Langtry, bustle 'strapontin.' France, 1887. Satin, braid, cotton lacing, crocheted lace, metal armature, fasteners, eyelets. Inscription: "Langtry. Patented [. . . ]."Les Arts Décoratifs, collection Union française des arts du costume, Photographer: Patricia Canino.
In men's fashion, the exhibition explores how padded jackets provoked arched torsos; how calf enhancers, stomach belts, and codpieces were worn; and how variations on these enhancements continued into the nineteenth century and beyond. The exhibition will also include garments for children, who wore corsets beginning in the seventeenth century.
Fashioning the Body continues into the nineteenth century, in which the corset held tyrannical sway, embodying the voguish insistence on a 'wasp waist,' accentuated by the excessive ballooning of crinoline. After 1870 this kind of boned hoopskirt disappeared and was replaced by the bustle — also known as the faux-cul (fake buttocks), 'shrimp tail,' or strapontin (jump seat) — which gave women an odd and sinuous profile reminiscent of a goose.
Undergarments were never as abundant or as concealed as they were in the nineteenth century. The exhibition will continue with the brassiere and girdle, including examples used by men, and eventually the bust-enhancing and push-up bras of today. These devices were designed to create a plunging look for even the slimmest figures, reflecting the dictates of the canons of beauty at a time when bodies are modeled more by diets, body building, and surgery than by clothing. In addition to complete outfits shaped by these hidden structural contraptions, the exhibition will also feature moving mannequins wearing mechanized reconstructions of panniers, crinolines, and bustles in order to show how the undergarments worked.
The Curator Denis Bruna has a doctorate in history from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. He joined Les Arts Décoratifs in 2011 as curator of textile and fashion collections before the nineteenth century. He is also a professor and director of research in the history of fashion, costume, and textiles at the École du Louvre. His research focuses on the history and iconography of the costume, dress, and customs of the body. He has published several books and was the curator of the 2012 exhibition Fashioning Fashion: Two Centuries of European Fashion 1700–1915.
Bra, France, 1920–30. Cotton tulle, silk satin, elastic, lace. Les Arts Décoratifs, collection Mode et Textile, don Madame de la Marlière de la Sauverie 1994, 992 Photographer: Patricia Canino.
Publication Bard Graduate Center, in collaboration with Yale University Press, will publish an English-language version of the book that accompanied the exhibition in Paris, which is now out of print. The book includes essays by leading European fashion historians and new photography by Patricia Canino. It is edited by Denis Bruna and looks at undergarments from the fourteenth century on. Notes to Editors In Paris, the 2013 exhibition was entitled Les Mécaniques des dessous: Une histoire indiscrète de la silhouette. Gallery Programs Lectures, gallery talks, and conversations are offered in conjunction with the exhibition.
For more information, please call 212-501-3011 or e-mail programs@bgc.bard.edu. Exhibition Tours Group exhibition tours for adult and school groups are off ered Tuesday through Friday between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. and Thursday until 7 p.m. Reservations are required for all groups. To schedule a tour, please call 212-501-3013 or e-mail tours@bgc.bard.edu.
Bard Graduate Center Gallery is located in New York City at 18 West 86th Street, between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Bard Graduate Center is a graduate research institute in New York City. Our Gallery exhibitions and publications, MA and PhD programs, and research initiatives explore new ways of thinking about decorative arts, design history, and material culture. Founded in 1993, it is an academic unit of Bard College.
The Musée des Arts décoratifs, housed in the Louvre building, is a unique, private institution composed of a specialized library, teaching. facilities, and an ensemble of prestigious museums, including the Musée Nissim de Camondo.
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