Fashioning Fashion - European Dress in Detail, 1700–1915
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A Fashionably Dressed Young Woman in the Arcade of the Palais Royal, Michael Garnier. Oil on canvas. Collection of Lynda and Stewart Resnick. Photo © 2010 Museum Associates/LACMA. |
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The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) will present three major and diverse exhibitions to debut its new Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion. The Resnick Pavilion will open to the public in October 2010 with Eye for the Sensual: Selections from the Resnick Collection; Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700–1915; and Olmec: Masterworks of Ancient Mexico.  The inaugural exhibitions will highlight the diversity of the museum’s encyclopedic collection and programming, as well as the flexibility of the Renzo Piano-designed pavilion. The new 45,000 square foot building—the cornerstone of Phase II of LACMA’s ongoing Transformation—will be the largest purpose-built, naturally lit museum space in the world. The opening exhibitions will showcase this vast new space with an equally expansive selection of art, ranging from exquisitely detailed eighteenth and nineteenth century European dress, to monumental, twenty-ton ancient Olmec heads, to some of the finest works by renowned painters and sculptors of seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth–century Europe.
Gentleman’s Suit (Coat, Waistcoat, Breeches), France. Silk cut, uncut, and voided velvet on satin foundation. LACMA, purchased with funds provided by Suzanne A. Saperstein and Michael and Ellen Michelson, with additional funding from the Costume Council, the Edgerton Foundation, Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer, Maureen H. Shapiro, Grace Tsao, and Lenore and Richard Wayne. Photo © 2010 Museum Associates/LACMA.
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Detail of Dress, England, c. 1830. Silk plain weave (organza) and silk satin with imitation-pearl glass beads. LACMA, purchased with funds provided by Suzanne A. Saperstein and Michael and Ellen Michelson, with additional funding from the Costume Council, the Edgerton Foundation, Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer, Maureen H. Shapiro, Grace Tsao, and Lenore and Richard Wayne. Photo © 2010 Museum Associates/LACMA. |
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Celebrating LACMA’s recent acquisition of a major collection of European men’s, women’s, and children’s garments and accessories, Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915 will present a large selection to the public for the first time. The exhibition will tell the story of fashion’s aesthetic and technical development from the Age of Enlightenment to World War I. |
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Fashioning Fashion will examine the sweeping changes that occurred in fashionable dress spanning a period of over 200 years, with a fascinating look at the details of luxurious textiles, exacting tailoring techniques, and lush trimmings. Highlights will include an eighteenth-century man’s vest intricately embroidered with powerful symbolic messages relevant to the French Revolution; an evening mantle with silk embroidery, glass beads, and ostrich feathers designed by French couturier Émile Pingat (active 1860-96); and spectacular three-piece suits and gowns worn at the royal courts of Europe. Fashioning Fashion is curated by Sharon S. Takeda, department head and senior curator, and Kaye D. Spilker, curator, Costume and Textiles at LACMA. |
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 The installation for Eye for the Sensual and Fashioning Fashion will be designed by world-famous stage designers Studio Pier Luigi Pizzi-Massimo Pizzi Gasparon. Recognized as one of the leading designers of opera productions in the world, Pier Luigi Pizzi has worked for all of the great opera stages including the Teatro La Fenice, Venice and the Teatro alla Scala, Milan. Pier Luigi Pizzi has designed many exhibition installations, such as the 2009 Florence Biennale as well as Seicento: La Pittura Italiana Nei Musei di Francia, the major show of seventeenth century Italian paintings in French museums, at the Grand Palais in 1992. The presentation for Eye for the Sensual and Fashioning Fashion will be the designers' first project in Los Angeles. Dress, Europe, c. 1885: Cotton plain weave with cutwork embroidery (broderie anglaise) and cotton needle lace. LACMA, purchased with funds provided by Suzanne A. Saperstein and Michael and Ellen Michelson, with additional funding from the Costume Council, the Edgerton Foundation, Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer, Maureen H. Shapiro, Grace Tsao, and Lenore and Richard Wayne. Photo © 2010 Museum Associates/LACMA. |
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About LACMA: Since its inception in 1965, LACMA has been devoted to collecting works of art that span both history and geography—and represent Los Angeles’s uniquely diverse population. Today, the museum features particularly strong collections of Asian, Latin American, European, and American art, as well as a new contemporary museum on its campus, BCAM. With this expanded space for contemporary art, innovative collaborations with artists, and an ongoing transformation project, LACMA is creating a truly modern lens through which to view its rich encyclopedic collection. Visit museum web site for more information at www.lacma.org. |
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