New Acquisitions
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Juan Pereira and Andrés Jordan are the designers behind the Bolivian fashion label
Juan de la Paz. They are committed to working with Indigenous communities to preserve
ancestral techniques and bring visibility to artisans. Textile arts are integral to
the cultural identity of many Indigenous people in Latin America. Fashion designers
and Indigenous artisans often collaborate, merging contemporary design with ancestral
techniques. This Chola Asymmetrical dress, made from a repurposed traditional Bolivian Chola shawl, highlights macrame
by artisan Julia Mayta. Through partnerships such as this, artisan communities improve
their economic and social conditions.
This dress was on view in the 2023 exhibition Moda Hoy! Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design.
T-shirts are fashion objects that have been recruited for protest and activism since
the 1950s. The Worker's Justice Project was founded in New York City in 2010 to provide
support for immigrant lowwage workers and to organize for better labor conditions.
Their t-shirt uses an emblem of a bike delivery person – workers who risked their
safety and health to deliver food to New Yorkers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This t-shirt was on view in the 2023 exhibition Food & Fashion.
Ann Lowe was a sought-after designer for American high society from the 1920s through the 1960s. Growing up in Jim Crow Alabama, she trained from a young age under her grandmother Georgia Thompkins and mother Janie Cole. Thompkins was a talented dressmaker who gained her freedom from enslavement in 1860 and later established a successful salon with her daughter in Montgomery. Lowe passed this legacy down to the women in her family in the form of this dress, made for her step-granddaughter Joan Willis.
This dress was on view in the 2024 exhibition Africa's Fashion Diaspora.
The color pink has stood for rebellion and difference in hip hop. Although it is widely associated with femininity, for female artists like Foxy Brown, Lil' Kim, and Nicki Minaj, wearing girlish pink was a blatant statement on their embrace of both their feminine sexuality and their fierce rapping talent.
This top and pants was on view in the 2023 exhibition Fresh, Fly, and Fabulous: Fifty Years of Hip Hop Style.
Below are the types of objects in the collections of The Museum at FIT.
The accessories collection consists of approximately 15,000 objects that date from the mid-17th century to the present day. The collection has a particularly strong emphasis on designer accessories from the second half of the 20th century.
The accessories collection is supported by the Solomon-Sloan Endowment Fund, which was established in 2005 to facilitate the acquisition, conservation, documentation and exhibition of accessories.
- The footwear collection contains more than 4,000 pairs of shoes, boots and sandals. It includes examples by designers such as Manolo Blahnik, Roger Vivier, Herbert Levine, and Salvatore Ferragamo.
- The millinery collection contains more than 3,000 hats by famous milliners such as Caroline Reboux, Lilly Daché, Halston and Philip Treacy. There are also many examples from designers such as Christian Dior, Balenciaga and Jacques Fath.
- <The handbag collection includes fine examples by luxury houses such as Hermés and Gucci as well as examples by Roberta di Camerino, Judith Leiber and Bonnie Cashin for Coach.
- Other accessories include fans, gloves, belts, hosiery and costume jewelry.
The Costume Collection consists of more than 50,000 objects dating from the mid-18th century to the present. The strength of the collection lies in its 20th-century holdings and, particularly, in couture and ready-to-wear women's clothing. The collections are currently being computerized to facilitate research.
- The costume collection includes fashion by designers such as Azzedine Alaïa, Balenciaga, Chanel, Comme des Garçons, Dior, Galanos, Halston, Charles James, Norell, Paul Poiret, Yves Saint Laurent, and Vivienne Westwood.
- The Halston Archives and Study Room hold designs, patterns, and related records documenting this important designer's life work.
- The menswear collection features some 2,000 garments ranging from formal to activewear, including suits, coats, vests, and uniforms.
- Also included are swimwear, lingerie, outerwear, and knitwear.
The Textile Collection consists of more than 30,000 textiles dating from the fifth century to the present, and includes the work of artists and designers such as Junichi Arai, Salvador Dali, Raoul Dufy, and William Morris.
- The textile collection includes apparel and home furnishing fabrics, embroideries, and shawls.
- The collection also includes a number of ribbon sample books.
- The J.B. Martin Velvet Room archives handwoven and production velvets spanning a 125-year period.
The Photography Archive features the work of fashion photographers Louise-Dahl Wolfe (1895-1989), who produced 86 cover images and thousands of interior shots for Harper’s Bazaar magazine, and John Rawlings (1912-1970), who had more than 200 Vogue and Glamour magazine covers.
Image: Louise Dahl-Wolfe photograph of model Sandra Payson. Featured in Harper’s Bazaar, March 1947, page 205, gift of Louise Dahl-Wolfe, 74.84.54
For those looking for the Herman Landshoff collection, the archive has been transferred
to:
Munchner Stadtmuseum
Sammlungsleiter Fotomuseum
St.-Jakobs-Pl. 1
80331 Munchen
The contact for the collection is:
Dr. Ulrich Pohlmann
Tel.: 089/233-22948
Fax.: 089/233-27969
email.: [email protected]