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The Tissue of Dreams: Paper Patterns in the Tailoring Trade
In the opening chapter of her book A History of the Paper Pattern Industry: The Home Dressmaking Fashion Revolution, curator and scholar Joy Spanabel Emery cites the October 1916 issue of Designer magazine: “There is nothing so cheap & yet so valuable; so common & yet so little realized; so unappreciated & yet so beneficial…
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Emergency Mode: The Wartime Hats of Sally Victor
Promptly at 3pm on December 18, 1941, members of the American fashion press gathered at the legendary Rainbow Room in New York City and patiently awaited their introduction to emergency mode. A fundraiser to benefit the British Ambulance Corps, the event showcased the latest wartime fashions issued to accommodate, “the prospective new way of life…
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Egyptian Elegance: Youssef Rizkallah
One of the great pleasures of working with our collection is rediscovering the myriad of designers represented who—while well-known during their own time—have now faded into annals of history. The name Youssef Rizkallah will ring a bell with few, yet FIT Library Special Collections houses a formidable collection of both…
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Hot New Accession: La Femme dans la Décoration Moderne
Created in 1902, Julius Klinger’s book of design and ornament, La Femme dans la Décoration Moderne, is a graphic celebration of the feminine. The 30 pages of motifs contained within—which all feature women—were intended to be sources of inspiration for practitioners of the industrial arts: decorative painters and ceramicists as well as designers of jewelry, posters, rugs,…
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Couture Copies in America: A Case-Study
Over the last few years, Material Mode has frequently referenced the symbiotic relationship between Parisian couture and American fashion during the first half of the 20th century. US-based ready-to-wear manufacturers looked to Paris to set the mode, which they subsequently mimicked, with riffs and revisions. Inversely, the American dollar was a critical source of…
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From Russia with Love: Fira Benenson
While sorting though a recent donation, a small collection of exquisitely detailed sketches by one Fira Benenson came to perk my curiosity. Her name was unfamiliar to me, and as someone who spends a great deal of time immersed in fashion history ephemera, I know that often this means a fascinating discovery is at-hand. I…
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The Glamour Gowns of Joseph Whitehead
While is it true during the 1920s and 1930s, that Paris couture was a rich source of design inspiration, the garment industry in the United States—particularly in the realm of manufacturing—was a robust, thriving segment of our nation’s economy. Homegrown designers may not have been the first to garner the adoration and…
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The Daring Mr. Daren
One of the greatest joys of working in a Special Collections unit is some of the discoveries you make when opening a box, that has been long tucked, safely away on a shelf, the contents of which have been seen by few—if any—in recent years. Re-discovering our Mr. Daren sketch collection (US.NNFIT.SC.43) last week put…
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Charles James’ Musings on Poiret
The year prior to his death, the legendary fashion designer, Charles James donated a small selection of correspondence, business records, press clippings and four original sketches to FIT Library’s Special Collections. Over the course of several months, many letters were exchanged between James and FIT librarian Marjorie Miller detailing…
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Perfume+Publicity+Poiret
We were recently gifted two very special objects: two paper publicity fans for the French perfume company, Rosine. Established in 1911, by the avant-garde couturier Paul Poiret following a trip to Vienna where he visited the Weiner Werkstatte, Rosine was part of Poiret’s greater vision to establish himself as not only a fashion designer, but…