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How exactly do you tell a city—any city—especially New York, with its 320 square miles of layered history and singular perspective? Make it an OD for clothes.
“A Matter of Style,” a pop-up fashion museum opening Sept. 9, is an exploration of New York’s sartorial heritage, curated by Fairchild Media Group’s extensive photo archive, whose portfolio includes a stalwart style-spotter. Women’s clothing every day. (WWD It is owned by Penske Media Corporation, the same parent company. ARTnews.) The museum presents unique illustrations, vintage fashion, immersive experiences and photography on display at AG Studios in Manhattan in conjunction with New York Fashion Week.
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Founded in 1910 by John Fairchild, Fairchild is one of the most significant fashion photography archives in the media. Their day-to-day dramas include important New York personalities alongside out-of-focus portraits of ordinary people.
There’s Jackie Kennedy, coming out of La Grenouille, her usual lunch spot. Downtown luminaries like Andy Warhol and Patti Smith appeared in its pages. Epochs in American history are revealed through the photographer’s lens: tight knits synonymous with the nuclear family; The eggs, the height of the hippie edge; And the dapper power uniform of the Black Panther era. Michael Angela Davis, author and image advocate, once said, “Style is a language and reflects history as much as any visual medium.” WWD.
“A Matter of Style” comes at a fruitful time for fashion exhibitions. Due to the enduring popularity of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, costumes have entered an art institution where their historical weight is considered—not always a seamless process. Now, a survey of the late artist and designer Virgil Abloh’s work is at the Brooklyn Museum. And the Costume Institute’s last major outlet centered on American fashion, though more emphasis was placed on its relationship with European haute couture.
The Fairchild Museum’s New York focus is a nice variation. It should give some insight into how the personal and the political intersect in our clothing.
To know more about the show, ARTnews He spoke by phone with the curator, visual culture historian, archivist and design educator Tonya Blasio-Licourche. A condensed version of the discussion follows below.
Can you talk a little about your role as archivist?
My job here revolves around archival content across all Fairchild brands. I came to PMC as a historian of visual culture. And so, I use my background in fashion history to come up with a story about how I look at the Fairchild archive, which is an incredible amount of information. In fact, this is a worthy moment for Fairchild, who has been there, rightly so, to capture what fashion has meant over the decades. It celebrated its 112th anniversary this year. It charts the history of fashion, covering designers, runways, celebrities, music, art – no part of our culture is untouched. This show focuses specifically on the fashion history of New York City.
And how did you settle on a story to tell about New York?
I focused on the people, places and things that made it a global fashion city, but I did it differently. other Fashion city. It’s about creating context: what’s happening in that moment, hidden by what New Yorkers are wearing. I mean, just think about jeans—consider the impact of that photo of James Dean in jeans and a white T-shirt. You are instantly transported to that moment in time.
And New York—America, of course—has evolved differently from European capitals; His fashion was more democratic. Denim and other fashions reflected America’s desire to establish its own cultural zeitgeist. Think 60s youth vibes, 70s Black Panther uniforms. Every generation was trying to say something.
How do you think? WWD Does it differentiate itself from similar fashion publications?
The exhibition focuses on how. WWD He was fascinated by how close he was to the environment. John Fairchild saw fashion as a dialogue, how the developments predicted the direction of the zeitgeist. since ancient times, WWD He was doing street photography in and around the city – this was called “wear” and appeared in the publication every week. In general, New York was one of the first fashion capitals that paid more attention not only to what the models wore, but also to everyone, perhaps because there were always many photographers working here. Another trademark of the magazine – “The Ladies Who Lunch” – is dedicated to the lives of socialites. In a way, this was all an early form of social media.
As a visual historian, what do you think about the “fashion is art” argument?
The understanding of fashion as art has changed. Fashion is the memory of the culture we live in; It is logical that it is opened to a very important place. Fashion it is. Art has stages, it has processes. It has inspiration, it tells a story. The modeler can speak quietly or very, very loudly. And to go back to the idea that American fashion is democratic, and so it is with art. Art and fashion at the same time are things that seem unattainable or unattainable. But it is not like that.
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