Clothing & Accessories

Work, play, fashion, economic class, religious faith, even politics—all these aspects of American life and more are woven into clothing. The Museum cares for one of the nation's foremost collections of men's, women's, and children's garments and accessories—from wedding gowns and military uniforms to Halloween costumes and bathing suits.

The collections include work uniforms, academic gowns, clothing of presidents and first ladies, T-shirts bearing protest slogans, and a clean-room "bunny suit" from a manufacturer of computer microchips. Beyond garments, the collections encompass jewelry, handbags, hair dryers, dress forms, hatboxes, suitcases, salesmen's samples, and thousands of fashion prints, photographs, and original illustrations. The more than 30,000 artifacts here represent the changing appearance of Americans from the 1700s to the present day.

Most Americans learned about digital electronic watches for the first time when the Pulsar came on the market in 1972.The Pulsar originated in a watch built by George Thiess and colleagues at ElectroData, a small electronics firm in Garland, Texas, and developed into a marketable
Description
Most Americans learned about digital electronic watches for the first time when the Pulsar came on the market in 1972.
The Pulsar originated in a watch built by George Thiess and colleagues at ElectroData, a small electronics firm in Garland, Texas, and developed into a marketable piece of fine jewelry when ElectroData partnered with a division of the Hamilton Watch Co. of Lancaster, Pa. The watch had no moving parts. It was huge, showy and expensive. With a price tag of $2100, the Pulsar cost about as much as a small car at that time.
Hamilton marketed the watch as "a time computer." The display was composed of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that consumed so much power that the watch couldn't display the time continuously. Instead, the wearer had to push a button to illuminate the time. Pressing the button briefly displayed the hour and minute. Holding the button down a little longer showed the seconds. To set the watch required a small magnet stored in the watchband's clasp.
For these inconveniences, Pulsar's proud owner got the most accurate time then available in a wristwatch. The new quartz technology inside made the watch accurate to within a minute a year, compared to about 15 seconds a day for the best mechanical watch.
The wristwatch was completely reinvented with all-new electronic components beginning in the 1960s. For centuries before then, watches had been mechanical--composed of intricate moving parts powered by an unwinding spring. When battery-driven quartz wristwatches first hit the market, it seemed unlikely that the new-fangled gadgets would sell. But electronic watches won over the buying public.
Today, mechanical watches make up only approximately 10% of the world watch market. The components for the quartz watch emerged from independent streams of invention that stretched over nearly a century. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries scientists identified new materials like liquid crystals and discovered unknown properties such as piezoelectricity, the ability of certain crystals to produce electrical voltage when pressed mechanically. During the Cold war, researchers in defense and aerospace technologies laid the basis for miniaturizing electronic circuitry. In the 1960s, enterprising manufacturers applied the new research to the first electronic consumer products—tvs, calculators, hearing aids, and watches.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1972
maker
Hamilton Watch Co.
ID Number
1994.0354.02
catalog number
1994.0354.02
accession number
1994.0354
More than a daredevil, Evel Knievel combined athletic ability and showmanship to reach worldwide fame and popularity. Making his motorcycle soar over rows of vehicles was far more dangerous than previous motorcycle stunts and required greater skill.
Description
More than a daredevil, Evel Knievel combined athletic ability and showmanship to reach worldwide fame and popularity. Making his motorcycle soar over rows of vehicles was far more dangerous than previous motorcycle stunts and required greater skill. Television carried his visually stunning, suspenseful performances to audiences everywhere. For his costumes, Knievel chose custom-made jumpsuits with patriotic designs and white leather to contrast with black leather jackets. He always wore a helmet for safety. Knievel’s jumping career lasted from 1965 to 1976; he wore this jumpsuit at the height of his career in the early 1970s.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
early 1970s
worn by
Knievel, Evel
ID Number
1995.0032.01
accession number
1995.0032
catalog number
1995.0032.01
French-born American fashion designer Cassini influenced fashion trends of the early sixties using strong colors and lavish fabrics in his elegant and modern designs.Currently not on view
Description
French-born American fashion designer Cassini influenced fashion trends of the early sixties using strong colors and lavish fabrics in his elegant and modern designs.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1961-1970
designer
Cassini, Oleg
ID Number
CS.308346.006
catalog number
308346.006
accession number
308346
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1978
wearer
Robinson, Jr., Franklin A.
maker
Saint Laurent, Yves
ID Number
1989.0688.004
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1970-1979
ID Number
2011.0135.01
catalog number
2011.0135.01
accession number
2011.0135
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1974
wearer
Hashim, Debra Anne
ID Number
2015.0022.01
catalog number
2015.0022.01
accession number
2015.0022
“I saw it in a window and just couldn’t resist it,” Carol Burnett remarked about her outrageous “curtain dress,” worn in a comedy sketch that aired on her CBS TV series.
Description (Brief)
“I saw it in a window and just couldn’t resist it,” Carol Burnett remarked about her outrageous “curtain dress,” worn in a comedy sketch that aired on her CBS TV series. Designer Bob Mackie created the costume for the sketch, which was a wild parody of the 1939 film classic Gone with the Wind. The sketch, by writers Mike Marmer and Stan Burns, was humorously titled “Went with the Wind” and Burnett played a character named Starlett O’Hara, a name that lampoons the film’s heroine, Scarlett O’Hara. The skit recreated, in comic terns, a famous scene from the film in which Scarlett fashions a gown from the parlor draperies. Mackie’s design included a brass curtain rod balanced on the shoulders and a hat fashioned from a valence. The costume was a vital ingredient in the overall effect of Burnett’s comic portrayal.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1976
user
Burnett, Carol
maker
Bob Mackie
ID Number
2009.0078.01
catalog number
2009.0078.01
accession number
2009.0078
Everyday objects were elevated to artistic inspiration in Andy Warhol's painting Campbell's Soup Cans (1962) and "The Souper" paper dress.Currently not on view
Description
Everyday objects were elevated to artistic inspiration in Andy Warhol's painting Campbell's Soup Cans (1962) and "The Souper" paper dress.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1968-1972
ID Number
1992.0319.001
catalog number
1992.0319.001
accession number
1992.0319
A poster sponsored by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.Currently not on view
Description
A poster sponsored by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
Location
Currently not on view
associated date
1920
1900
1970
maker
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
ID Number
1986.0710.0007
accession number
1986.0710
This micro-miniskirt was part of a “futuristic fashion” collection designed by Rudi Gernreich, featured in Life Magazine in 1970 and displayed at Expo ’70, a world’s fair in Osaka, Japan, although never produced and sold commercially.
Description
This micro-miniskirt was part of a “futuristic fashion” collection designed by Rudi Gernreich, featured in Life Magazine in 1970 and displayed at Expo ’70, a world’s fair in Osaka, Japan, although never produced and sold commercially. Gernreich, born in Austria in 1922, emigrated to the U.S. with his mother in 1938, fleeing Nazi persecution of Jews and settling in Los Angeles. Along with his then-partner, activist Harry Hay and others, he was a founding member of the Mattachine Society, an early LGBTQ/gay rights organization, around 1950. Gernreich first worked as a dancer and in costume design in Los Angeles, eventually becoming known for avant-garde fashion designs. Many of his clothes were “unisex,” intended for men and women alike, as he sought to detach clothing from gender—designing skirts for men, pants for women—and remove the stigma of nudity. His body conscious and often minimalist designs can be interpreted as celebrations of the body and statements against sexual repression.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1970
designer
Gernreich, Rudi
ID Number
1986.0013.43
accession number
1986.0013
catalog number
1986.0013.43
The donor, born in 1957 in Jackson, New Jersey bought these jeans on sale for $4.50 in 1970 (almost $30 in 2020 dollars), when she was in the 7th grade.
Description
The donor, born in 1957 in Jackson, New Jersey bought these jeans on sale for $4.50 in 1970 (almost $30 in 2020 dollars), when she was in the 7th grade. Although initially worn by men and associated with the West and ranching, in the 1930s the Levi Strauss company, creator of modern “jeans,” made and marketed them for women. In the 1960s, young people took to wearing jeans as part of a larger social movement against fashion, conspicuous consumption, and to signify their rebellion against their parents’ generation. Jeans became a wardrobe staple in the 1970s and young men and women continued wearing them as they wore out by patching them themselves. This is originally a form of what today we would call DIY fashion. Later this trend in clothing appears in films and television programs now associated with this era.
The jeans are Wrangler and retain some elements of that brand (although she removed the label itself), but she modified them considerably, patching them variously and colorfully as an expression of personal style, to cover worn places, or both. They are well worn. She lengthened the legs so they would fit as she grew taller, rather than to wear with higher heeled shoes or boots, as she wore these jeans primarily with sandals or with sneakers and socks (also donated to the museum) as well as a white t-shirt (also donated), and a poncho.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1970
ID Number
CS.306097.001
catalog number
306097.001
accession number
306097
A poster advertising the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.Currently not on view
Description
A poster advertising the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1978
associated date
1978
affiliated union
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
American Federation of Labor
Congress of Industrial Organizations
maker
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
ID Number
1986.1035.029
catalog number
1986.1035.029
accession number
1986.1035
This dashiki, a garment with West African origins and associations, was made and worn by Fath Davis Ruffins.
Description
This dashiki, a garment with West African origins and associations, was made and worn by Fath Davis Ruffins. Born in 1954 in Washington, DC and raised in the city, Ruffins was educated at Radcliffe (BA) and Harvard for doctoral work and has been a curator the National Museum of American History since 1981. She made the garment herself in 1970 when she was 16. Derived from a Yoruba word, a dashiki is a loose-fitting, colorful tunic that was initially worn chiefly by men in West Africa but adopted in the U.S. by men and women alike, worn with either pants, a skirt, or matching headwrap (headwrap is not pictured here). During the late 1960s dashikis became popular in the United States because of young people who wanted to signal their connection with African cultures, Pan-African and Black Power movements.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1970
ID Number
1984.0826.02
accession number
1984.0826
catalog number
1984.0826.02
A poster advertising the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.Currently not on view
Description
A poster advertising the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
Location
Currently not on view
associated date
1972
maker
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
ID Number
1986.0710.0050
accession number
1986.0710
This micro-miniskirt was part of a “futuristic fashion” collection designed by Rudi Gernreich, featured in Life Magazine in 1970 and displayed at Expo ’70, a world’s fair in Osaka, Japan, although never produced and sold commercially.
Description
This micro-miniskirt was part of a “futuristic fashion” collection designed by Rudi Gernreich, featured in Life Magazine in 1970 and displayed at Expo ’70, a world’s fair in Osaka, Japan, although never produced and sold commercially. Gernreich, born in Austria in 1922, emigrated with to the U.S. with his mother in 1938, fleeing Nazi persecution of Jews and settling in Los Angeles. Along with his then-partner, activist Harry Hay and others, he was a founding member of the Mattachine Society, an early LGBTQ/gay rights organization, around 1950. Gernreich first worked as a dancer and in costume design in Los Angeles, eventually becoming known for avant-garde fashion designs. Many of his clothes were “unisex,” intended for men and women alike, as he sought to detach clothing from gender—designing skirts for men, pants for women—and remove the stigma of nudity. His body conscious and often minimalist designs can be interpreted as celebrations of the body and statements against sexual repression.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1970
designer
Gernreich, Rudi
ID Number
1986.0013.42
accession number
1986.0013
catalog number
1986.0013.42
David Powell, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, designed this button for the Philadelphia Earth Week Committee on the occasion of the first Earth Day in 1970. The button was made by Horn Badge Co. of Glenside, Pennsylvania.Currently not on view
Description
David Powell, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, designed this button for the Philadelphia Earth Week Committee on the occasion of the first Earth Day in 1970. The button was made by Horn Badge Co. of Glenside, Pennsylvania.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1970
maker
Edward Horn Co.
ID Number
1993.3186.05
catalog number
1993.3186.05
nonaccession number
1993.3186
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1970
trademark
Red Hat Society
maker
Lancaster Hat Co.
ID Number
2010.0162.01
catalog number
2010.0162.01
accession number
2010.0162
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1974
photographer
Regan, Ken
ID Number
2014.0112.522
catalog number
2014.0112.522
accession number
2014.0112
mounted and matted, selenium toned, gelatin silver print by Neil MaurerCurrently not on view
Description (Brief)
mounted and matted, selenium toned, gelatin silver print by Neil Maurer
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1969
date printed
1971
maker
Maurer, Neil
ID Number
2021.0060.0004
accession number
2021.0060
catalog number
2021.0060.0004
Performer and journalist Gilda Mirós wore this cap when she toured with the USO in Vietnam in 1971. Born in Puerto Rico, Mirós moved to New York City with her mother at a young age.
Description
Performer and journalist Gilda Mirós wore this cap when she toured with the USO in Vietnam in 1971. Born in Puerto Rico, Mirós moved to New York City with her mother at a young age. Intrigued by film and theater, she left home as a teen and moved to Mexico City to work in the Mexican film industry. A multi-talented performer, she had careers not only on film and in the theater but also on radio and television. She hosted her own call-in program on WADO in NY and worked in front and behind the cameras at WXTV-41 (SIN and Univision) and WNJU-47 (Telemundo). She also promoted talent, working with stars such as Celia Cruz, and made several documentaries.
In the 1950s, consumers made television the centerpiece of the home, fueling competition among broadcasters to create new products, new programming, new stations, and even new networks. Innovators, such as those behind the creation of independent Spanish-language stations and eventually the Spanish International Network (SIN), challenged established broadcasting companies by creating new programming in Spanish and catering to underserved audiences. Established in the early 1960s, SIN knit together independents and created new stations to serve a national audience. With a complex business and legal history, SIN eventually became Univision in the 1980s. In the decades after 1980, Spanish-language programing options grew with recognition of Latinx communities as powerful consumer groups and the advent of new broadcasting technologies such as cable and digital TV.
Description (Spanish)
La artista y periodista Gilda Mirós usó esta gorra cuando estuvo de gira con la USO en Vietnam en 1971. Nacida en Santruce, Puerto Rico, Mirós se mudó de pequeña a la ciudad de Nueva York con su madre. Intrigada por el cine y el teatro, se mudó sola a la Ciudad de México cuando era adolescente para trabajar en la industria cinematográfica mexicana. Intérprete de múltiples talentos, se destaco en el cine y el teatro al igual que en la radio y la televisión. Condujo su propio programa radial con llamadas al aire en la radio WADO de Nueva York y trabajó detrás y frente a las cámaras en WXTV-41 (SIN y Univision) y WNJU-47 (Telemundo). También se dedicó a promover el talento artístico, trabajando con estrellas como Celia Cruz, y realizó varios documentales.
En la década de 1950, los consumidores hicieron de la televisión un componente central de sus hogares, fomentando la competencia entre las difusoras para crear nuevos productos, nueva programación, nuevas estaciones, e incluso nuevas redes. Los innovadores, como los creadores de los canales independientes de habla hispana y el Spanish International Network (SIN), desafiaron a las emisoras establecidas creando nuevos programas en español centradas en audiencias históricamente ignoradas. Establecido a principios de los sesenta, SIN unió a difusoras independentes y creó nuevas estaciones para responder a una audiencia nacional. Tras una compleja trayectoria empresarial y legal, SIN se convertiría en Univisión en la década de 1980. Durante las próximas décadas, las opciones de programación en español crecieron gracias al reconocimiento de la comunidad Latinx, como poderoso grupo de consumidores, y a la introducción de nuevas tecnologías de difusión, como el cable y la televisión digital.
date made
ca 1971
related
United Service Organizations
ID Number
2016.0233.01
catalog number
2016.0233.01
accession number
2016.0233
The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970. The occasion was first conceived by Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, as a national day of observance for environmental problems.
Description
The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970. The occasion was first conceived by Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, as a national day of observance for environmental problems. Millions of people participated in events across the country, while thousands of schools held special educational sessions, all dealing with environmental concerns. Earth Day has since become an annual event, celebrated worldwide.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1970
maker
Edward Horn Co.
ID Number
1993.3186.08
nonaccession number
1993.3186
catalog number
1993.3186.08
This placard came from a Washington, D.C. job rally in 1975. "Buy American" campaigns were one response by manufacturers and unions to global competition.Currently not on view
Description
This placard came from a Washington, D.C. job rally in 1975. "Buy American" campaigns were one response by manufacturers and unions to global competition.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1975
used date
1975
affiliated union
American Federation of Labor
Congress of Industrial Organizations
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
maker
Allied Printing Trades Council
ID Number
1979.0734.06
catalog number
1979.0734.06
accession number
1979.0734
This is a cotton, Rolling Stones concert t-shirt from their 1978 U.S. tour. It is white with red trim around the neck and shirt sleeves, has black writing and the signature red tongue logo for the band.
Description
This is a cotton, Rolling Stones concert t-shirt from their 1978 U.S. tour. It is white with red trim around the neck and shirt sleeves, has black writing and the signature red tongue logo for the band. The Rolling Stones were formed in 1962 by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones. Their first gig was on July 12, 1962 and they have been together ever since making them the longest playing rock band. They attribute some of their longevity to the ability to change and adapt to new musical styles while retaining some sense of their blues roots. In 1989, the Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1978
ID Number
1980.0873.003
accession number
1980.0873
catalog number
1980.0873.003
Several types of renewable energy sources are available as alternatives to non-renewable, carbon-based fuels. This button advocates the use of solar energy to generate electricity.
Description (Brief)
Several types of renewable energy sources are available as alternatives to non-renewable, carbon-based fuels. This button advocates the use of solar energy to generate electricity. It was distributed in 1978 by Solar Action, the Washington, D.C.-based organization that helped to organize Sun Day (3 May 1978.) For many people, the 1970s energy crisis was a call to action to change how electricity was generated and used. Making the choice to “go solar”—and encouraging others to do the same—reflected growing optimism about the potential of clean, accessible solar energy.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1978
maker
Edward Horn Co.
ID Number
2003.0014.0400
accession number
2003.0014
catalog number
2003.0014.0400

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