Fabrics of Our Lives

February 26, 2019

Tags: 2019 winter fashion, janet kelly, museums

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White cotton “silver muslin” round gown embroidered with silver wire, silk taffeta sleeves, 1795–1800, USA (possibly), textile from India. The Museum at FIT. ©The Museum at FIT.

A rare example of early-19th century, knitted high-fashion. Its grid-like pattern of openwork knit is a modern alternative to lace. Openwork silk knit evening gown, circa 1810, England. The Museum at FIT. ©The Museum at FIT.

Lucien Lelong, wool jersey suit and coordinating sweater, circa 1927, France. The Museum at FIT, Gift of Mrs. Georges Gudefin. ©The Museum at FIT.

Schiaparelli used faille’s ability to drape in deep folds and fall dramatically around the body. Faille is a medium-weight, ribbed textile in the same weave family as taffeta, a lighter weight ribbed fabric, and ottoman, a heavier version. These three textiles demonstrate that varying the scales of yarn in the same weave changes how fabric drapes on the body. Elsa Schiaparelli, silk faille evening gown, circa 1955, France. The Museum at FIT, Gift of Mr. Rodman A. Heeren. ©The Museum at FIT.

Gazar could be molded, enabling sculptural, yet airy forms. Balenciaga’s style during the 1960s relied on the qualities of fabrics to achieve his signature architectural, unadorned silhouette, epitomized by this dramatic cape. Balenciaga, silk gazar evening cape, circa 1962, France. The Museum at FIT, Gift of Mildred S. Hilson. ©The Museum at FIT.

Galanos, silk satin cocktail dress, fall 1955, USA. The Museum at FIT, Gift of Barbara Torelli. ©The Museum at FIT.

Issey Miyake, Synthetic metallic ruffled cape ensemble, 1982, Japan. The Museum at FIT, Gift of Jun Kanai. ©The Museum at FIT.

Azzedine Alaïa’s wool broadcloth trench coat ensemble with wool jersey hood, winter 1985, France. The Museum at FIT, Gift of Azzedine Alaïa In Memory of Arthur Englander. ©The Museum at FIT.

Polyester is strong and lightweight and can be processed to take on different appearances. Here, it mimics silk chiffon. Yoshiki Hishinuma, polyester dress with rosettes, 2000, Japan. The Museum at FIT,Gift of Hishinuma Associates Co., Ltd. ©The Museum at FIT.

IN CASE YOU missed NYC’s Metropolitan Museum’s superb jewelry exhibit (examining how cultures incorporate jewelry and the power of adornment), you’ve still got time to catch a fascinating show—for history and fashion lovers—at the museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT).

“Fabric in Fashion” looks at textiles in Western women’s high fashion over the past 250 years in two ways: the mechanics of textiles (how they work on the body) and the cultural history of the four most prevalent fibers—silk, cotton, wool and synthetics. Raise your hand if you think about what materials you wear on our bodies. Newsflash: Fabric is essential to creating silhouette and aesthetics. Fibers can be manipulated to create diaphanous cottons and wools or sculptural silks. Synthetics can look sleek and futuristic or imitate natural fibers.

Elizabeth Way, assistant curator of costume at The Museum at FIT, and curator of  this exhibit, aimed to encourage people to take a closer look at materials. She points to a “silver muslin” gown from about 1795 (see the gallery above). “The dress was likely sewn in the US, but the cotton fabric comes from India, probably Bengal, which was a center of luxury muslin weaving at the time. This fabric is finely woven and embroidered with real silver wire. The sleeves are made from silk. This dress’s silhouette shows the transition to the high-waist Empire style that was led by French high fashion.  This one beautiful dress tells a story that spans from Asia to Europe to the United States.”

Silk was the ultimate luxury fiber; it was also the foundation of the French textile industry in Lyon, which helped Paris become the world’s fashion capital. Wool financed the growth of the British economy, beginning in the Middle Ages. Wool’s ability to contour with heat and moisture led to the Western fashion for tailored clothing. When, by the late nineteenth century, cotton became an everyday fabric, the effects ranged from disenfranchisement and oppression in India to slavery in the United States. Rayon was the first manmade fiber, marketed as an alternative to silk during the early twentieth century. Then came nylon (1935) and polyester (1941). Synthetics expanded the variety, function, and availability of textiles, although they also led to fashion’s pollution of the environment.

New fabrics are constantly in the pipeline, according to Way. Would you believe synthetic spider’s silk, pineapple fibers and milk proteins? For the present I’m taking to heart the curator’s wise purchasing advice: “We live in a world that is inundated with stuff of all kinds; by looking at fabric’s artistry, history and cultural significance, we can all be more appreciative and selective of the things we buy.”