Students don’t need to travel to Paris or New York to see world-class couture — Baton Rouge has its own piece of fashion history right here on campus.The LSU Textile and Costume Museum’s latest exhibition, “Christian Dior’s 1947 New Look: From Paris to New York to Baton Rouge,” chronicles the mid-century fashion influence of the French designer.The exhibit covers a 10-year span, from Dior’s first collection of female garments in 1947, dubbed the “New Look,” to the last he created before his death.
Dior released his “New Look” on Feb. 12, 1947, and it revolutionized the fashion world, according to Pam Vinci, curator of the LSU Textile and Costume Museum.
“It was the fashion editor of Harper’s Bazaar who after the show said to him, ‘My dear Christian, this is such a new look,'” she said. “And it was.”
Dior’s collection came during the post-World War II period and introduced a completely different style of female clothing. The fashion cycle froze during the war period, Vinci said, because “everybody’s attention turned to providing whatever was necessary in the war and the Allied effort.”
But in 1947, the former trends — including “military shoulder pads, short skirts and very skimpy garments” — became a thing of the past, Vinci said, and Dior’s “tailored, extremely feminine silhouette” swept the fashion world.
The exhibit accounts how the “New Look” made its way from the House of Dior in Paris all the way to Baton Rouge. It shows how the look was chronicled in the media, with original 1947 issues of Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, advertisements in Baton Rouge newspapers and a 1948 Gumbo yearbook that showed how University students were picking up the trend.
It also includes the designs of LSU graduate student Ashley Jones, exemplifying how Dior’s design expertise is still a source of inspiration today.
The “New Look” exhibition marks the 16th for the textile museum and the first after a two-year hiatus because of storage space renovations in the building.
“It is exciting to be open again,” Vinci said. “We’ve had lots of visitors from on campus and off campus.”
Visitors to the exhibit should expect to learn a lot, said Melinda Mooney, administrative and graduate coordinator for the School of Human Ecology.
“Even though it’s fashion, it is part of history,” she said. “They’ve mixed in fashion with the history aspect, so it covers both bases.”
Le Vu, administrative coordinator for the School of Human Ecology, agrees with Mooney.”It’s well put together, it’s sophisticated, and it’s educational,” Vu said. “I like the original items that were actually purchased in Baton Rouge back in the ’50s. I find that fascinating,”
Vinci said the exhibit has something for everyone, from fashion students to history buffs.”This exhibit brings any student from any curriculum, from any area of campus — it acquaints them more closely with World War II and the limitations that were placed on Americans and the marketplace,” she said. “For our fashion students, and for anyone who’s familiar with the name Dior but doesn’t really know the history of the house, it acquaints them with the history and how couture operated 60 years ago.”
The exhibit is located in room 140 of the Human Ecology Building. Entrance is free and open to the public weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. through April 2011.
–Contact Annie Hundley at [email protected]