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.

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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:

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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:

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Today's we answer several listeners' requests for an episode on the American womenswear brand Lilli Ann. One of the great runaway success stories of American 20th century fashion, the backstory of the brand takes some twists and turns from its early years in San Francisco's Chinatown, to Lilli Ann's founder's fisticuffs with New York mobsters and his surprising relationship with the French textile industry which garnered Adolph Schuman the prestigious Legion d'Honneur award.

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No longer the household name she was during her own time, Dorothy Liebes has been recognized as "one of the greatest designers of the 20th century." Her modernist textile designs were embraced by interior designers and architects including Frank Lloyd Wright and fashion designers such as her dear friend Bonnie Cashin. This week fashion and textile historian Leigh Wishner joins us to talk about Liebes' incredibly influential career and the exhibition A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes now on view at the Cooper Hewitt in New York City through February 4, 2024.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Brown, Susan and Alexa Griffith Winton, eds. A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2023.

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Today's episode is all about you, our listeners! We answer a few burning fashion history questions, share some touching stories and chat about the Papa New Guinean bags called 'bilum,' which were recently gifted to us in Paris.

LEARN MORE:

Threads that Bind Us: The Stories of Bilums

Bilum: The Backbone of Papa New Guinea

@handmadelocally @bilumsandbaskets

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