Fashion and the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has had a major influence on fashion in New York City and beyond ever since its founding in 1946. This presentation addressed the role of fashion in art museums; the contributions of special consultants, curators, and journalists to elevating the status of fashion history; and the Met Ball\u27s reputation for raising funds for the museum

1. Introduction to “One American Family: A Tale of North and South”

Linda Welters provided background on the Cushman family and their history in Introduction to “One American Family: A Tale of North and South.

Fashion Films

At any given moment in almost any given place, people can be seen scrolling through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Vine. Avid fashion consumers follow brands on these websites, looking for new trends and seasonal lines that they may purchase. All fashion brands are looking to increase their presence in social media, as it is a relatively inexpensive way to reach a wide breadth of tech-savvy, affluent consumers

Mapping Fashion in the City by the Sea

URI Professor Linda Welters reported on a research project involving nine graduate students that was recently published in Fashion, Style and Popular Culture. Students investigated nine shopping districts in Newport, Rhode Island to see how it measured up against the known criteria for designation as a fashion city. Newport is a popular tourist destination that offers architectural history, sailing and yachting events, seafront restaurants and bars, and seasonal events which brings revenue to the city. The main districts in the city provide a shopping experience with a historical and seaside atmosphere and an offering of unique shops. Even though Newport has high rents and seasonal shoppers, this tourist destination still holds some of the essential attributes that comprise a fashion city

Perspectives on Politics and Fashion

Though it may not always seem like it, political interests and fashion trends are constantly intertwined as discussed by Linda Welters. In certain countries, lawmakers enact rules about dress for reasons such as religion and modesty. In other places, political leaders or activists can use dress to set trends that may not even have much to do with fashion. Politics are concerned with all of the activities associated with the governance of a country or area. We observe people in power and the messages that they send through their dress and appearance. Fashion also connects to politics when we realize that we are bound by trade policies, which could ultimately limit what we all may consume

Native Fashion Now

This presentation walked the audience through the “Native Fashion Now” exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. Karen Kramer, who is the curator of Native American and Oceanic Art and Culture, assembled the exhibition. The pieces showcased represented designers from tribes all over the country. She was able to embody different interpretations of Native American fashion by many different designers. She achieved this by breaking down her showcased items into four themes: Pathbreakers, Revisitors, Activators, and Provocateurs

Goddess Imagery In Greek Folk Costume

The seeds of this research were sown in a textile exhibition entitled Goddesses and Their Offspring: 19th and 20th Century Eastern European Embroideries at the Roberson Center for the Arts in Binghamton, N.Y. in 1986. Similarities between the imagery of Eastern European textiles and the embroideries in Greek folk costume prompted this study. It was part of a larger field research project on Boeotian folk costumes sponsored by Earthwatch in the summer of 1988 A hot topic of discussion among feminists of all disciplines is the image of the prehistoric goddess and the ensuing implications for all women everywhere. I refer you to the books The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth, and When God Was a Woman. The most ancient religion was that of the Great Goddess, known as Isis, Astarte and Ishtar, who was worshiped not only for fertility, but as the wise creator, the source of universal order. This theory of primal matriarchy is visualized in prehistoric artifacts in which the female form predominates. In time, goddess worship was suppressed by patriarchal groups. The Venus of Willendorf with her pendulous breasts and pregnancy-swollen belly is one example; other prehistoric statues of goddesses appear small breasted or flat chested with a flat abdomen. These Neolithic figures are often naked with large buttocks and hips. These seemingly non-pregnant goddesses are pregnant in an unusual way — the buttocks are often hollow, sometimes containing seeds or egg-shaped pellets. The faces are often mask-like which lends a more than human dimension to the figures. Goddess images dating back to approximately 1500 B.C. were found in Tiryns in the Peloponnese, with hands upraised as if in prayer. These and other such images are evidence of widespread goddess worship throughout the Mediterranean. Similar goddess motifs are seen in the embroideries of Eastern Europe, the Ukraine, and Russia as remnants of a former system of belief in the Great Goddess. In a Neolithic figurine one sees a daughter perched atop the goddess\u27s head. The same images appear in embroideries, possibly symbolizing not only fertility and sexuality, but the birth of thought and ideas. The goddess is associated with animal images as well, especially the horse and the bird. Her small upper body is attached to an enormous skirt which sometimes becomes a pair of horses — the rough equivalent of the exaggerated hips and buttocks of prehistoric goddesses. Natalie Moyle supports the ideas that the bird image, like the goddess, has multiple meanings, symbolizing life of the spirit, and also physical life and fertility, while the horse may be a soul symbol or soul bearer. The mermaid motif is also seen in these embroideries. She is a water being, but also a creature associated with trees and crop fertility and a prolific producer of babies

\u3cem\u3eAlatzas\u3c/em\u3e: Handwoven Fabrics During the Early Industrial Period in Greece (1880–1920)

In the Greek provinces of Argolida and Corinthia, women wove striped or checked cotton fabrics called alatzas for a variety of purposes including clothing. Alatzas fabrics are not well understood, as they represent a relatively short transitional period from the older forms of village dress based on Byzantine prototypes to modern Western ready-to-wear attire. In the Peloponnese, they appear about 1890 and fade away after the Second World War. These fabrics represent the first stage of development in Greece’s early industrial period. Improved transportation, particularly the railroad, brought manufactured goods to market towns where they were sold in shops or peddled to outlying villages. These goods included machine-spun cotton yarns, aniline dyes, sewing machines, commercial patterns, ribbons and other trims. This fieldwork study provides an insider perspective on the introduction of the concept of fashion to isolated villages, which informs our understanding of the process of fashion itself

Overview: Frontiers of Fashion

The fashion industry foresees changes in the future in the areas of sustainability, diversity, and technology. Professors Welters and Lillethun presented a top ten list incorporating developments that they see coming to fashion