This week we catch up on the departure of more than one notable fashion designer, recommend a bevy of documentaries out now on the modeling industry, chat about the Sotheby's recent Fashion Icons sale and so much more!

We also give you updates on our New York fashion history day tours...

Dressed's NYC day tours December 7-9th, 2023

Sarah Burton Exits Alexander McQueen

Marc Bohan Passes at Age 97

Sotheby's Fashion Icons Sale

The Supermodels

Invisible Beauty

Donyale Luna

New York Textile Month

Check out our Dressed bookshelf with over 100 of our favorite titles!

This week we address our most requested topic of all time: 'why do women's garments have fewer pockets?!' Dr. Hannah Carlson joins us to discuss her recently released book Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close.

RECOMMENDED READING: Carlson, Hannah. An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close. New York: Algonquin Books, 2023.

You can find Dr. Carlson's book and many more of our favorite fashion history books on our online bookshelf!

Keep abreast of our latest trips and tours at www.dressedhistory.com.

Oh the perils of being a Medieval, tassel loving peasant in the 21st century! In this episode, we meet Tyler Gunther, the peasant behind Greedy Peasant, the queer, Medieval-era fashion influencer, pageant planner, and unlikely social media star who has taken the world by storm. 

For more Greedy Peasant:

• Greedy Peasant’s website
• Greedy Peasant’s Patreon
• Greedy Peasant’s Instagram

From 1520 to 1560, the style-conscious accountant Matthäus Schwarz and his son Veit Konrad immortalized their adventures in dressing in a series of stunning, hand-painted portraits that provide a window into the period within which they lived. Historians Ulinka Rublack and Maria Hayward join us to discuss this extraordinary primary source which was published in full color as The First Book of Fashion: The Book of Clothes of Matthäus and Veit Konrad Schwarz of Augsburg.

In this episode, we go "behind the seams" of Geoffrey Holder's whimsical costume designs for the seven-time, Tony Award winning smash hit The Wiz, which opened on Broadway in 1975 and ran for 1672 performances before closing in 1979.

Recommended Reading:

• The Wiz costumes in the collection of the NMAAHC
• André de Shield's article
• Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

In the conclusion of our two-part episode on the work of Hollywood designer Gilbert Adrian, we turn our attention away from his time at MGM costuming the likes of Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford, and instead look at the rise of his fashion house Adrian, Ltd. Creating both custom made-to-measure looks for individual clients as well as 'immediate wear' which retailed at the finest US department stores, Adrian's took the American fashion scene by storm in the 1940s.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Esquevin, Christian. Adrian: Silver Screen to Custom Label. New York: Monicelli Press, 2008.

Gutner, Howard. Gowns by Adrian: The MGM Years 1928-1941. New York: Harry N.Abrams Inc., 2001.

Stanley, Leonard and Mark A. Vieira. Adrian: A Lifetime of Movie Glamour, Art and High Fashion. New York: Rizzoli, 2019.

This week we get get the inside scoop on a new fashion history television series coming early next year, chat about France's new incentive to encourage it's citizens to repair and mend their clothing, and shed a few tears over the Loose Ends Project which assists with completing needlework and sewing projects left unfinished by loved ones.

We also detail the itinerary of our December 2023 fashion history trip to NYC.

Recommended links:

Dressed Fashion History Tour of NYC

Loose Ends Project

French Citizens Get Paid to Mend

Take This Token podcast

One of American fashion's greats, the work Gilbert Adrian defined classic Hollywood glamour and pushed high fashion in new directions during the 1930s and 40s. In part 1 of this two-part episode, we examine Adrian's early years, and his role as head costume designer at MGM, where he turned screen stars, like Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford, into fashion icons.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Esquevin, Christian. Adrian: Silver Screen to Custom Label. New York: Monicelli Press, 2008.

Gutner, Howard. Gowns by Adrian: The MGM Years 1928-1941. New York: Harry N.Abrams Inc., 2001.

Stanley, Leonard and Mark A. Vieira. Adrian: A Lifetime of Movie Glamour, Art and High Fashion. New York: Rizzoli, 2019.

Amber-Dawn Bear Robe joins us to discuss the past, present, and future of Indigenous fashion, including the myriad of fashion design talents seen on the runway of this year's Santa Fe Indian Market (SWAIA).

For more information on the designers featured in this year's events, check out https://swaianativefashion.org/designers.

The work of the late, great designer Lee Alexander McQueen consistently blurred the lines between fashion and art, a fact celebrated in the exhibition Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse which put his work in conversation with artists who drew on similar themes and visual references.

Curators Clarissa Esguerra and Michaela Hansen join us to discuss the exhibition which originated at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2022 and has since been reincarnated at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne as Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec as Alexander McQueen: Art Meets Fashion.

Recommended links:

• LACMA's Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse
• NGV's Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse
• MNBAQ's Alexander McQueen--Art Meets Fashion