The second exhibition, titled “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” is slated to open in the American Wing period rooms on May 5, 2022. According to the press release, the display will feature “women’s and men’s historical and contemporary dress dating from the 18th century to the present in vignettes installed in select period rooms.”
“The interiors present a survey of more than 300 years of American domestic life and tell a variety of stories—from the personal to the political, the stylistic to the cultural, and the aesthetic to the ideological,” the release continues. “The exhibition will reflect on these narratives through a series of three-dimensional cinematic ‘freeze frames’ produced in collaboration with notable American film directors. These mise-en-scènes will explore the role of dress in shaping American identity and address the complex and layered histories of the rooms.”
Per the press release, the period rooms include a Shaker bedroom from the 1830s that “explores the defining characteristics of American sportswear” through the work of Claire McCardell, as well as a “19th-century parlor from Richmond, Virginia that will feature the intricate designs of Fannie Criss.” In addition, the release says John Vanderlyn‘s mural of Versailles will give a nod to the 1973 “Battle of Versailles“—in which a group of American designers faced off against a group of French designers—and that “a 20th-century living room designed by Frank Lloyd Wright will highlight the architectural gowns of Charles James to examine notions of creative genius and the tensions between artist and patron.”
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