This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
“No one was more skilled at combing history and the far corners of the world for inspiration and translating these foreign motifs into contemporary Parisian terms.”[1] Paul Poiret is often credited with bringing elements of Far East design into French... Read Article ››
Fundraising Friday: Harvey Nichols, Darling
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... Read Article ››
Goat Couture
Fashion is getting its goat on this fall, as curly wisps of goat hair sprout from Gucci shoes, Fendi and Simone Rocha bags, and coats by Donna Karan, Marni, and Milly. Since ancient times, goat hair has been an important fiber; it is an essential... Read Article ››
Fundraising Friday: A Purple Poiret
The FIDM Museum is in the final months 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... Read Article ››
Vain as a Peacock
Society ladies maintained highly structured social lives in the years leading up to World War I, requiring many different types of clothing. After doffing her morning dress, a lady might change into an afternoon suit for a stroll, choosing an outfit that... Read Article ››
Ready for the Red Carpet
With the Golden Globe Awards just past and the Academy Awards one month away, it's the time of year when red carpet fashions are on our mind. The red carpet as an arena for a celebrity viewing probably first emerged in the 1920s. Sid Grauman,... Read Article ››
From the Archives: Court gown and train
Happy New Year from the FIDM Museum! Our blog is on hiatus through early January 2015. In the meantime, enjoy weekly posts from the archives. To keep up with our current projects, find us on Facebook and Twitter, which will be updated regularly.... Read Article ››
Intern Report: Rudi Gernreich’s Kimono Dress
In today's blog post, former intern Mari Ogino uncovers the political implications of Rudi Gernreich's Kimono dress. She traces the ways in which the undefined shape of the kimono helped liberate western women's bodies from confining... Read Article ››
Linen jacket, c. 1912
Linen jacketc. 1912Gift of Wendy Cohen2012.1186.2 Decorated with butterflies, this charming jacket was made sometime around 1912. During the 1910s, mainstream fashion moved away from the rigid S-bend silhouette of the Edwardian Era (1901-1910).... Read Article ››
Wool and linen bodice, c. 1904
This bodice from our Study Collection is something of a puzzle. Though its silhouette concurs with the mid-1910s, the embellishment is somewhat idiosyncratic, suggesting that the wearer had a very specific sartorial vision. Consisting of an open-front bodice... Read Article ››
Real photo postcard, c. 1910
Don't you love this wonderful photo of three women posed in a rowboat? Unlike formal nineteenth century portraits, these women are posed in a whimsical setting—a wooden rowboat. Despite the casual situation, they all look a bit ill at ease! Maybe... Read Article ››
Jeanne Lanvin bonnet, 1913
Jeanne Lanvin 1913 Gift of Joshua & Jenny Livingston 2000.879.39 Like her contemporary Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, Jeanne Lanvin's (1867–1946) career began with hats. As a teenager, Lanvin apprenticed with at least two Parisian milliners,... Read Article ››