“Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour”

Opening at the New Orleans Museum of Art on July 21, “Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour” is all about American fashion from cowboy boots and bathing suits to Hollywood gowns and streetwear. Highlighting experimental art-garments, ready-to-wear classics, and iconic red carpet fashion moments, “Fashioning America” demonstrates the widespread impact of media and celebrity culture through fashion. This bilingual Spanish–English presentation includes more than 100 objects—from a rare 19th-century denim frock coat to a zero-waste wedding dress and Savage X Fenty lingerie—and amplifies the voices of Native American, Black, and immigrant designers who are often left out of dominant narratives of American fashion history. The exhibit closes on November 26, 2023.

Image credits

(1) Sorosis Trademark Luxuries for A.E. Little Co., Boots,1890s. Leather and metal. Jimmy Raye Collection, Salem, MA. Photo: Bob Packert, Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum.

(2) Virgil Ortiz, Peacoat: Indigene, 2014. Wool shell, leather applique, sterling silver VO logo buttons. © Virgil Ortiz, all rights reserved.

(3) Tommy Hilfiger, Tommy x Zendaya Ensemble, Runway Look 64, Spring 2019. Silk and polyester. PVH Archives. Photo: Olivier Turpin.