I love the wild and wonderful ways of serendipity. My trip to the Wadsworth Athenaeum’s exhibit “Gothic to Goth” in Hartford, CT, really only happened by chance. While this wasn’t my first trip to the Wadsworth, I don’t make time in my busy grad-student schedule to keep up with the new exhibits. It was only when I read an email from another Hartford institution, the Connecticut Historical Society (CHS), that I discovered this exhibit about mid-nineteenth century fashion. And I happen to be writing a dissertation about a fashion magazine in the mid-nineteenth century. Making a trip to see this was a no-brainer.
So on June 1 I went on the CHS Fashion and Textile Council’s tour of “Gothic to Goth” with the exhibit curator, Lynne Z. Bassett. Originally hailing from Montana, Bassett has spent decades working in New England costume and textile collections, including at CHS, Old Sturbridge Village, and Historic Northampton. She’s currently serving as guest curator for costume and textiles at the Wadsworth. Bassett is also a fellow UConn History Department alum who received an MA in 1991.
“Gothic to Goth” is split into seven parts, and it features original and reproduction clothing as well as books, paintings, lithographs, daguerreotypes, a Staffordshire platter, and hair-work jewelry. Viewers begin with the question “What is Romanticism?” and are confronted with Thomas Cole’s The Past (1838), a painting of a jousting tournament in front of a medieval castle. This celebration of the medieval was no surprise; I’ve read more than enough 1830s stories from Godey’s Lady’s Book about castles and courtships. Bassett asserts that Romanticism was a rejection of the Enlightenment and a turn to the imaginative, which included nature, sentiment, and the sublime.
Section two, “Historicism,” explores the ways that Romantics cherry-picked details from historical fashions (including empire-waist dresses, which will always make me think of Jane Austen). This section featured an undated quote from Godey’s Lady’s Book to illustrate this practice: “To form the taste and improve the style of dress, a careful observation of classical figures, and some of the costumes of bygone centuries, will, doubtless, be found of considerable advantage.” It turns out that this appeared in August 1830, only the second Lady’s Book issue every published. Godey primarily reprinted his early 1830s materials from British sources, often without attribution. This quote originated in an article entitled “The Toilet,” taken from a British advice manual, The Young Lady’s Book: A Manual of Elegant Recreations, Exercises, and Pursuits. Godey reprinted widely from this book, including sections on styling one’s hair, making ornamental boxes and baskets, identifying minerals and birds, and guidance on dancing and riding. All of this advice was fit for aristocratic (or aspiring-to-be) British readers. However, even if fashion styles continued to incorporate historical European elements, the messages the Lady’s Book conveyed became more complicated. By the end of the 1830s, editor Sarah Josepha Hale (who joined the staff in 1837) tried to steer the Lady’s Book’s readers away from imitating European fashions, historical or not.
“Color, Pattern, and ‘Fancy’” might have been the most fun section of the exhibit. The Industrial Revolution brought down the price of cloth while increasing the variety of colors and patterns that Americans could purchase. While there were a number of stunning dresses, a light pink frock with a kelly green apron was particularly eye-catching.
Sections on “Religion,” “Nature and Picturesque,” and “Age and Emotion” explored the greater context of the mid-nineteenth century that influenced the popular fashions. I found the connection between the high Gothic Revival arches and elongated lines of Romantic-era dresses, illustrated by a Lady’s Book fashion plate, to be thought-provoking. And apparently instead of the ubiquitous “little black dress”, nineteenth-century women had “long gold dresses”, or maybe “flowy gold dresses” (my terms, not hers!). Bassett mentioned that the predominant color palette included natural golds, greens, and stone, but “as if lit by the setting sun.” Pointing dramatically down the line of mannequins we had just admired, she called attention to the numerous gold dresses in the exhibition. Many American women must have had at least one gold dress, if not more, in her rotation.
The last section, enclosed in its own room, featured twentieth- and twenty-first century “Romantic Revivals.” Runway fashions from Alexander McQueen and Jean Paul Gaultier depict the Goth influence in couture. Steampunk-inspired dresses show the mix of Romantic and industrial details, although couture houses have not picked up on this trend as much as Goth. I was particularly amused by some of the older women on the tour asking, “Steam…punk? What is that?”
I also picked up the exhibit catalogue, which is just a delight for numerous reasons. I’m a sucker for fun book design, and the endpapers – the fabric from a c. 1850 dress – are so fabulous. The catalogue also (almost) makes up for the fact that no photography is allowed in the exhibit itself.
The exhibit closes on July 10, 2016, so I encourage you to check it out before then!
Fashioning American Women 