Ceil Chapman
Best remembered today as Marilyn Monroe's favorite designer, Ceil Chapman was famous in the 1940s and '50s for her glamorous yet affordable evening looks. Her ready-to-wear "dream dresses," as the New York Times called them in... Read Article ››

The Inimitable Victor Costa
Long before he earned his reputation as "fashion's knock-off king," Victor Costa (b. 1935) created a line of Bohemian-inspired dresses—including this maxi dress wittily woven with hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds—under the Romantica... Read Article ››

Ranch Dressing, Part 2
In the 1980s, Thierry Mugler was the enfant terrible of French fashion, known for his dramatic tailoring and equally theatrical runway presentations. But his controversial, cowboy-inspired Spring/Summer 1992 show may have gone too far,... Read Article ››

Ranch Dressing, Part 1
The American West has been a powerful influence on fashion since the 1920s, when Hollywood films romanticized the cowboy myth and city slickers from the East Coast traveled west to experience ranch living as "dudes": tourists who dressed... Read Article ››

Fashion Never Sleeps
With pajama pants and shirts, slip dresses, and boudoir style back in fashion, this ensemble from 1968 recalls the trend for "evening pyjamas" in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Pyjamas first left the house in the 1930s, when women... Read Article ››

From the Archives: Space Age Style
Legendary couturier André Courrèges passed away Thursday, age 92. This post from 2015 highlights one of his many fashion innovations, the "Space Age" style, the influence of which can still be felt today. See more of the FIDM... Read Article ››

“Fabulous Fashion” Lecture Series
In honor of their current exhibition Fabulous Fashion: Decades of Change: 1890s, 1920s, & 1950s, the Pasadena Museum of History's Textile Arts Council is proud to partner with the curatorial staff of the FIDM Museum to present a... Read Article ››

Why the Sixties Were Swinging
In the late 1960s, the disaffected youth of the Left Bank (or "Rive Gauche") neighborhood of Paris trawled the city's open-air flea markets looking for romantic embellishments like fringed shawls, Indian jewelry, and antique lace. French... Read Article ››