The exhibition "Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915" at the LACMA may be over, but the museum has got in store for its visitors and genuine fashion fans all over the world a great surprise.
As you may remember, moving from from the Age of Enlightenment to World War I, the "Fashioning Fashion" event celebrated the recent museum acquisition of a collection of European men's, women's, and children's garments and accessories and also examined the technical developments behind the garments, their fabrics, trimmings and decorations.
Now LACMA has made available four different patterns relating to garments featured in the exhibition.
All the patterns refer to men’s clothes from the 1700s and include a man’s at-home robe, two waistcoats (one from China but made for the Western market, and one from France) and a man’s coat.
The patterns were created by theatrical costume designer Thomas John Bernard in collaboration with the the curators and conservators of the Costume and Textiles Department at LACMA and also include some interesting and useful notes about fabrics and details.
Each of these garments has got a rather peculiar construction: the men’s coat comes for example in the style of the French fashion extremists or incroyables, and, while it is based on English wool riding coats, it has its sleeves close together and forced the wearer to hold the shoulders back and thrust the chest forward.
My favourite design remains the man’s robe, a perfect crossover between a man’s coat and a Persian banyan (Download LACMA_FF_patterns_mansrobe).
Not sure how many of you readers may want to take up the challenge of reinventing these pieces through different cuts, fabrics or decorations, yet I'm positive you can do much better than some of the menswear designers who recently presented their new collections on the Milan and Paris runways…
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