Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection

Tonight (Thursday) at 5 pm! Visit the symposium website for more details: http://www.naturaldyeconference.ca/symposi/intervention-one #naturaldye #cornelldyegarden #naturaldyesinnortheastamerica #cornellnaturaldyestudio

Today at 1:30 PM Eastern! All invited to attend via Zoom.

Rachel Doran ‘19 (1997-2018) hard at work installing her exhibit, Go Figure: The Fashion Silhouette and the Female Form. Today, March 1st, should be Rachel’s 24th birthday. As a fitting tribute to her, Rachel’s Cornell family - including those who knew her and many whom have come to know her through her exhibit and lasting impact on our collection - are working to raise funds to name this very exhibition space in her memory. As a central space where the fashion design comm...unity of Cornell gathers to display their work and research, this area embodies the spirit of Rachel, celebrating her curiosity, passion for research, and desire to share what she learned. The impact on future students who use the space to curate their own work and learn from their peers will be a steady reminder of Rachel’s dedication to and joy for the study of design, fashion, and culture. Please join us in making a gift today (link to Cornell's secure giving website: https://tinyurl.com/RachelDoranFund )! To date, with the support of Rachel’s PSE fraternity, classmates, colleagues, friends, and family, we have reached 20% of our $25,000 goal. In honor of Rachel’s birthday today, we seek to raise the remaining $20,000 #iamhumec #cornellfashion #rachelhopedoran See more

One of Rachel Doran’s (1997-2018) favorite pieces in our collection was this c.1914 gown - she snapped this photo during summer 2017 while conducting research for her exhibit, Go Figure: The Fashion Silhouette and the Female Form. We love seeing Rachel’s Birkenstocks and note-taking materials in this photo Please join Rachel’s Cornell family in honoring her legacy by making a gift to support the naming of our display cases in her honor! To date, with the support of Rachel’s PSE fraternity, classmates, colleagues, friends, and family, we have reached 20% of our $25,000 goal. In honor of Rachel’s birthday today, we seek to raise the remaining $20,000. If you would like to make a gift, please follow this link to Cornell’s secure giving website: https://tinyurl.com/RachelDoranFund #rachelhopedoran #iamhumec #inmemoryofrachelhopedoran

Today would have been Rachel Doran’s 24th birthday - she was a dedicated curator and research assistant in the CF+TC and an undergraduate student in Cornell’s class of 2019. She passed away in August 2018 after a 5-week battle with Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. Rachel’s Cornell classmates, friends, and faculty have been working to raise funds to name an exhibition space in her honor - the same exhibit space pictured here and where she mounted her own exhibition, Go Figure: The Fashion Silhouette and the Female Form in 2017. We hope you will join our efforts in celebrating Rachel’s life by making a gift (link to Cornell’s secure giving website: https://tinyurl.com/RachelDoranFund ). Rachel’s classmates have raised 5k towards their 25k goal! #iamhumec #racheldoran #fashionexhibit #inmemoryofracheldoran

Exhibit closing reception on Zoom today at 4:30 PM (https://events.cornell.edu//exhibit_closing_reception_stan)! #historyofhomeeconomics #cornellhistory #fashionexhibition #fashionhistory #iamhumec

This past year has challenged us to innovate in so many new ways. We are incredibly grateful for the support of our collaborators and colleagues across the university and beyond We have been especially inspired and impressed by these 19 students: their dedication to fashion curation amidst the challenges that this unprecedented time has brought us is unparalleled! Check out their exhibits on the Cornell Library digital platform, and read more about their curatorial work in ...the fall 2020 class, Curating Fashion Exhibitions in today’s Cornell Chronicle (https://news.cornell.edu//vaults-virtual-classes-library-a). This Zoom class photo was taken when we launched our Green Armor exhibit last October. First row left to right: Dr. Denise Green, Dyese Matthews PhD '24, Lily Elkwood BS '22, Lynda May Xepoleas PhD ‘22 / Second row left to right: Christine McDonald MFA ‘22, Jenny Leigh Du Puis PhD ’22, Juliana daRoza BS ‘22, Karelia Jaramillo BS ‘22 / Third row left to right: Jeyeon Jo PhD ‘23, Chisato (Chi) Yamakawa BArch ‘21, Betsye Violette PhD ‘24, Livia Caligor BS ‘21 / Fourth row left to right: Emily Hayflick PhD ‘26, Joshua Johnson BA ‘21, Gunner Park BS '21, Deja Gilliam BS ‘21 / Fifth row left to right: Kat Roberts PhD ‘23, Georgia Hausmann BS ‘20, Mona Maher PhD ’24, Will Blankman BS '20 thanks to all of our collaborators this semester: @cornelluniversity @cornellhumec @kheelcenter @cornellsexcollects @cornelltextileindustry @hfjmuseum @cornellcouncilforthearts @cuanthrocollects @rarecornell @mannlibrary @cornell_fsad #fashionexhibition #fashioncuration #cornellfashion #greenarmor #curator #zoomphoto #virtualteaching #radcornell #cornellrad #iamhumec See more

"In the spring of 2020, Denise Green thought she had the fall 2020 semester all figured out. An associate professor of fiber science and apparel design in the College of Human Ecology, Green had been awarded a Society for the Humanities fellowship to teach a class on curating fashion exhibitions. Her students would do hands-on research in the archival collections of Cornell University Library, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, and the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection,... which she directs. A grant from the Cornell Council for the Arts would fund an exhibition of the final class project, with 'a big opening with hundreds of people gathered together,' Green says. 'I had the plan. I had the syllabus. I had the money to support the curation and installation,' she says. 'And then everything changed.'" Read more about out how we pivoted for the pandemic:

#Repost from @costumesocietyamerica (link to register is in their bio!) Join us on Thursday, January 21 at 7:00 p.m. EST/ 4:00 p.m. PST for the third episode of the four-part series The Dangers of Fashion. This episode focuses on cultural and societal norms that influence beauty ideals, drive people’s behavior related to appearance management and lead to appropriation of resources such as land and labor. The panelistsDenise Green, Kelly Reddy-Best, and Eulanda Sander...sdisentangle the complex relationships and the costs of not fitting into these norms at the intersections of gender and race. Sara Marcketti and Elena Karpova. This free program is open to all. See link in bio. Click the News and Events tab and select News to learn more and to register.

Today would have been photographer (and fashion icon!) Honey Lee Cottrell’s 75th birthday - her personal papers and photographs are archived in the Human Sexuality Collection - one of the RAD collections in the Cornell University Library Honey Lee Cottrell papers, 1950-2015 collection number 7822 We’ve included some of our favorite digitized photos of Honey Lee and her personal style (and the last photo thanks to Susie Bright ) #honeyleecottrell #humansexualitycollection #lesbianphotography #CornellRAD

We are so grateful for our amazing alumni John Foote ‘74 and Kristen Rupert ‘74 made our day with this incredible donation: an Irene Castle Corticelli Fashions frock - what’s not to love about the delightful label and luxurious fabric? Irene Castle came to Ithaca in 1916 to film the first 10 episodes of the silent serial Patria, which was directed by Leopold and Theodore Wharton, and produced by the Wharton Studio Inc. and William Randolph Hearst. Irene starred in ot...her silents as wellin addition to her dancing careerand was known as the best dressed woman in America. She developed a relationship with the Corticelli Silk Mill and together they developed Satin Patria as a way to cross promote the film and a new Corticelli silk fabric. In 1923, she took that business relationship one step further and launched an eponymous fashion line - Irene Castle Corticelli Fashions. We had such fun photographing and researching this garment today: we found a Rothschild’s department store advertisement that ran in the Ithaca Journal on September 11, 1924 and we believe that this dress is the Millicent Mode in the bottom left - it’s missing the original belt, and the silk long-sleeved underdress, but we’re convinced! We look forward to displaying this frock next summer at The History Center in Tompkins County when we collaborate with the Wharton Studio Museum on a display about Irene Castle as part of The History Center’s upcoming exhibit Breaking Barriers: Women’s Lives and Livelihoods. You can read more about Irene Castle in Professor’s Green’s recent publications: The Best Known and Best Dressed Woman in America: Irene Castle and Silent Film Style, published in DRESS: Journal of the Costume Society of America (https://doi.org/10.1080/03612112.2017.1352160); Fashion and Fearlessness in the Wharton Studio’s Silent Film Serials, 1914-1918, published in Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media (https://doi.org/10.13110/framework.60.1.0083); and on our Cornell University Library exhibit website for The Biggest Little Fashion City: Ithaca and Silent Film Style(https://exhibits.library.cornell.edu/biggest-little-fashion), which was a collaboration with the Wharton Studio Museum #silentfilm #irenecastle #corticelli #iamhumec #whartonstudiomuseum #silentfilmfashion #1920sfashion #irenecastlecorticellifashions photo credit: Lynda Xepoleas See more

Cornell students model frocks they designed and made in 1921 for a dress design class in Cornell’s Department of Home Economics (the department would become a college 4 years later in 1925, and renamed the College of Human Ecology in 1969). Learn more about the history of home economics at Cornell by visiting Standards for a New Womanhood: Gender, Race, & Expertise, curated by Athanasiou Geolas (https://exhibits.library.cornell.edu/new-womanhood and physical display on Level T of the Human Ecology Building) @rarecornell New York State Home Economics records, # 23-2-749 #fashiondesign #homeeconomics #cornellhistory #newwomanhood #fashionexhibition #cornellfashion #1920sfashion #iamhumec

Figure skating costume by knitwear designer Mimi Pearce, circa 1938 this gem will be part of the exhibition Fashion in Transit which opens in March as part of the Cornell Council for the Arts Biennial check out the digital fashion exhibit website ~ which is still in transit ~ on the Cornell University Library platform: https://exhibits.library.cornell.edu/fashion-in-transit @sateenduralux & sourced from @sideshowvintageclothing #fashionintransit #mimipearce #knitwear #1930sfashion #figureskating #handknit #skate #figureskatingcostumes @cornellcouncilforthearts @cornellhumec @cornelluniversity @cornell_fsad

How did early home economists travel across New York State and what did they wear? Find out in Standards for a New Womanhood: Gender, Race, & Expertise, available digitally on the Cornell University Library's online exhibits platform (https://exhibits.library.cornell.edu/new-womanhood). Photo descriptions 1/3 from left to right: Claribel Nye, Martha Van Rensselaer, Natalie Thompson, Ruth Graham, Katherine Mills, Edna Alderman, and Mr. Sanford with the first Extension car,... photo from Cornell University Library - Rare and Manuscript Collections New York State College of Home Economics Records # 23-2-749 2/3 a caped duster from the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection and photographed by Kat Roberts 3/3 wool motoring jacket worn by Professor Annette Warner in the CF+TC collections and photographed by Kat Roberts #iamhumec #newwomanhood #fashionexhibition #homeeconomics #motoringjacket #duster #marthavanrensselaer College of Human Ecology at Cornell See more

Standards for a New Womanhood: Gender, Race, & Expertise has opened and is now available both digitally (https://exhibits.library.cornell.edu/new-womanhood) and physically (Level T of the Human Ecology Building, for those approved to access campus facilities). Curator Athanasiou Geolas writes, Emblematic of just how invisible the legacies of whiteness often are, the gummed-tape dress form displays how home economists literally and metaphorically transformed the white bodie...s of themselves and their clients into supposedly neutral tools. Read more on the exhibit website, and check out the gummed-tape form that Geolas created following the exact instructions laid out in Cornell’s extension bulletins, authored by Doris Shumaker and Irene French. Dress forms made under the direction of extension agent Bertha Titsworth, 1914-1918, Cornell University Library - Rare and Manuscript Collections # 23-3-749 item DD-TC-01 / 2020 gummed tape form created by Geolas and photographed by Kat Roberts / extension bulletins in Cornell University Library collection # 23-2-749 #iamhumec #newwomanhood #homeeconomics #dressform #gummedpapertape #gummedtape #extensionspecialist #cornellcooperativeextension #homeeconomist Cornell University College of Human Ecology See more

#TBT End-of-semester show held in December 2005 ~ final student designs produced for Dr. Van Dyk Lewis’s junior collections class. The theme was The Illogical Circus. #cornellfashion #illogicalcircus

Green Armor exhibit website is now live! The digital version of the exhibition was designed and fabricated by Dyese Matthews PhD ‘24, Jenny Leigh Du Puis PhD ‘22, and Emily Hayflick PhD ‘26 special thanks to the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University Library, Society for the Humanities, College of Human Ecology at Cornell, and all of the students in the Curating Fashion Exhibitions class for making this possible! Learn more about the exhibit and all of the garments and artworks featured in this post (and more!): https://exhibits.library.cornell.edu/green-armor @hfjmuseum @mannlibrary @cornellhumec @cornell_library @jennyleighdupuis #greenarmor #greennewnormal #wrapcoverprotectperform #cornellfashion #fabrication #fashionexhibit #fashioncuration #greenfashion

Alumna Sian Brown MA ‘20 and her CF+TC exhibition Black Excellence: Fashion that Prevails was featured today in Women’s Wear Daily! The article is titled Can Fashion Museums Help Dismantle the Industry’s Diversity Issues? Sian describes the importance of working directly with communities in the research process to ultimately curate an exhibit that celebrates the brilliance of Black designers with the public. Read the entire article here: https://wwd.com//fashion-museums-diversity-cultural-appr/ #blackfashion #fashionthatprevails #sianbrown #cornellfashion #iamhumec #blackfashiondesigners #fashionmuseum #cornellfashioncollection #fashionexhibition @wwd @cornell_fsad @cornelluniversity @cornellhumec @sianviktoreya

"Standards for a New Womanhood: Gender, Race, & Expertise" opens today! It is both a physical and digital exhibit, so we hope you'll enjoy the comprehensive website. For those approved to visit campus facilities, you can find the display on Level T of the Human Ecology Building. Congrats to curator and Charlotte A. Jirousek Fellow, Athanasiou Geolas! Geolas examines the early history of the College of Home Economics at Cornell, now the College of Human Ecology at Cornell, using extant garments from our collection and archival records from the Rare and Manuscript Collections in Cornell University Library. Check it out! #iamhumec #cornellhistory #newwomanhood

Today at 3:30 PM on Zoom - CF+TC director Denise Green will be speaking as part of the Media Objects conference panel on the theme Bodies/Intimacies - event is free and open to all (link to register: https://cornell.zoom.us//register/WN_rlxiz8GlSjahkPMCEt91Lg). Dr. Green will discuss this Dykes in the City (DITC) brand A-shirt and trucker hat, which was part of DITC’s 2005-06 Do Ask, Do Tell collection #queerfashion #ditc #dykesinthecity #mediaobjectscornell #iamhumec #cornellfashioncollection

Sian Brown MA '20 and her exhibition, "Black Excellence: Fashion that Prevails," was featured in WWD today!

#Repost from @artofcornellsips The Natural Dye Garden @cornellnaturaldye in the courtyard between the Human Ecology Building and Martha Van Rensselaer Hall was established in 2015 by Denise Nicole Green, associate professor in the Department of Fiber Science and Apparel Design (CHE), who works with students, fashion designers, gardeners, and artists to create compelling colors from plants. . ... If you are you curious to learn more about how the textiles pictured were designed and dyed and the use of natural plant dyes as a sustainable alternative to synthetic dyes, join us on Monday, 11/9 at 12:40 p.m. for the Horticulture Section seminar when Dr. Green will speak on "Techniques you're dy(e)ing to know." (All SIPS seminars are free and open to the public on Zoom.) . Green is also a faculty member in the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program (CALS) and the Cornell Institute for Archaeology and Material Studies (A&S), a 2020-2021 Fellow in the Cornell Society for the Humanities, in addition to serving as director of the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection (@cornellfashioncollection). . . . . . . #artofcornellsips #artofsips #cornelluniversity #cornellcals #cornellSIPS #artandscience #sciartcornell #botanic #botanicalart #artist_sharing #womanartist #womanart #originalart #artaccount #artofcornellsips #artofsips #cornellSIPS #plantart #artistscientist #naturaldye #naturaldyes #naturaldyeing #naturaldyersofinstagram #plantdye #plantdyes See more

#TBT In these final days before the 2020 U.S. election, we are reminded of campaign trail fashions of the recent past. Before becoming the youngest woman ever elected to U.S. Congress, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wore through these shoes while campaigning in her district in the months leading up to the democratic primary in June 2018. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez generously loaned her shoes for display in our 2018-19 exhibit, WOMEN EMPOWERED: Fashions from the Frontlin...e. The shoes convey how hard work, dedication, and passion for change literally transforms the clothes we wear. Learn more about these shoes and the other pieces featured in WOMEN EMPOWERED by visiting our exhibit website: https://exhibits.library.cornell.edu/women-empowered @aoc @repaoc @rrgtmn #womenempowered #frontlinefashions #aoc #vote #campaignfashion #ccabiennial2018 #iamhumec #alexandriaocasiocortez #campaigntrail #fashionandpolitics See more

#Repost from @cornell_fsad Zoom link: https://cornell.zoom.us/j/92628525046 - all are welcome! FSAD hosts this Graduate Seminar Series every Friday at 1pm Eastern. . This week, we'll be joined by Jennifer Lemmer Posey. "Today, in the Circus collections at The Ringling, curators and conservators explore photographs, design drawings and other archival materials to better care for, conserve and interpret circus costumes form the mid 20th century. Among the most useful coll...ections is a set of over 600 design drawings, created for twelve seasons of The Greatest Show on Earth by designer Miles White (1914-2000). This talk will explore White’s contributions to the spectacle of the 20th century tented circus and the challenges of caring for the costumes that remain from that era." . @theringling @cornellhumec @cornellfashioncollection #CircusApparel #CircusEveryday #ApparelDesign #FashionStudents #HistoricalGarments #FallForCostume See more

#Repost from @hfjmuseum While actual green accessories (and more!) are on display from the @cornellfashioncollection in the Human Ecology Building, at the Johnson "Green Armor" also features "Study for the Rings on Dorian Gray's Hand" (1968), our etching in green ink by Jim Dine (American, born 1935). This special installation for the course "Curating Fashion Exhibitions" is on view for the #Cornell campus by appointment through November 2, with the online exhibit coming soon. #hfjmuseum #cornell #cornelluniversity #greenarmor #jimdine #oscarwilde

On October 20, 2020, the Nigerian Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) opened fire on peaceful protestors in Lagos, killing and wounding demonstrators. The protestors were participating in the #EndSARS movement, which calls for structural changes to address police misconduct as well as broader measures to address poverty and unemployment in the country. The exhibition team supports the #EndSARS movement and condemns the police violence and the murder of protestors in Nigeria. T...he Nigerian flag was a significant symbol for the independence movement in 1960, as seen on this scarf on display in Green Armor, and remains an important symbol in current social movements. Today, it is carried by protestors, worn around their shoulders, and represented on protest posters. Integrating both English text and visual motifs with Nigerian iconography, this silk-screened headscarf celebrates Nigeria’s independence from Britain in 1960. The shades of green used on this particular scarf echo the country’s new flag, which was designed in 1959 by Michael Taiwo Akinkunmi. The two green stripes framing the flag’s white middle are depicted waving above the heads of the four women on horseback. Represented in the center of the map of Nigeria (at the cloth’s center) are the country’s diverse natural and agricultural resources. The horses might also refer to Nigeria’s coat of arms, also adopted during independence, which flank the insignia and represent dignity. Factory printed textiles began to be imported into Africa from Europe in the 19th century, and commemorative clothes, often printed with photographic images, were introduced in the early 20th century. While these textiles can mark and celebrate various events, fabrics and headscarves, such as this one, have frequently been utilized in Nigeria to communicate and display political beliefs. Read more about the #EndSARS movement: https://www.nytimes.com//chimamanda-adichie-nigeria-protes #greenarmor #nigerianindependence #decolonize #endpolicebrutality

Friday Oct. 23 at 1 PM eastern - please join us for a lecture by Dr. Jeanne Vaccaro, postdoctoral fellow at the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries. Her talk is titled Handmade: Transgender, Fiber, and Feeling, and is co-sponsored by the Department of Fiber Science and Apparel Design and the Cornell Public History Initiative Join with Zoom: https://cornell.zoom.us/j/92628525046 #fiberart #transgender #onearchives #cornellfashion

Tennis uniform purchased in the 1960s at the Best & Co. flagship store on 5th Avenue in NYC #tennis #swingingsixties #tennisfashion #1960sfashion #sportswear #womenstennis #vintagetennis

Bathing suits in the early 20th century were often knit from wool, which is naturally water repellent because of the fiber’s outermost layer called the epicuticle. In the 1920s, wool bathing suits became brighter in color and shorter in length. This bathing suit is from Marshall Field’s, a department store in Chicago. It was donated by Professor Beulah Blackmore, the first full time professor of fashion at Cornell, and the first Head of the Department of the Textiles and Clot...hing. Professor Blackmore lived in a domestic partnership with Professor Helen Canon on East State Street (in a home demolished about a decade ago to build the massive Collegetown Terrace Apartment complex), very close to 2nd Dam on 6 Mile Creek, which continues today to be a popular swimming spot. Blackmore was a progressive thinker and intrepid dresser, who used her personal wardrobe to make statements. While we do not know for certain that Blackmore wore this swimsuit, she nonetheless found it an important example of changing fashions that liberated women’s bodies. See it for yourself on level T of the Human Ecology Building! #greenarmor #wrap #protect #cover #perform #powerofgreen #greenisthenewnormal #vintageswimwear #swimwear #bathingsuit #1920sfashion #thetimesareachangin See more

This romper-style gym suit was worn by Beatrice Falk when she was a student Walton High School in the Bronx, NY (class of 1937), and later by her daughter, Dianne Rosborne Meranus CU ’65 when she was a student at Bronx High School of Science (class of 1961) For members of the Cornell community approved to visit campus facilities, you can check it out on display in Green Armor, on Level T of the Human Ecology Building #greenarmor #gymuniform #romper #gymromper #1930sfashion #intergenerationalfashion #bronxhighschoolofscience #waltonhighschool

Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and we are honored to share an important garment gifted to us from Haa’yuups (Chuuchkamalthnii) of the Hupaasat First Nation. This speaker vest was worn by Haa’yuups on February 6-7, 2010 when he was the speaker for Sayach’apis (Walter Thomas of the Tseshaht First Nation) at his Yaxmalthlit (cleansing potlatch), which was held after a near-death experience with a grizzly bear. The vest was sewn by women in the family and the bear paws on t...he front of the vest and the grizzly on the back were designed by Aa-aatsiknuk (Ray Sim). Haa’yuups gifted this vest to the CF+TC with the hope that it, along with other textiles and garments he donated, would enrich the collection and help students learn something about the diversity of Native cultures in North America. He visited for a few weeks in spring 2015 and spent many hours with our undergraduate research assistants to provide detailed information about all of the pieces he donated. We are honored by this gift, and grateful for the accompanying knowledge Haa’yuups was willing to share. #indigenouspeoplesday #tseshaht #nuuchahnulth #northwestcoastart #sayachapis #grizzlybear #potlatchvest #speakervest #potlatch #indigenousfashion See more

Socks are worn for both protection and expression. These socks were designed by Paul Stuart in an argyle pattern. The design is composed of layers of overlapping diamond motifs, giving it depth and geometrical texture. The argyle sock is an extremely popular casual sock: the knitting pattern became widespread by the end of the 18th century, but was arguably worn as early as the 17th century by Scottish Highlanders. The argyle sock was later popularized through its association with golf and the Duke of Windsor and became popular again during WWII when young women in both England and the United States participated in a craze that involved knitting argyle patterned socks for their sweethearts overseas #greenarmor #wrap #protect #cover #perform #powerofgreen #greenisthenewnormal #socks #argyle #argylesock