A ‘Spectrum of Fashion’ in Baltimore

Left: 1892 Silk Satin Brocade evening gown designed by Jean-Philippe Worth (1856-1926). Worn by Baltimore society’s Mary Carroll Denison Frick, the dress shows Worth’s mastery with color and texture. Center: Velvet and Silk Embroidered Evening Coat, made of silk velvet and metallic thread. Worn by First Lady Frances Folsom Cleveland. Right: Silk Evening Dress (2018), designed by Annapolis native Christian Siriano to celebrate the tenth anniversary of his brand. / Photos / Maryland Historical Society.

Left: Wool Dress (1948) designed by Maryland-born Claire McCardell. Right: Chagall designed this dress’s floral cotton print and McCardell cleverly pleated the fabric to best highlight his artwork. The yellow wool sash draws attention to the wearer’s cinched waist and emphasizes the hourglass silhouette of the 1950s. / Photos / Maryland Historical Society.

Left: This 1980s Silk Beaded Evening Dress was a favorite of First lady of journalism in Baltimore, Gertrude Poe. She wore it to the Olney Theatre’s premiere of The Wizard of Oz, channeling the Emerald City. Right: 1940 silk faille evening dress, designed and worn by Claire McCardell. The practical McCardell inserted deep pockets into the side seams of all her garments, including evening gowns./ Photos/ Maryland Historical Society.

Left: Silk brocade evening dress worn by Marylander Laura Patterson Swan Robeson. During her 1913 European honeymoon with her husband Andrew Robeson, she purchased this Cauët Sœurs gown on the Rue de la Paix in Paris, renowned for the numerous couture houses based there. Right: Baltimore dressmaker Lottie Barton’s creation.

Left: This embroidered silk dress was worn in 1789 to George Washington’s inauguration ball in New York City. Right: This elaborately beaded and embroidered silk linen crop top, skirt and shorts was probably a custom piece by Madame Gres for Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, who wore it at age 73 for a trip to Thailand.

Left: This silk organdy evening dress, decorated with embroidered monkeys playing instruments and organic swirls, was worn by the Duchess of Windsor at a special ball. The design was part of Hubert de Givenchy’s haute-couture collection from spring/summer 1954. Right: Baltimore native Bishme Cromartie, a self-taught designer and a Season 17 Project Runway contestant who progressed to the final four, designed this multi-colored silk crêpe dress in 2009. / Photos courtesy of Maryland Historical Society.

One section of the exhibit showcases the Maryland Historical Society’s Fashion Archives collection through a celebration of color, grouping clothing by fabric color across the gallery, from white to black and all the colors in between. / Photo courtesy of Maryland Historical Society.

Another part of the exhibit section that groups clothing by color. / Photo courtesy of Maryland Historical Society.

The timeline section of the exhibition features men’s and women’s clothing dating from 1724 to 1990, and outlines Maryland’s style through the ages. / Photo courtesy of Maryland Historical Society.

DESPITE disparaging remarks of a certain someone, Baltimore is a city notable for  fine restaurants, a beautiful waterfront and outstanding cultural institutions.

One of the latter that has escaped our radar is the Maryland Historical Society. But a new exhibition, “Spectrum of Fashion,” displaying 100 garments and accessories from 1724 to 2019 changes that and offers yet more reason to visit Charm City.

The exhibit includes garments worn by a duke and duchess, a first lady, an opera singer turned suffragist, a World War II supply driver, a nurse, an editor, a smuggler, emancipated slaves, politicians, socialites, artists, scholars, designers and philanthropists.

Says curator Alexandra Deutsch, “The exhibition is a sampling of garments that allow us to study fashion through the centuries, but even more importantly, it serves as a social history of the women and men who wore them: telling the story of the United States through the lens of Maryland. How we dress tells the story of how we live.”

Deutsch calls the show a sampling because the museum’s Fashion Archives number more than, yikes, 12,000 pieces. More surprising is that the collection had been lingering in storage in the historic Enoch Pratt House since the late 1970s. That’s when gallery assistant Enolliah Williams left. But not before her enormous contribution of meticulous storage and record keeping (handwritten on blue index cards) that made preserving the costume collection possible. Resurrecting the collection for an exhibit became a priority in 2008, but it was a 2015 funded internship that jumpstarted the process to put the clothing in conservation-grade materials and to make a digital catalog of the holdings.

Vice President of Collections Allison Tolman says that the show is representative of how encyclopedic the museum’s holdings are. “We have lots of artifacts and paintings, but to have costumes brings in that important third dimension.”

Highlights of the collection include a ball gown by couturier Jean-Philippe  Worth (who took over the fashion house founded by his father Charles Frederick), two dresses (one by Givenchy one by Madame Gres) worn by Wallis Simpson aka Duchess of Windsor, who grew up in Baltimore and who changed history when Edward abdicated the throne to marry her.

Several dresses illustrate the brilliance of Frederick, Maryland native Claire McCardell, one of the most influential designers of the twentieth century. Post World War II, when American  designers were bringing back the latest French designs for their customers, McCardell helped create the practical and comfortable American look: ballet flats with separates, cat-eye sunglasses, dresses with pockets.

One of the most sought-after Baltimore dressmakers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Lottie Barton is well known for her designs for First Lady Frances Cleveland. But she may be even more famous for being apprehended by customs officials for smuggling European goods into the country.  The story became national news, but her detainment didn’t seem to hurt her business as smuggling of European goods and copying foreign styles was standard practice by American dressmakers of the period.

Current designers Christian Siriano and more recent Project Runway alum Bishme Cromartie are also represented in this exhibit documenting the social history of Maryland as well as the country.

—Janet Kelly

The museum is open 10am to 5pm Wednesday through Saturday, noon to 5pm on Sunday.  Admission: Free for Maryland Historical Society members, $9 for nonmembers, $7 for seniors, $6 for students with ID, $6 children 3-18, free, children under 3. Spectrum of Fashion is on view through October 2021.

The Maryland Historical Society is located at 201 West Monument St., Baltimore, Maryland 21201-4674; phone: 410-685-3750. For more information, visit www.mdhs.org.