Lorelei asked about the dresses in the Fashion and Virtue exhibit. The dresses date from the early 20th century. They belonged to the socialite Rita de Acosta Lydig. She had a strong fondness for lace and was known for wearing antique pieces. In fact, her shoe collection, owned by the Metropolitan Museum, has a lot of very genuine looking antique lace on the shoes! The dresses were produced, it is thought by Callot Souers, a French dressmaking enterprise run by sisters, also known for their fondness for lace. They were descended from lacemakers. It is unclear whether some of these clothes made for Lydig incorporated pieces from her antique lace collection, or whether Callot Souers used antique lace that they sourced, or whether they used lace newly made in the many revival lace industries that existed in the early 20th century. When my colleague and I organized the Gems of European Lace exhibit several years ago, we had initially been working with the idea of putting out the study cards that are on the one wall of this exhibit, and then adding a few things. We had selected the dress for this exhibit because it incorporated the gridded patterns of the pattern books. I liked it because it showed how the lace collectors of the early 20th century were really hard core, even choosing to wear a lace that was historic and dramatic, but which flew in the face of associations of femininity, romance, diaphanousness, etc. Having gone through the difficult permissioning process, we kept the dress in our exhibit, even after the entire premise of the exhibit changed. For one thing, people seemed to really like that dress. On the subject of whether the dress is actually made of antique lace, I have never really decided. The back of the dress actually has a different piece of lace, similar, but not as interesting a design put into it. So does this mean it was an antique piece that didn't fully fit the requirements for the dress pattern? Alternatively, it is right where the wearer would be sitting. Maybe the lace was damaged when Rita sat on something and the dress had to be repaired? In trying to figure this out, we did come across some evidence that this kind of lace was being made in the 20th century in Sardinia. So that argues for a 20th century origin. The area of the exhibit with those dresses is sort of oriented toward concepts of the use of the designs from the pattern books in fashion and in folk costume. In fact, the designer Todd Oldham has a dress in the exhibit. He is engaging in a "conversation" this Friday evening with the curator in the Lehman wing where the exhibit is. My interest in the exhibit is more related to historical textiles, than to fashion, but, I am planning to attend. Devon
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