New York’s Metropolitan Museum Exhibits Women Dressing Women: Highlights Work Of Woman Couturiers.
The Metropolitan Museum of New York has raised the curtain of its “Women Dressing Women” collection. The collection showcases the work of women couturiers whose work has been unknown to the world till now.
One of the centerpieces of the “Women Dressing Women” collection is a dress designed by African-American designer Ann Lowe. Her work was not celebrated at that time.
Nobody probably knew that she was the designer behind Jackie Kennedy’s wedding gown in 1953.
Nevertheless, the dress on display here is an exquisite piece. The dress is perfectly tailored with muslin. It was detailed with silk roses, and the intricate taffeta rendered the dress more lavish.
We all love little black dresses, thanks to names like Chanel and Givenchy. However, there is a lesser-known fact about the outfit. An obscure fashion house from France called Premet launched “La Garconne,” designed by Madam Charlotte before Chanel launched its version of the little black dress.
Mellisa Huber, associate curator of the Metropolitan Museum’s Fashion Institute, said,
“This ‘little black dress,’ predates Chanel’s successful take on the garment by three years.”
Overall, the exhibition has 80 pieces on display from 70 designers. The exhibition also tries to have a look at how women’s outfits have changed from the 20th century till today.
Further, the exhibition focuses on the environmental aspect of fashion, as highlighted by names like Gabriela Hearst and Hillary Taymour.
In this context, Huber says,
“The biggest overarching takeaway is really to celebrate and demonstrate the incredible range and diversity of women designers who have been present throughout history and who have made so many meaningful contributions to fashion. We aspire to dispel the stereotypes that women are more practical than men, or that they all designed with themselves in mind.”
It’s indeed a great place to celebrate women who began their journeys as couturiers in unknown sewing workshops. Further, many of these women designers remained anonymous.
Things started getting better with names like Gabrielle Chanel and Jeanne Lanvin becoming popular in the early 20th century.
Also read
