Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail 1700-1915

Yesterday I went to LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) for a wonderful exhibit.  The details, the fabrics, the gowns... everything was so well preserved and in great condition. If you are in the area, go see it! 

It is a collection of European men's, women's, and children's garments and accessories. The exhibition tells the story of fashion's aesthetic and technical development from the Age of Enlightenment to World War I. It examines sweeping changes in fashionable dress spanning a period of over two hundred years, and evolutions in luxurious textiles, exacting tailoring techniques, and lush trimmings.
Highlights include an eighteenth-century man's vest intricately embroidered with powerful symbolic messages relevant to the French Revolution; an evening mantle with silk embroidery, glass beads, and ostrich feathers designed by French couturier Émile Pingat (active 1860-96); and spectacular three-piece suits and gowns worn at the royal courts of Europe.

the exhibit had shoes, bags, undergarments, hats, beautiful dresses, coats... the vests were wonderful as well.

the beaded, embroidered, and needlepoint purses were beautiful.  In the center is a man's jacket with detachable diamond buttons shown in their case to the right.  the embroidered waistcoats were embroidered first on 1 piece of fabric, then cut out and made into the vest.

this dress and fabric was one of my favorites.  Simple dress with beautiful fabric and made to imitate ikat Japanese fabrics.

the detail in that embroidered vest were spectacular.  the sleeves on the plaid dress on the left were interesting, as were the lace up boots worn to tease

the stomacher's (the triangle pieces on the right) is a decorated triangular panel that fills in the front opening of a woman's gown or bodice. The exhibit is until March 27th.