Night & Day On View at The Museum
at FIT in New York December 3, 2009 – May 11, 2010 The
Museum at FIT presents Night & Day, a new exhibition
examining how the rules that dictate appropriate dress for
women have changed over the past 250 years. Featured will be
more than 100 day and evening garments, textiles, and
accessories that illustrate the conventions during various
eras for proper attire for a particular time of day,
activity, or occasion.
Night & Day will reveal the evolution of the rules that
govern fashion, including periods when strictly observed
etiquette was the norm and other times when more flexible
guidelines prevailed. Night & Day will open with two
striking pairs of garments that represent night and day from
two different eras. Representing the 1920s will be an Art
Deco-inspired sportswear ensemble juxtaposed with a heavily
beaded evening dress.
From the late 1940s, a jaunty
Elizabeth Arden trouser ensemble appropriate for weekends in
the country will be paired with a dramatic taffeta and
velvet dinner suit by Charles James. The exhibition’s theme
will be further reinforced in the introductory gallery by a
group of Christian Dior garments from the 1950s, a decade
during which there were multiple categories of day and
evening wear. These clothes will be displayed in a
traditional fashion show sequence, beginning with daywear
and ending with formal evening attire.
Christian Dior accessories will highlight the importance in
the 1950s of a “complete look.” Following that introduction,
the chronologically organized exhibition will begin with the
eighteenth century, when clothing was classified by its
degree of formality and worn according to the occasion or
activity, such as attire for an evening in a formal drawing
room versus the less formal setting of a country house. The
full spectrum of this hierarchy will be illustrated by
Galerie des Modes fashion plates (1778-1787) and represented
by a robe à l’anglaise, which was worn in more relaxed
social settings.
As the exhibition progresses from the nineteenth to
twenty-first centuries, day and evening clothes will be
juxtaposed in pairs or small groups, illustrating what made
each piece appropriate for a particular time of day. In
addition to the changes in silhouette, these groupings will
allow the viewer to see when the rules were at their most
extreme or so subtle as to be barely perceptible.
Since the early nineteenth century, women’s clothing has
primarily been divided into daywear and eveningwear,
categories that are governed by specific dress codes. Early
examples in Night & Day will include a white cotton day
dress from circa 1815 paired with a silk evening gown from
circa 1824. One of the distinguishing features of 1850s
fashion was a full skirt. Dresses were divided into two
pieces, a bodice and a skirt, and it became common practice
to have alternative day and evening bodices that could be
paired with the same skirt. This will be demonstrated by a
chiné taffeta dress with two bodices, circa 1853.
The rules of dress reached their apex during the period from
the turn of the twentieth century until World War I, when
fashionable women were required to change their clothes up
to six times per day, depending on their social obligations.
A trio of dresses from the 1910s will show the still strict
division between dressing for day and night. Examples will
include a 1917 Callot Soeurs afternoon dress, a circa 1918
yellow silk tea gown, and a circa 1919 dramatic, black
beaded evening dress from Bonwit Teller.
After World War I, fashion permitted a more relaxed set of
guidelines. The buoyancy of 1920s nightlife will be
represented by a champagne silk cocktail dress and a circa
1924 metallic lace evening dress by Jean Patou, both
displayed against an Art Deco textile with a bubble pattern.
Accessories will include a pair of embroidered, pink satin
shoes by Pinet, circa 1924. A 1930s clutch handbag equipped
with a working watch highlights the sleek functionality of
daytime accessories. A dramatic pairing from 1939 contrasts
the sharp tailoring of a Schiaparelli day suit with the
grand sweep of a Lanvin evening gown. Some of fashion’s
traditional dress codes temporarily collapsed during World
War II, partially due to wartime restrictions, but also
because women had fewer opportunities for social and leisure
activities. However, the war affected fashion differently in
France and the United States. This is most noticeable in the
stark contrast between an unadorned linen day dress, circa
1945, by the French couturier Robert Piguet, and a circa
1943 evening gown with dramatic beaded embellishment by the
American designer Adrian.
Fashions of the 1950s again demanded a strict set of rules
corresponding to a renewal of formal society. Day suits,
afternoon and dinner dresses, as well as formal evening
gowns, once again became essential elements of a fashionable
woman’s wardrobe. These revived dress codes will be
represented by pieces including Jacques Fath daywear, a
Chanel suit, and a Jean Dessès evening dress. The strictly
delineated rules would all but disappear in the 1960s and
1970s. The mix during this period of high and low is evident
in the juxtaposition of a Betsey Johnson vinyl evening dress
with a Balenciaga wool evening ensemble. Metallic gold
gladiator evening sandals further demonstrate the decade’s
departure from tradition.
A circa 1970 Jean Muir dress of sheer fabric trimmed in
suede could be worn any time of day, while a circa 1971 Paco
Rabanne evening dress features unconventional materials and
a daring silhouette. Day and evening clothes were well
defined in the1980s, even while undercurrents of the
avant-garde and post-modernism led to a multiplicity of
styles. Thierry Mugler’s strong-shouldered day suits and
Christian Lacroix’s historicizing evening dresses helped
define the decade. The draped knits of avant-garde Japanese
fashion, however, looked forward to the deconstructed
silhouette of the 1990s, when standard dress codes were not
embraced, as demonstrated by a Helmut Lang dress from 1993.
True day suits, cocktail dresses, and evening gowns still
exist, but contemporary fashion adheres to very few
traditional rules and promotes loose definitions of daywear
and eveningwear. Although a 2004 Rochas evening dress will
illustrate the continuing legacy of fashion’s most stringent
etiquette, the coat of a 2008 Calvin Klein ensemble,
embellished with crystal paillettes, will again challenge
our perception of what is appropriate for night and day.
Night & Day, presented in the Fashion and Textile History
Gallery, is organized by Molly Sorkin, along with Colleen
Hill, Harumi Hotta, Lynn Weidner, and Tiffany Webber. The
exhibition will be on view from December 3, 2009, through
May 11, 2010.
The Fashion and Textile History Gallery presents biannual
exhibitions examining aspects of the past 250 years of
fashion. Exhibitions are curated exclusively from The Museum
at FIT’s extensive collection. Support for this exhibition
has been provided by the Couture Council. A FASHION MUSEUM
The Museum at FIT is the only museum in New York City
dedicated solely to the art of fashion. Best known for its
innovative and award-winning exhibitions, which have been
described by Roberta Smith in The New York Times as
“ravishing,” the museum has a collection of more than 50,000
garments and accessories dating from the eighteenth century
to the present.
Like other fashion museums, such as the Musée de la Mode,
the Mode Museum and the Museo de la Moda, The Museum at FIT
collects, conserves, documents, exhibits, and interprets
fashion. The museum’s mission is to advance knowledge of
fashion through exhibitions, publications, and public
programs.
Visit
www.fitnyc.edu/museum . The museum is part of the
Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), a college of art and
design, business and technology educating more than 10,000
students annually. FIT, a college of the State University of
New York (SUNY), offers 44 majors leading to the AAS, BFA,
BS, MA, and MPS degrees. Visit
www.fitnyc.edu . The
Couture Council is a membership group of fashion enthusiasts
that helps support the exhibitions and programs of The
Museum at FIT. The Couture Council Award for Artistry of
Fashion is given to a selected designer at a benefit
luncheon every September. For information on the Couture
Council, call 212 217.4532 or e-mail
couturecouncil@fitnyc.edu . MUSEUM HOURS Tuesday –
Friday – noon-8:00 pm Saturday – 10:00 am-5:00 pm Closed
Sunday, Monday, and legal holidays Admission is free. |