10 Things You Didn’t Know About Fashion
May 1, 2009 by Rachel Segal
Filed under Fashion & Style
This Monday, May 6th, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be opening the Costume Institute’s spring exhibit - “The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion”. The exhibit employs multiple media forms to highlight just how inspirational and important models are to world of fashion. More than just a historical overview of fashion and design, visitors can expect to be surrounded by a variety of icons and memorable moments that have shaped the way everything has evolved.
Image: WWD
From WWD:
Curated by Harold Koda of the Costume Institute and guest curator Kohle Yohannan, the exhibit features 86 looks arranged mostly by era. It welcomes visitors with a take on perhaps the most iconic model image of the past century — a life-size, three-dimensional re-creation of Richard Avedon’s Dovima, with a mannequin in the dress by Yves Saint Laurent for Christian Dior, and life-size die-cut boards of elephants. The centerpiece in the room devoted to the Sixties has a rotating platform featuring aluminum dresses from Klein’s cult movie classic, while a Seventies vignette of looks from Yves Saint Laurent and Halston reenacts a scene from Studio 54.
Image: WWD
So just what is it about models? There is a mystery and delightful appeal to the high fashion world, especially for those of us who are on the outside looking in. In the off chance that you find yourself at “The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion”, you will naturally want to make sure you have brushed up on all your model related trivia and are ready to impress everyone with your knowledge of all things fashion.
- Haute Couture was established in Paris by Charles Worth in 1858.
- The Lacoste crocodile is considered to be the first logo to appear on garments.
- Vogue was launched in 1892 as a weekly society magazine – it wasn’t until Conde Naste took it over in 1909 that it really took off.
- Supermodels Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista were known as The Trinity during their reign of the 1990s.
- Janice Dickenson first proclaimed herself to be The World’s First Supermodel…and has been reminding us every day since.
- In France, the label of Haute Couture is protected by Law. The Syndical Chamber of Haute Couture requires that each fashion house show at least two collections every year. Each collection must be made up of 35 separate outfits for daytime and evening wear.
- Hurbert de Givenchy met Hepburn during the filming of Sabrina in 1953, and is credited for creating ‘The Audrey Hepburn look’. He went onto design the wardrobe of many of Hepburn’s most loved films.
- Though the names Manolo Blahnik, Christian Louboutin and Jimmy Choo might come to mind, “The Heel King” Roger Vivier is actually the original creator of the stiletto heel.
- In post-war 1947, the “New Look” was introduced by Christian Dior, which included thin waists and droopy shoulders. After Dior released his look, Paris was known for fashion.
- Stiletto is a Renaissance-era Italian word for an assassin’s narrow-bladed knife.
Image: WWD
Images: WWD
