6.24.2011

fashion finds in History's closet

crinoline frame, late 1860s
riding habit, 1910
pump, 1920

evening dress, 1924
pelerine, jet beads and silk, 1890
silk petticoat, 1860s
stockings, 1890s
carpet bag, 1860s

stockings, silk, 1890s
mourning fan
muff, feathers, early 19th century
sandals, about 1946
Delman wedges, 1936-39
Mainbocher cocktail apron, 1943
Elsa Schiaparelli jacket
Charles James evening jacket, 1951
fur jacket (monkey? goat?), late 1930s

All images from the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute

2 comments:

Willc said...

This distinctive silky black fur was most likely obtained from African colobus monkeys. Elsa Schiaparelli is credited with popularizing the use of this fur in the late 1930s, and it remained in fashion as an exotic trim material until at least the mid-1950s. The FIDM Museum collection in Los Angeles has a very similar colobus fur bolero dated to circa 1938. Their curatorial commentary about that jacket and its history can be found at http://blog.fidmmuseum.org/museum/2011/06/monkey-fur-coat-c-1938.html

angvou said...

Oh wow thank you Willc for that info--fascinating! And that blog is a find I need to poke around on; I've never heard of that place before. What does FIDM stand for-- I didnt see it explained anywhere on the site!

I've always loved the creepy elegance of that type of fur but still feel its better on the monkeys.

In an old post I wondered about the tailoring possibilities of cassowary feathers:
http://parenthetically.blogspot.com/2010/08/consider-cassowary.html

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