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Jay Calderin, professor of Fashion Histor y

Veer Mudambi

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Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

This past October, Worcester Historical Museum unveiled the new exhibit, “Pretty Powerful: 100 Years of Voting and Style,” which, through the lens of fashion, examined the last century since women won the right to vote. Jay Calderin, a professor in the Fashion Design department of Boston’s Mass Art, specializing in fashion history, was contacted by WHM to give a companion presentation. The founder and executive director of Boston Fashion Week and author of “The Fashion Design Reference and Specification Book,” Calderin gave a virtual talk in collaboration with the museum and Tidepool Bookshop on Dec. 16, providing his take on this historical period. His book was first published in 2009 under “Form, Fit, Fashion,” and reissued in 2013 with its current title, and has been translated into multiple languages, most recently French. Calderin sat down with Last Call to discuss fashion as a tool of historical research, medium of societal expression and looking beyond the runway.

How does your book tie into the exhibit?

The book is a primer to the fashion industry — introduction for students or anyone who is entering the industry. For instance, chapter three is all about fashion history and there is a natural tie-in there and the importance of research and seeing what’s been done before but also the context of fashion and those periods. I treat fashion like a legacy that we all inherit. This collection, in particular, is fun because it talks about how women’s rights are expressed through clothing over the last hundred years.

What really struck you about the exhibit in the context of your research?

There were some very interesting pieces but what I liked the most is that the curator did some great storytelling, in terms of how it was grouped. One of the earliest times when women were entering the workforce in large numbers after World War I, the pantsuit became symbolic. That’s something we see repeated over and over in fashion history since this period. There’s also the power of clothes to express yourself and that has its own section, but also using clothes as a communication tool. The final [section] tied into politics, in a way, and how it reflects in that part of society. In particular, what I liked was that they featured a white suit because that ties into the origins of this conversation for the suffragette movement.

Those were three things that I thought were really strong — for a fashion student or anyone who’s interested, it’s a great way to learn it because if you don’t have it in context, it’s just another garment. But most museums are now collecting fashion because it captures a moment in time and speaks to the people who lived in those clothes and what they were dealing with as well.

Would you say that collecting clothes is a relatively new thing?

Yes, it wasn’t until around the ‘80s that garments were being shown for their cultural impact. Usually, before that, garments were collected by museums for the textiles (materials used) because that’s what they considered important. Eventually they put that in context of when they were made, who wore them and ever since then, museums have started to collect and grow those departments and build their collections.

Similar to how art talks about a certain time?

In that, it’s a documentation but it’s not just in ink but something we put on our bodies and how someone wanted to influence others and express themselves in their day to day lives, so in a way it tells us even more.

What would you say to a student of history about studying a time period’s clothes?

It makes it personal. You can look at the story of the human being who wore it. When I see the pantsuit I think of my grandmother — growing up she always wore skirts and dresses and one day she came home in a pantsuit and my grandfather lost his mind about his wife wearing pants. From that point on, she only wore pants — it was a declaration of independence. I always tell my students to think about how this relates to you or even going that extra mile to put themselves in that time period to see what people were going through. What people chose to wear showed how they were dealing with what they were going through or living through. We are always saying something even when we are being anti-fashion, wearing simple clothes like T-shirts and jeans, we are saying something about how we want to be perceived.

What do you hope people took away from the talk?

I hope they feel like they have access or give themselves permission to say that this can be a part of their world as well. A lot of people go “oh that’s fashion, it’s nice but not part of my life,” and I hope that more people realize that is part of their lives and they can have a lot of fun with it. The book has the same message — trying to make the industry accessible.

How were you first drawn into this field?

It started when I was applying to high schools — art and music schools — and I got into the ones I wanted but the high school of fashion industry offered a scholarship and we didn’t have a lot of money for art supplies so I thought I’d give it a try. Then I fell in love with it because it incorporated everything I loved — graphic design, theatrics, the engineering, the draping — I just fell in love with all of it.

How do you see our current times reflected in the industry?

Fashion designers in general are a lot more sensitive and incorporate things that they care about in terms of causes and charities, into everything that they do. Brands today have to stand for something and designers are finding ways to express that in their work. That’s the most obvious way — we see the fashion industry coming out in support of all these different issues. Stella McCartney focusing on sustainability, she’s a great example, her creative process automatically includes those. I see students entering the industry with all the things they are incredibly passionate about, and they are thinking that way from the minute they start school. That means their clothes will not only have an aesthetic impact but a social impact as well.

“Pretty Powerful: 100 Years of Voting and Style” is on exhibit through March 31, 2022, at the Worcester Historical Museum.

Jay Calderin, professor of Fashion Design at Boston’s MassArt.

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