Fashion After Dark Exhibit Opening

Join us for the opening ceremony of our newest exhibit, Fashion After Dark. Enjoy drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and live music with special remarks from Patty Edmonson, Museum Advisory Council Curator of Costume & Textiles.

Event Highlights:

  • Hors d’oeuvres
  • Open Bar
  • Tour of the exhibit
  • Access to museum galleries
  • Special playing of music box

 

About the Exhibition:

Fashion After Dark explores the relationship between fashion and artificial light, beginning with the introduction of gas in Cleveland during the 1840s. This exhibition simulates the atmosphere of an evening on Euclid Avenue through fashion, interiors, lighting, and sound.

Imagine a visual feast of shimmering silks, dazzling sequins, and sparkling gemstones. In the 19th century, gaslight brought eveningwear to life in an otherworldly way. Daylight stood in such stark contrast that some shops even offered specially-lit rooms for choosing silks, and style writers recommended the best colors and fabrics for gaslight in particular. Below stairs, working people kept homes with new lighting technologies running. Each room presents a time period and a theme in order to bring the story of fashion and lighting to life.

 

 

 

Talk & Tours: Cleveland Shops

Join us at 2:00pm every Wednesday and Saturday from June through August at the Cleveland History Center to enjoy highlights from some our favorite Cleveland stories followed by a short gallery tour to learn more about some of the real-life artifacts that inspired these programs!

FREE with museum admission; Members FREE.

This Talk & Tour: Cleveland Shops

Cleveland’s Department stores enjoyed an era of glamour, beauty, and power. Explore their stories through the artifacts that were bought and sold in the city—including some of the beautiful dresses & accessories in the brand new Si Jolie exhibit!

 

Interested in learning and hearing more about Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River or other fascinating pieces of Northeast history? Click here to book a Speaking of Cleveland program today.

Talk & Tours: Cleveland Shops

Join us at 2:00pm every Wednesday and Saturday from June through August at the Cleveland History Center to enjoy highlights from some our favorite Cleveland stories followed by a short gallery tour to learn more about some of the real-life artifacts that inspired these programs!

FREE with museum admission; Members FREE.

This Talk & Tour: Cleveland Shops

Cleveland’s Department stores enjoyed an era of glamour, beauty, and power. Explore their stories through the artifacts that were bought and sold in the city—including some of the beautiful dresses & accessories in the brand new Si Jolie exhibit!

 

Interested in learning and hearing more about Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River or other fascinating pieces of Northeast history? Click here to book a Speaking of Cleveland program today.

New Exhibit Opening Party | Si Jolie! French Fashion in Cleveland

Celebrate the opening of the new exhibit, Si Jolie! French Fashion in Cleveland, with a Bastille Day party

in the historic Bingham-Hanna Mansion and Garden.

 

     Enjoy bubbly, French wine & hors d’oeuvres

 Experience the new exhibit in the Chisholm Halle Costume Wing

Tour the new exhibit with the curator

 Show off your garden party attire

Listen to Parisian music

 

This Bastille Day celebration will take place on Sunday, July 14th, 2019, 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Ticket:

Non- Member | $50

WRHS Member | $40

 

About the exhibit:

Si Jolie! is about French fashion and all of the stories in between. It highlights how Paris fashion motivated Clevelanders to travel abroad, influenced local fashion, inspired the golden age of department stores, and how significant fashion was socially. Guests who visit this new exhibition will travel back in time and experience how fashion and travel have evolved over the years and how similar Clevelanders then were to those living here today.

 

Made possible by:

 

 

Behind The Wheel: RADwood Fashion

 

This month’s Behind The Wheel event at the Crawford Auto-Aviation continues the celebration of RADwood: Cleveland Goes Rad.
Get nostalgic as we explore 80s & 90s history, pop culture and fashion.
Ticket includes admission the the Cleveland History Center.

EXHIBIT CLOSING: Mad For Plaid in the Chisholm Halle Costume Wing

Don’t miss your last chance to go mad for plaid in the Chisholm Halle Costume Wing. Sponsored by Emma Lincoln, Mad For Plaid opened in May of 2017 and has explored the versatility and influence tartan has had on pop culture, fashion and Cleveland history.

 

Style Me Saturday: Rocker Plaid with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Cleveland History Center and the Rock & Roll Hall of present

“Never Mind the Flannel: Dressing the Subculture”

Staff from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Education department and Library & Archives talk about the history of plaid in punk and grunge fashion through examples from the museum’s collections.

Speakers will be Director of Archives, Jennie Thomas and  Laura Maidens (Librarian).

Click Here For More Style-Me Saturday Topics & Dates

Style Me Saturday| Weaving Plaid: Praxis Fiber Workshop + Hale Farm & Village

We’re getting hands on with plaid!

Try your hand at weaving a tartan with  special guest Praxis Fiber Workshop. They will be bringing a loom to demonstrate the process, and invite attendees to try their hand at weaving plaid.

A special treat: Hale Farm will also be joining us for demonstrations. From beginning to end, Hale Farm will be showcasing how materials are prepared to be be used in the weaving process. From natural dyes to prepping the wool guests will see first hand all that goes into weaving tartan.

Click Here For More Style-Me Saturday Dates & Topics

Dressing a Historic Village; Costuming at Hale Farm

Dressing a Historic Village

One of the best parts of visiting Hale & Farm Village, especially for children, is seeing the museum educators dressed in 19th century clothing. These men and women make the history experience real, whether they’re sweating through a blacksmith demonstration in the summer or trying to keep warm during a Holiday Lantern tour.

If you’re wondering what goes into the costume design and care, well, it’s a lot. A lot of team work, research, and planning. A lot of washing and mending. A lot of critical thinking about even the materials that were available to our 19th century friends in the Western Reserve.

 

Behind the scenes at Hale Farm

Jenna Langa is one of the museum educators tasked with the responsibility of sewing and maintaining the costumes used by the museum educators. While in college, Jenna worked in the theatre costume shop repairing and making costume pieces for shows.

“I understand the inconvenience of uncomfortable costume pieces, whether (it’s) because of a missing button or a piece of hoop from the hoop skirt poking you during the day,” Jenna says.

Behinds the ScenesAnd while Hale Farm & Village has been closed to visitors in January and February, Jenna has been busy researching tailors and dressmakers of the mid-1800s and writing up an interpretation for the educators to use this year.

She’s also been washing and repairing costumes in the museum’s collection that have been ripped or lost hooks or buttons during the past year. Some of the hoop skirts needed new metal wires to make the skirts look correct and be more comfortable to wear.

The museum educators themselves are in charge of the maintenance of their costumes, but Jenna and educator Kirsten Fitzgerald are the point women who help them with repairs to the clothing they don’t know how to do themselves. Their detail work also includes helping the educators choose their costumes for the season so they fit correctly and are accurate for the sites where they’re demonstrating.

One thing that will be different about the costuming this year is that the educators will have period-correct quilted winter hoods to help keep them warm. Amazingly, Jenna was able to teach herself quilting patterns from the historical record and produce 19th century hoods this off-season.

 

 

Fashion or function?

Fashion or FunctionHale Farm & Village staff consider many variables about what types of costumes to wear and when they’re appropriate. Lisa Pettry, Hale Farm’s Education and Public Program Manager, notes that these questions are what the staff considers about costuming:

  • What were the fashions of the day?
  • What did different classes or occupations of people wear?
  • Did a pioneer woman bring to the frontier only the most serviceable clothing?
  • Did our pioneer women develop a style of their own?
  • In the village, what class should be highlighted? And what activity and year?

If you’ve toured Hale Farm & Village recently, you may remember that the museum presents life from two important periods in Northeast Ohio’s history: pre-canal and post-canal.

Lisa says the pre-canal era presentation looks beyond what a particular individual may have worn to what they would have brought with them, created, or acquired to wear that would have matched their circumstances.

Fashion or FunctionIn the pre-canal era of 1810, fashion plates show high-style Regency in a woman’s gown with low-round neckline, high bodice, back closure tight-fitting sleeves, and a narrow skirt with a small train. Lisa says the staff believes frontier women likely found such fashions impractical.

Much of the clothing answers are found in popular publications of the era, personal journals, or collections of surviving pieces. So in the village, for example, Hale Farm’s educators do not fixate on a particular year but share the story of daily life in a period of history.

So the next time you come to Hale Farm & Village for a festival or to take a tour with the kids, keep these things in mind about the 19th century costumes:

  • Hale Farm modifies a formal Regency style for pre-canal women with higher necklines, longer bodices, fuller sleeves skirts, and front closure, all for ease of wear.
  • Accessories are used to improve an overall impression, where perfect historical accuracy is not attainable.
  • Mid-century styles are “averaged” where possible, avoiding fashion extremes while highlighting general aspects of the wardrobe.

In Fashion

Celebrate fashion, mothers, daughters, and friends on Saturday, May 9th. Kick off your day with a brunch amid the exhibits of the Crawford Auto Aviation Collection before shopping the trunk show and learning about the historic garment industry in Cleveland.  Top off the day with a look at how prominent Clevelander’s dressed at the turn of the 20th century with the exhibition In Grand Style.

Admission gains access to all events of the day:

    10:00 am– Trunk Show Opens

      Vendors include:  Donna Marchetti Design, NOTO Boutique, Little Sweet Pea Closet, Lindsay Jean-Marie, What a Great Hat!, B, Carter Design, Designs by Dawson

    11:00 am– Brunch

    1:00 pm– “Off the Rack” Presentation of fans from the WRHS Collection with Leanne C. Tonkin of the Cleveland Museum of Art

Leanne Tonkin earned her BA in Fashion from the University of Leeds and worked for 10 years as a commercial fashion designer in the United Kingdom.  In 2007, she graduated with distinction with a Master of Art in the History of Textiles and Dress, followed in 2009 with a Master of Art in Textile Conservation from the Textile Conservation Centre.  In January 2014, she became an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Textile Conservation at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Brunch Menu
Fresh Fruit Salad
Assorted Mini Quiche
New Potato Filled with Whipped Boursin Cheese and topped with Caramelized Bacon
Spinach and Feta Cheese in Crispy Phyllo Dough
Assorted Deviled Eggs
Mimosas & Bloody Mary’s
Coffee, Assorted Hot Tea, Water

Please pre-register in advance online below or by calling Sara Gross, (216) 721-5722 ext. 1502. Admission is $25 for WRHS members and $35 for general public attendees.