Fashion’s Subversives

We’ve come a long way from corsets and tailcoats, and now, a new fashion-design exhibition explores just how designers throughout history have dared to break away from traditional standards of dress in pursuit of the authentic.

THROUGH NOVEMBER 28, 2021 ELLMAN FASHION DESIGN GALLERY AND HARNETT GALLERY

On view in the Ellman Fashion Design Gallery and the Harnett Gallery, Fashion’s Subversives celebrates moments in fashion history that have defied long-held notions of propriety, beauty, taste, gender, and identity. Representing three different centuries, the exhibition showcases approximately 40 garments and designers that all broke the rules by challenging conventions and reimagining the way we envision the human form. Curated by Helen Jean, the Museum’s Jacquie Dorrance Curator of Fashion Design, and structured into sections based on the subversive ideals each featured garment embodies, Fashion’s Subversives explores the history of everything from the pantsuit and the 1950s missile bra to the little black dress and the ever-shrinking bikini. Jean created this latest fashion exhibition to complement the Museum’s current special-engagement exhibition, Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich, and with status quo-defying garments by Alexander McQueen, Coco Chanel, Diane von Furstenberg, Paco Rabanne, Geoffrey Beene, Givenchy, and more, it undoubtedly amplifies the spirit of revolution, resistance, and authenticity that pervades the expansive retrospective on Gernreich’s life, which is organized and circulated by the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles. On your next visit to the Museum, be sure to experience both exhibitions and consider the connections between the fashions featured in Steele Gallery by Rudi Gernreich—who was known for innovative, gender-fluid designs like the monokini topless swimsuit, the thong, and unisex clothing—and those on view in the Ellman and Harnett galleries. For inspiration, enjoy this close analysis by Jean, who compares two women’s pantsuit ensembles, one of which is highlighted in Fashion’s Subversives and the other in Fearless Fashion.

Fashion’s Subversives is organized by Phoenix Art Museum. It is made possible through the generosity of Arizona Costume Institute, with additional support from the Museum’s Circles of Support and Museum Members. image credits: (from top, left to right) Alexander McQueen, Dress, 2009. Viscose rayon. Gift of Cheryl Fine. Installation view, Fashion’s Subversives, 2021, Phoenix Art Museum; Installation views, Fashion’s Subversives, 2021, Phoenix Art Museum; Yves Saint Laurent, Black Wool Tuxedo Jacket, 1967. Wool. Gift of Mrs. David E. K. Bruce. Installation view, Fashion’s Subversives, 2021, Phoenix Art Museum; Rudi Gernreich with Peggy Moffitt modeling the “Marlene Dietrich” pantsuit, 1964. Photograph © William Claxton, LLC, courtesy of Demont Photo Management & Fahey/Klein Gallery Los Angeles, with permission of the Rudi Gernreich trademark. Rudi Gernreich papers (Collection 1702). Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.

PANTSUIT SHOWDOWN

WITH HELEN JEAN, THE JACQUIE DORRANCE CURATOR OF FASHION DESIGN AT PHOENIX ART MUSEUM

During the height of the 1960s gender-equality movement, fashion designers began to offer feminized versions of the pantsuit. The coveted symbol of masculine power and professional prowess was tailored to hug the female form, marking an important shift in the rigid rules of gendered clothing that had been the norm since the late Middle Ages. In two exhibitions on view now, the Museum presents two iconic early versions of the women’s pantsuit, both of which are pictured here and inspired, in part, by the gender-bending Hollywood actor Marlene Dietrich. Named for the controversial star, Rudi Gernreich’s “Marlene Dietrich” pantsuit is featured in Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich, while a “Le Smoking Tuxedo” by Yves Saint Laurent (YSL), who once commented that a photograph of Dietrich dressed in menswear was the “height of femininity,” is highlighted in Fashion’s Subversives. The stark contrast between the colors and materials of these ensembles is a poignant reminder of the problematic dual portrayals into which women are so often siloed—the sexy, dangerous femme fatale

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