Bus Trip to Rhode Island School of Design Museum with Special Tour of Costume Collections

Join members of CMCH’s Fashion & Textile Council for a special trip to the Rhode Island School of Design Museum (RISD Museum). Participants will enjoy an in-depth tour with Curator of Costume and Textiles Kate Irvin, as well as time to explore costume and fashion-themed exhibits including the Angelo Donghia Costume and Textiles Study Center, Swagged and Poufed: The Upholstered Body in the Late 19th Century and Today, and the newly opened All of Everything: Todd Oldham Fashion (please see descriptions of the exhibits below). Delicious lunch at Hemenway’s Restaurant is included. The bus will depart the CMCH at 9:00 am and return at 5:00 pm.

The trip is free for subscribers to the CMCH Fashion & Textiles Council.

The trip is $85 for CMCH members and $100 for non-members. Space is limited and pre-registration is required.

Please contact Adult Programs Manager Jenny Steadman to register for the trip by phone (860) 236-5621 x289 or email jennifer_steadman@chs.org.

More information on the Costume & Textiles exhibits on view at the RISD Museum:

Kate Irvin has been a Curator at the RISD Museum since 2009. Her recent exhibitions include: Artist/Rebel/ Dandy: Men of Fashion; From the Land of the Immortals: Chinese Taoist Robes and Textiles; and Sartorial Sanctuary.

The Angelo Donghia Costume and Textiles Study Center and its companion gallery are dedicated to the study and creative interpretation of a broad range of objects by juxtaposing different cultures, time periods, and media. Such comparisons illustrate the ebb and flow of ideas, aesthetics, and techniques, issues integral to the history of design, craftsmanship, trade, and culture, as well as current artistic practice.

Swagged and Poufed: The Upholstered Body in the Late 19th Century and Today

In 1890, designer William Morris quipped that women were “upholstered like arm chairs.” Buried under folds, ruching, tassels, and fringe, they were on the verge of becoming fixtures in their own drawing rooms. The confections on view in Swagged and Poufed illustrate the luxury of material and eccentricities of form typical of the late 19th century and reveal their continued influence in contemporary designs by Kenzo Takada, Gianfranco Ferré for Dior, and Maison Martin Margiela.

All of Everything: Todd Oldham Fashion

Designer Todd Oldham burst onto the New York fashion landscape in 1989 and blazed a spirited trail throughout the next decade with his scrupulously constructed garments, featuring extravagant embellishments and raucous color combinations. All of Everything is the first major exhibition to focus on the exuberant style and playful aesthetic of Oldham’s runway opus of the 1990s. “We were always throwing curve balls,” Oldham recalls. “I felt I had something to say and it was meaningful and had duality and juxtaposition.” Since then, the multi-talented creator has mastered nearly every element of design—from furniture to film—and his innovative, bricolage approach earned him an honorary doctorate degree from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2014.

Drawn from the Todd Oldham Studio archives, a substantial portion of which was recently donated to the RISD Museum, All of Everythingfeatures more than 65 full ensembles—from Oldham’s Swarovski crystal-encrusted feats of craftsmanship to his Pantone non-repeating print designs. Carefully considered details, such as embroidered motifs applied at a 400-year-old handicraft workshop in India, illustrate the designer’s deep interest in all aspects of textile development and the preservation of artisan industries. Oldham’s intensive design process is further revealed through his original artwork, while projections of recently discovered runway video footage activate the gallery space and illustrate the full creative endeavor of his fashion shows—which were among the first to feature African-American and ingénue talents such as Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, and Tyra Banks, among many others.

About the RISD Museum Costume & Textile Collection

The RISD Museum has one of the finest collections of historical textiles and items of dress in this country, with a range that spans the centuries from at least 1500 BCE to the present and that includes representative cloth and clothing from as many geographic areas as possible. Starting with items such a pair of Native American moccasins and a Hawaiian bark cloth acquired in the Museum’s early history, the collection has grown to include more than 26,000 objects today. Our earliest piece is an ancient Egyptian tomb fragment, and a major focus of our present collecting agenda is the acquisition of contemporary fashion and textiles from all over the world. The richness of the Costume and Textiles collections extends from examples of Elizabethan needlework, Italian Renaissance textiles, French printed toile de Jouey, Navajo chief’s blankets, and fashions from the most celebrated European and American designers of the 19th and 20th centuries to a world-renowned group of Japanese Noh theater robes and Buddhist priest robes donated by Lucy Truman Aldrich, the greatest single donor to the Museum’s textile collection.