fun, elegant and expressive.
And the Bride Wore
And The Bride Wore…
…is a phrase that often appeared in newspaper accounts of weddings throughout the twentieth century, describing the dress chosen by the bride for one of the most sartorially significant moments of her life. We chose it as the title of this exhibition about wedding dresses, because we wanted the focus to be on the dress itself, the bride and the material culture background story about both.
As with all exhibitions, making the choices about which artifacts to display is often difficult because of the breadth of worthy items from which to choose. We solved this dilemma in two ways. The first was to create two installations so we could show as many wedding gowns in the collection as possible. The second was to organize the dresses into categories for interesting groupings. For this exhibition, the groupings are: Something Old—a dress of a certain age, Something New—a dress relatively recent, Something Borrowed—a dress borrowed from a former bride, Something Blue—in this case, a non-white dress, Local Stories—a dress with an interesting story relevant to a local Columbus or Ohio store, War Brides—dresses with stories related to times of war, and Generation Gap—dresses from multiple generations in one family.
Again, with exhibitions, they do not happen without considerable help and I would like to acknowledge that help here. Assistant curator, Marlise Schoeny, did thorough “background checks” on the brides to uncover information to include in the informational labels, and also created the photo gallery of brides for whom we have portraits but are not in the exhibition—a method of including those for which we don’t have the space to physically display. Friend of the Collection, Jennifer Brown of Romance Studio created several headpieces to accompany our gowns; those pieces are noted in the labels. Volunteers Julie Burnsides dressed several of our mannequins in their varied period attire, and Jackie Farbeann employed her needle to stabilize those artifacts that needed tender loving care. In addition, volunteers Kathy Copeland, Connie Cummings, and Joyce Smith helped with many tasks, large and small, to make this exhibition as well as the daily operations of the Historic Costume & Textiles Collection a success.
Red or Blue Exhibit
Red and blue are the colors of our states during election season, so we’ve decided to explore those colors in our fall exhibition, Red or Blue? Join us this election season as we delve into the cultural meanings and psychology of the colors of the season, and view some of our best examples of red and blue gowns, suits and dresses from various decades of the twentieth century.
The Historic Costume & Textiles Collection is featuring some of its best examples of red and blue in its latest exhibition. These colors first were used in television election coverage in 1976, although at that time, neither color was ‘assigned’ to one political party. In addition to political affiliations, cultural meanings of red and blue also have shifted over time, having different meanings in the past than they do today. We will look into these meanings as well as the natural dye sources for these colors. Approximately thirty garments will be on display in the upper Gladys Keller Snowden gallery in Campbell Hall, including designer evening gowns, day-wear and suits. Related materials will be in the lower gallery
9/1/2016-12/10/2016
Reforming Fashion, 1850-1914: Politics, Health, and Art
Reforming Fashion, 1850-1914 is about the women’s dress reform movement of the late 19th and early 20th century. Fashionable dress in the 19th century went through several silhouette changes from tubular to hourglass and back to tubular. The fashion of the dress silhouette was not dependent on the natural human body but rather on a range of undergarments including chemise, petticoats, hoops, bustles, and corsets to create an artificial shape. A growing number of people including feminists, health advocates, physicians, artists, and educators began to believe that women’s clothing, particularly fashionable dress, was harmful to women’s health.
Solutions promoted by the dress reformers included trousers, reform underwear, and artistic dress. The reformers had a lasting impression on dress as trousers were adopted by sports enthusiasts and became part of the archetypal gymnasium suit worn at colleges and high schools. Reform styles eventually became fashionable dress as artistic reformers created more comfortable gowns with empire waists and soft drapable fabrics.
The Trouble with Fashion
Ladies in Trousers
Reform Underwear
Artistic Dress
The Impact of Dress Reform on Fashion
Fashion American Style: 1900-1999 America’s 20th Century Rise to Dominate World Fashion
In the 1900s, after centuries of dependence on Paris fashion dictates, Americans broke free to set their own fashion trends. Fashion American Style: 1900-1999, the new exhibition at the College of Human Ecology, The Ohio State University, documents American’s bold move during the course of the 20th century from formal and constrictive fashions to today’s casual simplicity.
Created by Gayle Strege, curator of the Historic Costume & Textiles Collection, the exhibition will document the rise of American designers of fashion from their first recognized influence during the 1930s, both in the industry and Hollywood, through World War II and the establishment of an American couture industry, to the end of the century when major changes in the garment industry affected apparel designers and design, production, and marketing.
The displays in Fashion American Style will highlight three areas of interest:
Early dominance by Paris, early influence of Hollywood designers, and World War II (1900-1945)
American Fashion: Couture, high-end ready-to-wear, and sportswear (1945-1970)
Fashion industry changes: The end of couture and the rise of licensing and designer ready-to-wear (1970-1999)
Dressing the Part, On and Off the Stage
Costume designers for theatre, film, and television use elements of design to convey to the audience visual information about characters. As individuals, we choose attire to communicate to others who we are.
Dressing the Part, On and Off the Stage, the new exhibition presented by the Historic Costume & Textiles Collection at the College of Human Ecology, explores the personalities portrayed by costumes designed for various types of stage performances, and how they translate into clothing selected by or made for individuals to perform the ‘roles’ of themselves. On display will be costume renderings from The Ohio State University Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute (TRI) and garments from the Collection.
The displays in Dressing the Part, On and Off Stage, depict four character types:
The Youthful Innocent
The Sophisticate
Dangerous Women and Rogues
Performers and Entertainers