A New Fashion Exhibit at F.I.T.
Colors Change Their Meanings Across Time
A new fashion exhibit at NYC's Fashion Institute of Technology, "She's Like a Rainbow: Colors in Fashion" looks at symbols & meaning of color in fashion through the ages.
While pink is considered a prototypically girlie hue in the West, in Japan, it conjures up imagery that is, well, blue. "The Japanese cute-girl culture as well as pornography," Valerie Steele, director of the Museum at NYC’s Fashion Institute of Technology, recently told WWD. "People are often intimidated by color," acknowledges Nina Garcia, fashion director of Elle magazine, the show’s sponsor. "It's the easiest way to make a statement."
Their latest show at the Fashion and Textile History Gallery, She's Like a Rainbow: Colors in Fashion, – up until May 5, 2007 - examines how colors are used, and what they represent.
Fun color factoids:
- until the 19th century, European brides chose red rather than white
- purple may be associated with royalty, but it’s also the world’s first artificial pigment
- although it’s now the world’s most popular hue, once upon a time, blue was considered "a second-rate color in antiquity"
The exhibit featured over 150 outfits, textiles & accessories, both from the museum archives. Eyecatching home décor fabric and printed table clothes adorn the walls, providing a colorful setting for everything from a riding hood in red (18th century), a green sequined gown and stole in fox & chiffon from Tom Ford’s final collection for Gucci in 2004, and myriad new new purchases – like the pink coatdress from Yohji Yamamoto’s fall 2005 collection and a taffeta dress dating from the 19th century with violet and black stripes.
