Monica D. Murgia

Where art, creativity, and fashion meet

May 15th, 2013

Stephen Burrows: When Fashion Danced

This week, I’m taking my classes to see Stephen Burrows: When Fashion Danced. It is currently on view at the Museum of the City of New York. Last week, I went to take care of the paperwork and got a special preview.

Stephen Burrows is an American fashion designer, and was very active in the 1970s. He studied at FIT and was quickly hired after an internship.

A few weeks ago, I found a great book The Fashion Makers by Barbara Walz and Bernadine Morris. There was a great biography on Burrows. It explained how his grandmother taught him to sew as a child. He explained: “I was fascinated by the zigzag stitch. I put it on everything.” He liked to use this to finish the edges on jersey dresses, because hems would weigh the fabric down. The zigzag finish makes the fabric light, and curl and wave at the edges. This design signature started to be referred to as the lettuce edge, because it looks like the undulating wavy edges of lettuce.

I just adore the dress above. The combination of colors are stellar, and it looks so easy to put on and wear. Another favorite of mine is the outfit below. It’s two pieces, and just so fluid and romantic.

As I made my way through the exhibition, I was really impressed with how beautiful and easy to wear most of the garments were. Like the exhibition suggests, each of the designs encouraged movement. The lightweight fabrics, fluid draping, and uncomplicated construction are just magical. A majority of my time is spent traveling for work, so finding clothing with these characteristics are very important to me.

I don’t wear pants very often, but was crazy for these tulip pants. The loose cut and way the fabric envelopes the leg is so interesting.

I also really liked the mannequins the museum used. Their postures made the clothing come alive. Most mannequins don’t gesticulate in this type of way. Generally, they are ridged and are simply hangers for the clothes. These are so different, and help in imagine the garments on a moving body.

Burrows was also very fearless about pairing vivid colors together. There is a whole section of the exhibit dedicated to color blocking.

I’m not that adventurous when it comes to pairing intense hues in one garment, but I did really enjoy looking. This type of color blocking was a signature of Burrows.

This set against the wall was so intense! It looked futuristic – almost like something by Pierre Cardin or Andres Courreges. These garments were all available at the O Boutique, the first commercial venture Burrows launched to sell commercially. He was later signed to make clothes for Henri Bendel’s in New York.

There were also accompanying sketches. These are always some of my favorite items to look at. It reveals so much about the design process.

If you’re in New York, be sure to see this great exhibit! Museum of the City of New York.

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Tags: 1960s, 1970s, American Fashion, exhibition, fashion, fashion history, Museum of the City of New York, Stephen Burrows
Posted in american fashion, Art's Influence on Fashion, fashion, fashion history, Great Museums, Teaching, textiles | 3 Comments »

February 27th, 2013

Find of the Week: Scarf by Jacques Fath

Ascots. Foulards. Scarves. Whatever you call them, I’m fascinated by this accessory. I have an enourmous collection of scarves. In fact, I’ve started writing a book about my own personal collection. Hopefully it will be out by the end of the year. The only problem I have is just when I’m about to finish, I find another amazing scarf to add to the collection. This week was no exception. I found this lovely scarf by Jacques Fath!

I’ve written about Jacques Fath before in How to Speak Fashion, Part II. Fath (1912-1954) was an eminent Parisian fashion designer that rose to fame during the WWII Occupation. He became popular by designing dresses that could be worn while riding bicycles – which was the main mode of transportation.

After the war, he was considered to be one of the “Big Three” fashion designers – the other two were Christian Dior and Pierre Balmain.

His influence sky-rocked postwar, as he created very feminine silhouettes. Fath’s garments were also fun, and allowed women mobility. He died of leukemia in 1954. His wife, Geneviève, took over the fashion house’s direction after his death until 1957.

Jacques Fath

The scarf is cotton, and judging by the color way, I’d say it’s from the mid to late 1960s. A little sleuthing around the internet indicated that Fath created a scarf and hosiery line in 1954. The early signatures are much different than the one on my scarf – probably because the business was sold in 1957. The image below is from Polyvore and is dated to the 1950s. It looks more like a real signature.

After the company sold, the name would have become more of a brand identity than reference to the actual designer. You can see that the label actually changed to reflect this. My scarf has a more generic looking typeface on the bottom right corner. But it’s still a gem!

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Tags: Ascots, fashion, fashion history, Find of the week, Foulards, jacques fath, scarf, scarves
Posted in Art's Influence on Fashion, Designers I love, fashion, fashion history, find of the week, Shopping, textiles, Vintage | 2 Comments »

January 18th, 2013

Fortuny: An Artist That Paints Textiles

One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to visit a new place every month this year. I love traveling, and have a few distant and exotic destinations on the list. But adventure doesn’t always have to be reserved to foreign locales. In fact, I always make it a point to live each day as if I was charting undiscovered territory.

That’s one of the many reasons I love New York so much. Every step I take in this city is filled with discovery, beauty, and adventure. Yesterday, I ventured over to the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute to see the exhibition on Fortuny.

Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (1871 – 1949) was a Spanish artist and designer. He was one of the leaders in liberating women from the corset during the 1910s. Fortuny was a real Renaissance man and loved to learn. He collected and read ancient manuscripts and rediscovered an ancient way of pleating fabrics. He started to use this pleating to make gowns inspired by ancient Greek sculptures.

I’d learned a bit about this famous designer in school, and was thrilled to have the opportunity to attend this exhibit. Curated by Oscar de la Renta, I knew the show would be a real treat. I was not disappointed. A majority of the collection was on loan from private collectors, including Vintage Luxury. I really encourage everyone to see this before it closes on March 30th, because the pictures do not even begin to do the actual garments justice.

There was so much about Fortuny that I didn’t know. He was a descendent of the Madrazo family, which consisted of artists, curators, and collectors. Art was an intregral part of life for the Madrazo clan, and it deeply influenced Fortuny’s creativity.

Fortuny himself declared, “I have always had many interests, but I have always considered painting to be my profession.“

He painted beautiful portraits, experimented heavily with photography, and collected art and objects himself. This paved the way for him to design textiles and design garments.

In 1906, Fortuny designed costumes for the Ballet for the Countess Bearn’s theater opening . The dancers wore his Knossos dresses, which were seen publicly for the first time. He then began producing dresses that referenced classical Greek sculptures, like the Delphos dress, in 1907. Fortuny kept his masterful pleating a trade secret, and was able to obtain a patent for the design in 1909. These dresses were stored by coiling them in a small box. When the pleates disappeared from wear, the dress would get sent back to Fortuny’s atelier for re-pleating.

The influence of Greek sculpture is pretty obvious. Yet Fortuny loved to travel and incoporated influences from various cultures into single ensembles or dresses. Exotic, orientalist themes are present, like kimono sleeves. His North African travels were always focused around documenting customs related to dress and photography. Fortuny also painted designs onto voided velvet scarves, which were then draped over his dresses to look like Indian saris.

Fortuny was originaly from Granada, Spain. He moved to Venice, where he operated his business. The Plazzo Orfei the location of the main workshops. He also had smaller textile printing locations on the nearby island of Giudecca. Italian influences are also scene in his garments, like the beautiful drawstring closures and embelishments trimmed with Venetian glass beads.

He also created textile patterns based on traditional Italian paintings. These prints included were on cotton and velvets. Many of the designs, like the melagrana design, are still available from the Fortuny company.

The operations soon expanded to paper and paints under the name Societa Anonima Fortuny. The gorgeous logo (below) was taken from sketchbook for Jacopo Bellini a 15th century Venetian painter that also designed textiles.

The clothes really speak for themselves, but gained a lot of attention in their heyday as well. Vogue stated in 1912 that Fortuny was ”an artist who paints fabrics” and in 1923 ”a great artist, with exquisite textiles as his medium”. I couldn’t agree more!

All images are courtesy of The Queen Sofia Spanish Institute. The exhibit Fortuny Y Madrazo: An Artistic Legacy runs until March 30th, 2013.

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Tags: delphos dresses, dresses, fabric, fashion history, fortuny, Fortuny exhibit in New York, knossos, textiles
Posted in art, Art's Influence on Fashion, artists, artists i love, creativity, Designers I love, fashion, Fashion as art, fashion history, fashion influenced by art, Great Museums, textiles, Travel, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

December 10th, 2012

The Importance of a Fashion Archive

Fashion evolves much like nature. There are cycles of change, and evolution occurs over time. There is as much variety among designers as there are between types of flowers. Designers are able to maintain a recognizable brand identity because they draw on concepts and specialties that were developed in the past. A fashion archive allows designers to reference past creations. A well-done archive acts as a garment library, where designers can literally reference past ideas, construction techniques, and the use of fabrics in clothing.

Fashion archives are especially useful for design and styling inspiration. Most major design houses maintain an archive of all their designs. When I was in graduate school, I worked in the Calvin Klein archives. This archive was massive. There were so many garments, starting from the late 1960s to present day. Every runway ensemble, every sample, and just about anything that had been put into production was in the archive. There were thousands of pieces, all of which had to be put into an order.

It was a massive project, and there were several women from the graduate program working to make the archive organized and accessible to the design team. I can only imagine how massive the fashion archives for Lanvin or Chanel must be. These are couture houses that have been in operation for a much longer span of time.

Fashion archives are not limited to design houses. Many museums have garment and textile collections. These institutions try to collect iconic garments that highlight technical expertise or illustrate a narrative about the past. Museum exhibitions that showcase garments and textiles have been growing in popularity in recent years. Critics have argued that these shows place “fluff over fine art”, but crowds respond to these exhibits because they place history and creativity in tangible forms.

Fashion archives are critical learning tools for students. Many fashion schools, like FIT and FIDM have created their own museums and study collections to use as teaching tools. Students gain such a different understanding after working with physical garments.

The clothing not only illustrates construction techniques, but also serves as inspiration. Much like established designers, students are able to examine, evaluate, and reconstruct the ideas and methods present in archived garments. The Baum School of Art has such an extraordinary fashion archive after receiving The Stieg Collection.

Working on The Stieg Collection really reinforces the importance of a fashion archive for me. I’m constantly amazed by the expert craftsmanship and quality of material. Since the collection spans from 1958 to 1968, the textile prints are colorful and use lots of floral motifs. It’s become impossible for me not to notice subtle details in clothing when I shop. Clothing today is very rarely made with this level of quality. I’ve also noticed that the collection has started to influence my own personal style. I’ve been gravitating towards dresses and shirts with colorful prints, like this sheath dress above. It looks a lot like the dress I’m wearing today, don’t you think?

All images (except the photo of me) are details from The Stieg Collection, courtesy of The Baum School of Art.

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Tags: 1960s fashion, fashion, fashion archives, fashion history, historical fashion, importance of a fashion archive, The Stieg Collection, Utah Tailoring Mills
Posted in american fashion, Designers I love, fashion, fashion and the body, fashion history, made in america, Teaching, The Stieg Collection, Uncategorized, Vintage | 3 Comments »

November 14th, 2012

Trigère vs.The Utah Tailoring Mills

Back in August, I was lucky enough to find a navy wool tea-length dress by Pauline Trigère. I loved the sense of geometry present in the design. Angular panels were stitched together, creating shapes and forms similar to Bauhaus design.

This sort of geometric detail gives the wearer a modernist silhouette. The Stieg Collection also has an excellent example of geometry in fashion design. The white wool dress on the right was made by the Utah Tailoring Mills.

Left: Navy wool jersey ready-to-wear dress by Pauline Trigère. Right: White woven wool custom-made dress by the Utah Tailoring Mills from The Stieg Collection.

Bauhaus (or Staatliches Bauhaus) was a German design school that operated from 1919-1933. Founded by Walter Gropius, the school’s mission was to promote a synthesis of the arts. Importance was placed on considering how to unify all aspects of design, from typography, fashion, architecture, interior design and so on. (Gesamkunstwerk is the precise term in German) The school attracted many fantastic designers. A recognizable Bauhaus style emerged because many that attended the school were interested in functionality and minimalism.

Geometric forms, balanced compositions, and a sort of “futuristic” look are all telltale signs of Bauhaus design.

Bauhaus poster from July 1923. Image courtesy of zenerpower.com

I spent a good part of an afternoon noting the similarities between these two dresses and how they related to Bauhaus ideals. Each of the designs were so carefully thought out and executed. They each share geometric cuts of fabric, balanced compositions, and a modernist look that make them wearable today. (Keep in mind that both of these dresses were made in the 1960s!)

But why is it that Pauline Trigère is remembered for her contribution to fashion history and that The Utah Tailoring Mills has been obscured to the point of being forgotten?

Top: Detail. Navy wool jersey ready-to-wear dress by Pauline Trigère. Bottom: Detail. White woven wool custom-made dress by the Utah Tailoring Mills from The Stieg Collection.

Much of this has to do with accessibility. Pauline Trigère clothing was not cheap. Her lines were available at expensive department stores, like Bergdorf Goodman. In 1970, her prices started at $225 and went up from there. After consulting an inflation calculator, this means that Trigère clothing would have cost $1,285.27 (to start!) in today’s economy.

However, because her garments were ready-to-wear, the could be sold in department stores across the country.

Pauline Trigère ad for Bergdorf Goodman, 1970. Image courtesy of Ephemeral New York.

The average cost of a dress by The Utah Tailoring Mills in the 1960s was $400, which is roughly $3,000 in today’s economy. This places Trigère and The Utah Tailoring Mills at essentially the same price range. But The Utah Tailoring Mills created each of their garments for the individual client. Sales representatives were responsible for covering large territories and getting new clients. This means that their exposure was more covert. The Utah Tailoring Mills had a more elite operation system.

The labels also indicate the difference in fabric and manufacturing. The Utah Tailoring Mills created everything in house, of the best fabrics. Most fabrics were imported from Europe. They also made labels with the client’s name embroidered directly under the logo.

Trigère garments have a nice label, too. However, you can spot that the quality was slightly different.

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Tags: bauhaus, bauhaus design, custom-made, fashion from the 1960s, fashion history, made to measure, Pauline Trigere, ready to wear, The Stieg Collection, The Utah Tailoring Mills
Posted in art, artists, creativity, Designers I love, Fashion as art, fashion history, fashion influenced by art, made in america, Shopping, Teaching, textiles, The Stieg Collection, Uncategorized | No Comments »

November 5th, 2012

The Stieg Collection

Today, I have a very special announcement. It’s my very first day working on a fantastic project at the Baum School of Art in Allentown, PA. About a year ago, the school was gifted the custom-made wardrobe of Mrs. Robert Stieg (Jane). The collection spans from 1958 – 1968, and every garment was made especially for her by the Utah Tailoring Mills. My task is to take this collection and catalog it for teaching purposes.

Jane Stieg was a pretty amazing woman. I can tell just by looking at her wardrobe. Twice a year, she would meet with a consultant from the tailoring company to select her new wardrobe. She began by selecting the silhouette first, and then the fabric. The consultant would take her measurements, and then place the order.

1967, DSCN4050A April-May 1967 San Francisco, on cable car a copy

Jane Stieg on a cable car in San Francisco, 1967. Image courtesy of the Stieg family.

While America is really recognized for it’s contribution to sportswear and ready-to-wear during and after World War II, there were companies that created custom made garments. According to a thread on The Vintage Fashion Guild, this is the history of the Utah Tailoring Mills:

Utah Tailoring Mills was started in 1934 by Norm Bingham and Clyde Buehler in Ogden, Utah. The company made custom fitted clothing for individual clients. Sales representatives would show samples to their private clients, and each garment was made to order to that client’s measurements. The client’s name was even embroidered onto the dress label. By the 1950s, Utah Tailoring Mills had more than 100 employees in Odgen and 43 sales representatives all over the US. They became known for their use of Hollywood actresses as models in their advertising. In the 1970s, the average price for a Utah Tailoring Mills dress was $400-$500.

In 1977, Buehler sold his interest in the company to Norm’s son, Boyd Bingham. After Norm died in 1979, Boyd became the president. He took the company to an even more exclusive clientelle and raised the average price of a dress to $1500-$2500. During the 1980s and 90s, the company’s clients were mainly ultra-rich women whose identity was kept private.

In December of 1998, a fire in the building adjacent to Utah Tailoring Mills caused extensive damage and the company never recovered from it’s losses. Utah Tailoring Mills went out of business in 2001. (Contributed by Jody of Couture Allure – one of my favorite sites!!)

I will be photographing and writing descriptions of all these amazing garments from the Stieg collection. Over the next few months, I will also be writing and giving talks about the construction techniques, fabrics, and history of these garments. I can hardly believe my eyes, seeing all of these beautiful clothes. And those labels! Even her name is carefully embroidered beneath the company logo.

This project was made possible in part by a grant from the Dexter and Dorothy Baker Foundation. Please like the Baum School of Art on Facebook for additional updates!

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Tags: American Fashion, Baum School of Art, fashion, fashion history, Jane Stieg, Mrs. Robert Stieg, Ogden, Stieg Collection, Utah Tailoring Company, Utah Tailoring Mills
Posted in american fashion, fashion, Fashion and Identity, fashion history, made in america, Ongoing Project, Shopping, Teaching, textiles, Uncategorized, Vintage | 5 Comments »

August 15th, 2012

Fashioning the Past

A major perk of blogging is that you get to make new friends in your area of interest. Many of these may be “virtual” friendships, akin to having a penpal. But once in a while, you get to meet in person. This year, I was lucky enough to meet Lizzie Bramlett of The Vintage Traveler in Atlanta and Giselle La Pompe-Moore of Fashioning the Past in New York.

Fashioning the Past is one of my favorite blogs! Giselle pens some amazing articles on historical fashion. She talks about garment construction and history in a way that is easy to understand, while using great images to illustrate her point. Her recent article on the kimono is a perfect example.

Giselle just moved to New York from London. We had a chance to meet this past Sunday and get to know one another. I felt like I had connected with a long lost friend! She was so nice, bringing me a gift from the V&A’s Ballgowns exhibit – a show I was disappointed to miss. My friends instantly loved her, and we chatted about all-things fashion over brunch and a clothing swap.

I can’t wait to go back to New York and hang out with her! Until then, I’ll just continue reading her blog. If you haven’t been to her site, be sure to read the post on The Queen & Fashion. It’s a favorite of mine.

All images courtesy of Fashioningthepast.com

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Tags: fashion, fashion history, fashioning the past, great blogs
Posted in fashion, fashion history, great blogs, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

April 14th, 2012

Silly things

History and art are two subjects that are taken very seriously. Perhaps too seriously. If you’ve read any of my posts for WornThrough.com, you’ll know that my teaching philosophy includes lots of entertainment and humor. This week, I was lucky to come across lots of funny material that makes art and history fun. It’s just too good not to share.

A Concise History of Art. Image courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/Shahram.Design

This concise history of art summarizes the change in aesthetic values, while poking fun at the art world. Be sure to read the captions. My favorite? The title under Impressionism: Homicide des Mouches a la Gare de Saint Marie-sur-la-Seine un Dimanche Matin de Printemps. A title doesn’t get more Impressionist than that!