American Woman Exhibit at the Met

They say you can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been. And with Fashion Week Spring 2011 around the corner, this is a good time to catch up the history of American women’s fashion. The American Woman exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art provides the perfect opportunity to do so.

The exhibit chronicles the style of American women from the 1890s to the 1940s, and my, did things change over the years.

It begins with looks from the 1890s. The athletic Gibson girls played sports –from horseback riding to cycling – in long tweed skirts. Those mini skirts of today’s tennis era were unheard of back then. The 1900s ushered in the bohemian era, and was quite possibly the inspiration for the outfits of Three’s Company’s Mrs. Roper in the late 1970s. (Think long, flowing dresses with dropped waists and silk headscarves).

My favorite era in the exhibit is the 1920s Flapper era, source of many a Halloween costume these days. This was an era of sexual freedom, and women expressed it themselves with red lipsticks, bob haircuts, long strand pearls to accompany their mini slip dresses.  This era was the precursor to the age of the screen siren, which found Hollywood actresses decked out in gorgeous floor length gowns – from china silk to gold lame. These are looks we usually only see at red carpet events today, but, back then actresses such as Lena Horne (Stormy Weather) and Katherine Hepburn (Bringing Up Baby) delivered their movie lines in great style.

Sorry I have no first hand visuals for you! Picture taking was forbidden, and words simply cannot do this exhibition justice. You can catch American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity at the Met for another week (it closes on August 15^th). Until then, check out these gallery photos from the Met.

Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10028

-Melissa, KittyBradshaw.com Contributor