Classic Glamour
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Beginning this Friday, editors, retailers, and designers will be focused on the future of fashion – at least as far into the future as next season – on display on the runways at New York Fashion Week. As they view these new creations, however, fashion lovers may also want to consider fashion’s past. Two new exhibits devoted to fashion history are opening during New York Fashion Week.
At the Pratt Manhattan Gallery, an exhibit dedicated to the history of dressmaking and its influence on modern design will open on Friday, just as the first new looks are parading down the runways in Bryant Park. The exhibit, titled “Cut and Construction: The Foundations of Fashion,” outlines the development of dressmaking from the early 1900s, highlighting Madeleine Vionnet’s revolutionary use of draping and her impact on couturiers such as Madame Alix Gres and Cristobal Balanciaga. It will also trace these influences through the works of designers such as Geoffrey Beene, Yeohlee, Narciso Rodriguez, and Tess Giberson, exploring construction methods such as soft draping, pleating, and rigid fabric manipulation.
An exhibit opening next Tuesday at the Museum at FIT will focus on the other side of fashion – its documentation – in a retrospective of the works of Rico Puhlmann (1934-1996), a fashion photographer, illustrator, filmmaker, and designer, who for 20 years was the primary photographer for Harper’s Bazaar. The exhibit, “Rico Puhlmann: A Fashion Legacy, 1956-1996,” includes more than 200 of the German-born Puhlmann’s photographs, drawings, magazine layouts, and films. The exhibit covers four decades of his work for magazines in America and Europe, including his portraits of celebrities such as Isabella Rossellini, Gore Vidal, and Bianca Jagger, and in the process documents the changing definition of glamour throughout the latter half of the 20th century.
“Cut and Construction: The Foundations of Fashion,” February 4-March 26 at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery, 144 W. 14th St., 212-647-7778, www.pratt.edu.
“Rico Puhlmann: A Fashion Legacy, 1956-1996,” February 8-April 9 at the Museum at FIT, Seventh Ave. at 27th St., 212-217-5800, www.fitnyc.edu/museum.
