Many fashion fans out there dream of building their very personal archive, but it is hard doing so without the financial resources needed to invest in timeless pieces. At the same time, money is not everything, since lacking real passion, determination and good knowledge of the history of fashion, may lead you to fall into the wrong investments. That's certainly not the case with Sandy Schreier.
The pioneering American collector recently donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute 165 designs, 80 of them are currently part of the exhibition "In Pursuit of Fashion: The Sandy Schreier Collection" (from today through May 17th, 2020).The gift is part of The Met's 2020 Collections Initiative celebrating the Museum's 150th anniversary.
Detroit-based Schreier fell in love with fashion as a child, when she used to accompany her father to work at Russeks. Here she could see fur, couture and accessories, and plenty of fashion magazines scattered around the dressing rooms. Schreier would sit and look enthralled at the wealthy socialites trying on clothes.
As they got to know her and realised the young girl was very enthusiastic about fashion, the ladies, often wives of automotive magnates who were clients of Parisian haute couture houses, started gifting her seldom-worn clothes, thinking she may have wanted to wear them at parties and celebrations. Yet Schreier realised these pieces were not to wear but to keep and preserve (and that's a principle that she always followed as she didn't acquire the designs in her collection to wear them).
Schreier's passion continued to grow when her father opened his own fur salon - the Edward Miller Fur Salon - located near the Detroit Institute of Arts. Much to her disappointment, multiple visits to the museum revealed that the institution didn't have any clothes on display or in its archives. It was then that Schreier decided to change things.
In the following decades, while continuing to expand her collection, Schreier spoke to museum directors and curators, trying to convince them that, yes, fashion is art, and inviting them to consider the importance of couture not just in connection with a painting or a sculpture, but as real art.
Changing perceptions about fashion wasn't easy, though: the current exhibition at the Met's Costume Institute is for example the result of several years of talks and meetings. In the meantime, Schreier lent pieces from her collection on a constant basis to the Costume Institute for exhibitions such as "Diana Vreeland: Immoderate Style," "Adrian: American Glamour," "Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion," "Poiret: King of Fashion," and "Camp: Notes on Fashion" (just to mention a few of them) and to other museum.
Organising an exhibition focused just about her collection was no mean feat: each piece on display - selected among thousands by Head Curator Andrew Bolton, Costume Institute's Curator in Charge Wendy Yu and Associate Curator Jessica Regan - displays a strong connection with art and with the Met Museum own's collections and contributes to fill gaps in the museum's own archive or adds something that was missing.
In a way the event also proves that more compact exhibitions with fewer than 200 pieces can be easier to navigate for visitors, who can take their time and focus their attention on the various items of display without rushing or feeling too tired.
The items included in the Costume Institute event, often accompanied by Stephen Jones's headpieces, show that Schreier has a genuine passion for fashion, but also a great knowledge.
Alongside well-known fashion houses and designers such as Balenciaga, Christian Dior (check out the bubble-shaped "Du Barry" evening dress that belonged to Elizabeth Parke Firestone), Gabrielle Chanel or Charles James, visitors will indeed discover designs by anonymous creators and by smaller houses (check out the exquisite architectural details of a 1920s flapper dress made with silver gelatin sequins, silver metal studs and clear crystals).
There is an entire section dedicated just to Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo and Maria Monaci Gallenga (entitled "The Past Recaptured") and this is exceptional and surprising. It is indeed extremely difficult to find creations by Fortuny and Gallenga in the same conditions as the ones in Schreier's collection. The latter boasts for example two 1925 printed velvet evening capes in lavender and burgundy by Gallenga and a rare brown velvet coat by Mariano Fortuny printed with metallic pigment (that was offered to Schreier by a fan keen on helping her finding a much desired Fortuny piece).
There are also delicate designs by Boué Soeurs and Jeanne Margaine-Lacroix and among the rarest pieces there is a 1923 haute couture gown by Madeleine & Madeleine. Exhibited at the entrance to the show, it reflects in its decorative motifs and embellishments the Egyptomania trend of those years, prompted by the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb.
Schreier's interest for rich patterned designs borrowed from art is echoed in a 1936 dress with large chiffon poppies by Ana de Pombo for Paquin, and in more recent creations by contemporary designers like Zandra Rhodes.
Designs such as the Campbell Soup Company's "Souper" dress, Karl Lagerfeld for Chloé embroidered dress with a motif of a dress on a coat hanger and Moschino Cheap and Chic's 1993 "Art is Love" tunic, directly link fashion with art movements such as Surrealism and Pop Art.
Adrian's broad-shouldered evening gowns with prints of monkeys and kittens point at Schreier's passion for films (she has written two books about Hollywood costume, befriending famous costume designers such as Edith Head, Jean Louis, Theadora Van Runkle and Helen Rose).
Other designs like Patrick Kelly's nail-print velvet suit that fastens with real metal nails, Christian Francis Roth "Breakfast" suit with yellow yolk buttons and fried egg appliqued motifs and Ugo Correani for Karl Lagerfeld (for Chloé) jewellery shaped like lipstick bullets, reflect instead the joyous personality of the collector.
Though different one from the other, all the pieces (at times accompanied by accessories and rare fashion illustrations) have something in common. They were bought by Schreier following one principle: each design in her collection had to respond to one basic standard - it had to be art, representing in this way a personal quest of the collector for beautiful and inspiring things.
In a nutshell, Schreier is not your average fashionista or just another fashion horder, "I always saw myself as a fashion savior," she states in a press release. "My passion for fashion as an art form drove me to search for the most innovative, creative, and breathtaking objects by well-known and lesser-known talents."
Image credits for this post
All images in this post courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photo © Nicholas Alan Cope
1. Dress, Madeleine & Madeleine (French, 1919-26), ca. 1923; Promised gift of Sandy Schreier.
2. Jacket, Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (Spanish, 1871-1949), 1920s-30s; Promised gift of Sandy Schreier.
3. Evening Cape, Maria Monaci Gallenga (Italian, 1880-1944), ca. 1925; Promised gift of Sandy Schreier.
4. Evening Dress, Gilbert Adrian (American, 1903-1959), Fall 1945; Promised gift of Sandy Schreier.
5. Evening Dress, Jean Dessès (French, born Egypt, 1904- 1970), Fall/Winter 1953-54; Promised gift of Sandy Schreier
6. "Du Barry" Evening Dress, Christian Dior (French, 1905-1957) for House of Dior (French, founded 1947), Fall/Winter 1957-58
7. Ensemble, Yves Saint Laurent (French, born Algeria, 1936-2008) for House of Dior (French, founded 1947), Spring/Summer 1958; Promised gift of Sandy Schreier
8. Evening Dress, Cristóbal Balenciaga (Spanish, 1895-1972) for House of Balenciaga (French, founded 1937), Summer 1961; Promised gift of Sandy Schreier.
9. Dress, Karl Lagerfeld (French, born Germany, 1938-2019) for Chloé (French, founded 1952), Spring/Summer 1984; Promised gift of Sandy Schreier.
10. Ensemble, Patrick Kelly (French, born America, 1954-1990), Fall/Winter 1988-89; Promised gift of Sandy Schreier.
11. "Breakfast" Suit, Christian Francis Roth (American, born 1969), Spring/Summer 1990; Promised gift of Sandy Schreier.
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