Whether you’re a devotedfashion maven, a “Project Runway” fan or simply a local history buff, a visitto the new exhibition at the Maryland Historical Society should be on your fallcalendar.
“Spectrum of Fashion: Celebrating Maryland’s Style,” which opened on Oct. 5, includes approximately 100 items from the MdHS’s fashion collection, including men’s and women’s garments, accessories and decorative art objects. The oldest item in the exhibition is an embroidered silk apron dating to 1724.
“With our fashion archive, wecan represent fashion from almost every decade beginning in the 1700s,” saysAlexandra Deutsch, lead curator for the exhibition and former vice president ofcollections and interpretation for the MdHS. “We have a broad sweep of time andnarratives you don’t see at other places. We have fashion from people who wereformally enslaved, suffragettes, first ladies and all types of people connectedto Maryland.”
Deutsch first learned aboutthe MdHS’s extensive fashion collection when she began working at the culturalinstitution in 2008. Since then, she has collaborated with staff members andsummer interns to get the clothing out of storage, processed and properly caredfor.
“For me, this exhibit is adecade in the making,” says Deutsch. “We are doing a range of fashion, insteadof focusing on a single time period, because costume has never been displayedon any large scale at the Maryland Historical Society. This exhibit will givevisitors the opportunity to see the depths of our collection.”
That collection includesclothing designed by Frederick native Claire McCardell, as well as iconicdesigners such as Hermès, Pierre Cardin and Charles Frederick Worth. A gownworn to George Washington’s inaugural ball, and apparel worn by Baltimorenative Wallis Simpson, the duchess of Windsor, are also on display.
On a more somber note, liveryworn by enslaved people who worked and lived at the Hampton mansion in Towsonreminds visitors of Maryland’s legacy of slavery and servitude.
The MdHS collection also containsa handful of pieces that belonged to prominent members of Maryland’s Jewishcommunity, including a rare men’s dressing gown called a banyan worn by Pvt. Samuel Etting, who defended Fort McHenry duringthe War of 1812.
A fur coat that once belongedto Gretchen Hochschild Hutzler, a member of the family that owned one ofBaltimore’s largest department stores, also is part of the exhibition.(Hochschild Hutzler married into the Hutzler family, which owned anothertop-tier Baltimore department store.)
“Back in the day, Marylandwas a big center for manufacturing and had some of the grandest departmentstores,” Deutsch says. “As a port city, you had the highest textiles in thecolonies being imported into Baltimore. And we have Marylanders like ElizabethBonaparte who had connections to France and was arguably one of the firstAmerican women bringing French couture into America. And she was bringing it toBaltimore.”
Fashion as Survival
For Baltimore-based fashion designer Bishme Cromartie,legendary fashion photographer Bill Cunningham’s quote “Fashion is the armor tosurvive the reality of everyday life” describes perfectly what fashion means tohim. Growing up in East Baltimore, the “Project Runway”finalist, who started sketching dresses and garments at age 9,used design as his way to survive.
“The neighborhood I grew up in was rough, and I could put myfeelings and emotions into fashion and use it as my escape,” says Cromartie,28. “I remember teaching myself how to hand-sew, and then having my aunt teachme more of the basics. I would then work with any fabrics I could get my handson and make garments for my G.I. Joes.”
Throughout his childhood and teenage years, the self-taughtdesigner would spend his days designing masterpieces, creating his first gownas a high school freshman.
“My first actual client was in ninth grade when one of thegirls asked me to sketch a design for her prom dress,” Cromartie remembers. “Thefollowing year, it was the buzz around town, and by my senior year I missed myown prom because I was so busy making everyone’s dresses.”
It was also during Cromartie’s senior year that he wasapproached by a stylist to create two floor-length printed gowns for an Elle Vietnam New York photo shoot.
“I design with passion and meaning behind the garments,”says Cromartie, who describes his clothes as a mixture of avant-garde andcontemporary. “I use my clothes to send out positive and uplifting messages,and I hope those wearing them feel confident and capable no matter where theycame from.”
Beginning in October, one of Cromartie’s dresses designedfor the 2009 Elle photo shoot will beon display at the “Spectrum of Fashion” exhibit.
“I never thought a garment of mine would be in a museum,” says Cromartie, who has dressed celebrities such as Mel B, Fantasia and Dascha Polanco from Netflix’s hit series “Orange is the New Black”and has been a part of Los Angeles, New York and Brooklyn fashion weeks. “I have always wanted to keep a connection to Baltimore, so to have a piece in this collection makes me see myself as what I have always dreamed. It’s always been important to me to have recognition from my hometown because I feel if you have that, there isn’t a thing you can’t do. You can take on the world.”
Dedicated Followers of Fashion (Oh Yes They Are!)
Barbara Katz, the MdHS’sfirst woman president and a major donor to the exhibition, says she has alwaysloved fashion and remembers shopping at Hutzler’s.
“Hutzler’s French Roomcarried everything,” says Katz, 85, who collected fashion books as a teenager.“I love the history of clothes and have made a study of it, which is why thisexhibit means so much to me.”
It’s that kind of passion for fashion that led Katz to makea generous donation, — along with other patrons donations and a grant from theRichard C. Von Hess Foundation – to help make the exhibition possible.
Katz notes the exhibitionisn’t only comprised of clothes and garments from past eras.
“We are doing new pieces aswell, and it’s fascinating to see how fashion has evolved. I donated a GeoffreyBeene long red-and-black dress to the exhibit that I used to wear to localparties, “ says Katz, whose personal collection of scarves numbers more than300. “The Maryland Historical Society’s costume collection is awesome. There issomething for everyone in this exhibit.”
To celebrate the exhibition’s opening, the MdHS hosted a “Spectrum of Fashion” gala on Oct. 5. The evening included food, drinks, dancing and a fashion show emceed by famed fashion designer and Maryland native Christian Siriano.
“As a history museum, we want to bring history into today,which is why we are tying the exhibit into a fashion show that will showcasecontemporary designers,” says Allison Tolman, MdHs’s vice president of collections.“Our fashion archives are a unique way to teach social history.”
The runway show will feature more than 120 looks fromMaryland designers who create contemporary clothing, as well as vintage looksand jewelry designed by the Maryland Institute of College and Art.
“We want this to be a fashion moment for the state,” says Deutsch. “This exhibit is setting up our future for the fashion archives, and I think this show will be a game changer.”
Local full-service design studio Stephanie Bradshaw is theevent planner for the evening, Bradshaw says she’s proud to help bringawareness to “the local entrepreneurs, students and designers that make up theBaltimore fashion community.
“One of my brand initiatives is to showcase creativity and apositive perspective of our city,” she says. “I think this event is going to dojust that for so many people. We want Baltimore and beyond to see this amazingcollection.”
For information, visit mdhs.org.
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