I love seeing how advances in imaging and interactive website technology are being used for educational purposes.
The Museum of the City of New York’s new online exhibition lets viewers study the elegant work of two of the fashion world’s most important and intriguing designers, Charles Frederick Worth (1826-1925) and Main Rousseau Bocher (also known as Mainbocher, 1891-1976). Both designers both enjoyed A-list clientele and reputations as the fashion arbiters of their day.
Entitled “Worth/Mainbocher: Demystifying the Haute Couture,” the exhibition features 57 of the most significant garments designed by Worth and 62 by Mainbocher. With the high-resolution images in the web presentation, viewers don’t have to handle the historic garments to study the fine points of their construction and internal finishing techniques. You can zoon in to examine the opulent and exotic fabrics and trim and even see individual threads and stitches.
“To truly understand New York’s obsession with fashion, one needs to know the work of Worth and Mainbocher and understand the role they played in high fashion and high society. We’re thrilled to bring this information – in exquisite detail – for all New Yorkers and people across the world to see,” said Susan Henshaw Jones of the Museum of the City of New York. The exhibition was curated by Phyllis Magidson, the Museum’s Curator of Costumes and Textiles, and features photography by David Arky.
The new online exhibition is part of a major digitization project that started in 2008 to enable Web visitors to discover ever-larger portions of the Museum’s collections. The Museum’s Costume and Textile Collection holds 23,000 garments from a span of over 300 years and chronicles New York’s evolution as an international fashion capital.
The Museum of the City of New York was founded in 1923 as a private, nonprofit corporation to celebrate and interpret the city and educate the public about its distinctive character.
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Exhibition: Worth/Mainbocher: Demystifying the Haute Couture