“Fabulous Fashion” Lecture Series

In honor of their current exhibition Fabulous Fashion: Decades of Change: 1890s, 1920s, & 1950sthe Pasadena Museum of History's Textile Arts Council is proud to partner with the curatorial staff of the FIDM Museum to present a three-part lecture series featuring fashions throughout the decades. Tickets now on sale!

Diamonds-Image_JonesCourtesy Kevin Jones

Dressed in Diamonds: American Princesses & Gilded Age Fashion

January 19 @ 6:30 pm8:00 pm

Join Kevin Jones, Curator at the FIDM Museum, for a fascinating lecture on the opulent fashion of “The Gilded Age,” a term popularized by prolific writer and social-commentator Mark Twain. The Industrial Revolution’s greatest asset—money—helped to gild American and re-gild European societies. And, for the most part, this highly reflective gloss was applied with layers of elaborate dresses and overlapping jewels worn by the "Dollar Princess" daughters of "Robber Barons," five of whom are discussed in this lecture: Jennie Jerome, Consuelo Yznaga, Consuelo Vanderbilt, Helena Zimmerman, and May Goelet.

Gatsby
Evening dress
Havet-Agnѐs
c. 1927
L2011.13.351

Gatsby’s Women: Fashionable Ideals of the 1920s

January 26 @ 6:30 pm8:00 pm

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, reflects a time of dramatic feminine transformation. Christina Johnson, Associate Curator at the FIDM Museum, will provide an overview of Jazz Age fashion, Hollywood film icons, and 1920s high society. Johnson will describe how the fictional characters in Fitzgerald’s best-selling novel represented the decade’s new, fashionable ideals.

20037981

Hat worn by Jean Simmons in Young Bess
Walter Plunkett

1953
Gift of Stacey Behlmer
2003.798.1    

Pulling Down the Curtain: Exploring Walter Plunkett’s Hollywood Legacy

February 2 @ 6:30 pm8:00 pm

Walter Plunkett—a man responsible for hundreds of celebrated designs in more than 260 films over a 40-year period—is not a household name. Plunkett’s career as a self-taught costume designer included one of the most iconic film costumes of all time: Scarlett O’Hara’s Curtain Dress. Yet the question remains why Walter Plunkett has not achieved the same prominence as his peers. Join us as Joanna Abijaoude, Museum Associate at the FIDM Museum, brings Walter Plunkett’s legacy out from behind the shadows and illustrates why his work made a lasting and relevant impact in the world of costume design.

All lectures: Textile Arts Council Members $10; Museum Members $15; General $20. Advance reservations required. Tickets include entrance to the Exhibition Galleries starting at 6:00 pm and a wine and cheese reception.

One response to ““Fabulous Fashion” Lecture Series

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