The FIDM Museum is in the final weeks of a major fundraising campaign to purchase the Helen Larson Historic Fashion Collection, a private collection of 1,400 historic garments and accessories from four centuries. Each Friday, this blog will present an exquisite piece from the Larson Collection. 

Evening Coat
Europe or United States
c. 1927
Helen Larson Historic Fashion Collection

This cream silk panne velvet evening coat is hand-painted with leaves and grapevines, overlaid with granulated glass that reflects light like glitter. It has the straight silhouette and abbreviated hemline characteristic of the 1920s, the decade when Prohibition prohibited the sale of wine and other alcoholic drinks in the United States. Because it was legal to make wine at home for personal consumption, however, many Americans became amateur vintners and enthusiastic oeneophiles during Prohibition, which lasted until 1933. This coat may be a witty reference to the fruit of the vine's newfound popularity–a different kind of "vintage" fashion. 

The FIDM Museum has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire this rare and beautiful garment–and many more like it–before the Larson Collection is dispersed forever or sold into private hands. But we need your help to save the Larson Collection. We have raised more than twenty percent of the necessary funds, but we still have a long way to go, and time is running out! Please make a contribution online or by mail, or join our #4for400 social media campaign to donate $4 (or more) by texting "Museum" to 243725. Donations are tax deductible; if your company or organization has a matching gift program, your support will go even further. You can also help by spreading the word on social media, using the #4for400 hashtag. The FIDM Museum as until the end of 2015 to finish raising the necessary funds, so please join the campaign and help save 400 years of fashion history!