The Museum at FIT "Night and Day"

FIT is the Fashion Institute of Technology and I had the pleasure of finally visiting on my trip to the city May 1st. I walked down 7th Avenue from about 48th street...it was a nice day for a long walk. I have wanted to get to FIT for a long time and today was the day. 

it was a gorgeous day in the city 

the ad for the current exhibit on display

there was a vintage type street fair...I saw a cameo ring I liked...didn't get it when I first saw it and when I went back...it was gone!! darn!!

had to take a shot of the ad for The Good Wife with Chris Noth in background

maybe one of these fashionable girls bought my cameo??

If you are a lover of fashion and shows like Project Runway, this is a fun place for you!! This is from their website: 


The Museum at FIT is one of a select group of specialized fashion museums, including the Musée de la Mode, the Mode Museum, and the Museo de la Moda. For the 100,000 people who visit The Museum at FIT each year, we work to create exhibitions, programs, and publications that both entertaining and educational.
The Museum is best known for its innovative and award winning special exhibitions, including London Fashion, which received the first Richard Martin Award for Excellence in the Exhibition of Costume from the Costume Society of America; The Corset: Fashioning the Body, which explored the most controversial garment in the history of fashion; and Madame Grès: The Sphinx of Fashion, a monographic retrospective that examined the working methodologies and unique aesthetic contributions of a great couturier. Most recently, the Museum mounted its most ambitious and compelling exhibition in twenty years, Gothic: Dark Glamour.
On the main floor of the Museum, The Fashion and Textile History Gallery provides on-going historical context. It is the only permanent fashion history exhibition in the United States and features a rotating selection of approximately 200 historically and artistically significant objects from the Museum’s permanent collection. Every six months, the exhibition in the gallery is completely changed, although it always covers 250 years of fashion history.

This is in the area of Macy's so if you are shopping there, it is a great stop along the way. It is a little walk but on a nice day, well worth it. The exhibit is FREE which is wonderful and it is also air conditioned which I was thrilled as on the day I was there, it hit 86 degrees!
I was also able to view the students graduating Fall/Winter 2010 Creations inspired by Valentino. There was no touching, sketching or photography allowed but what a site to see. It was magnificent ! They also had the sketches and materials used of the designers and they had their cards there if you wanted to contact them for a garment to purchase. 


The exhibit I had the pleasure of viewing from FIT's website since I was not allowed to photograph. Enjoy!! 

18th Century 

The robe à la française was appropriate for elegant drawing rooms during the day or the evening, while the robe à l’anglaise evoked life in an English country house and was worn in more relaxed social settings.

By the end of the eighteenth century, new rules had begun to emerge, especially in France, where the Revolution of 1789 resulted in a new social order. While degrees of formality still existed, dressing according to the time of day and its associated activities and social occasions became the norm. The turn of the nineteenth century was a transitional period in fashion. Both day and evening dresses were simple white chemise gowns inspired by classical drapery.

Dresses in plain wools and cottons were appropriate
for mornings at home. For afternoon visits and promenades, women wore dresses that featured more luxurious fabrics and ornamentation and were meant to be admired in public. Different types of evening dresses were worn for entertaining at home or for going to the opera or a ball. Dinner dresses signaled the break with daytime fashion, but tended to be more demure than formal evening gowns. Embellished silk dresses prevailed for evening.

The line dividing daywear and eveningwear began to disappear in the 1960s, as dress codes disintegrated. In 1963, André Courrèges designed pantsuits intended for everyday wear, and Yves Saint Laurent introduced a groundbreaking evening pantsuit in 1966. Based on a man’s tuxedo, Saint Laurent’s smoking broke all barriers of fashionable etiquette and genderspecific dressing. By the 1970s, most fashion rules had been broken.

Although fashion would never return to the strict dress codes last imposed in the 1950s, day and evening clothes were well defined in the 1980s, even while undercurrents of the avantgarde and postmodernism led to a multiplicity of styles. Thierry Mugler’s strong-shouldered day suits and Christian Lacroix’s historicizing evening dresses helped define the decade. The draped knits of avant-garde Japanese fashion, however, looked forward to the deconstructed, layered silhouette of the 1990s, when standard dress codes were not embraced

Contemporary fashion adheres to very few traditional rules and promotes loose definitions of daywear and eveningwear. Although true day suits, cocktail dresses, and evening gowns still exist, there are many permutations of these and other styles that cannot be easily defined—due in part to the unorthodox juxtaposition of materials often used in a single garment. For his fall 2008 collection for Calvin Klein, Francisco Costa designed an austere black wool ensemble. Although the skirt and blouse are appropriate for day, the coat is encrusted with crystal paillettes, an embellishment traditionally reserved for eveningwear. At first glance, the ornamentation merely seems to add texture, but in the light the coat twinkles like the evening sky, challenging our perception of what is appropriate for night and day.


For the complete exhibit online go here : http://www.fitnyc.edu/336.asp
This exhibit runs until May 11, 2010. A new exhibit called Eco-Fashion: Going Green will be starting May 26th to Nov 13, 2010. 

Their Website: 
http://www.fitnyc.edu/

Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology
Seventh Avenue at 27 Street
New York City 10001-5992

©2010 Fashion Institute of Technology

The Exhibitions and Programs of The Museum at FIT are supported in part by the generosity of the members of the Couture Council.

All photography © Copyright 2009 The Museum at FIT.

     Cannoli Dreams for You.....until next post 

                               Rosemary