Clothing & Accessories - Overview
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.
"Clothing & Accessories - Overview" showing 11 items.
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Woman's Dress, 2002
- Description
- This evening dress was created by internationally renowned designer Oscar de la Renta in the fall of 2002 for the House of Balmain.
- Oscar de la Renta, born in 1932, was the son of a Dominican Republic insurance agent. He received his education in Santo Domingo and in Madrid. While studying to become a painter, he began sketching for leading Spanish fashion houses to help pay for his studies. He first thought seriously about a career in fashion when he designed a debutante gown for the daughter of the U.S. Ambassador to Spain, John Cabot Lodge. Soon after a photograph of the dress appeared in Life magazine, he was given his first professional job at Eisa, Balenciaga’s couture house in Madrid. In 1961, de la Renta was hired by Antonio del Castillo as an assistant at the Lanvin-Castillo couture house in Paris. He moved to New York to design for the custom-made collection at Elizabeth Arden in 1963, and in 1965 he joined the wholesale house of Jane Derby and became a partner in the business. After Derby retired in 1967, de la Renta changed the name of the company to his own ready-to-wear label, producing feminine, romantic, and dramatic evening clothes as well as accessories and fragrances for both men and women.
- In 1993, de la Renta was hired by the House of Balmain to design their couture collection. He was the first American designer since Mainbocher to design couture in Paris, France. De la Renta worked at Balmain for ten years while also running his own company in the United States. In 2002, this dress, which was from the final collection designed by Oscar de la Renta for the House of Balmain, was shown on the fashion runway in Paris and then worn by Lee Radziwell, Jacqueline Kennedy’s sister, to the American Friends of Versailles event at the United Nations in September of 2002. It was also loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Costume Institute for their exhibition “Goddess the Classical Mode” in 2003 before being donated to the Smithsonian in the fall of 2003 during a presentation called “An Evening with Oscar de la Renta.”
- This two-piece dress is constructed of gilt cock feathers attached to a silk top and a gold lame skirt. The top is sleeveless with a wide bateau neckline formed with a band of small hand-clipped overlapping feathers horizontally placed from shoulder to shoulder, meeting at the center front and back. The remainder of the top is covered with small feathers vertically overlapping in graduated rows that end in three rows of larger feathers from the waist to the hip area. There is a center back nylon zipper opening with a hook-and-eye closure. The back and bust darts shape the fit of the top with a gold China silk lining. The skirt is a column of crimped and pleated silk lame that hangs straight at the sides, ending in a lettuce-edged bottom. An invisible left side zipper opening ends with a hook-and-eye closure at the waistline. A gold China silk fabric partially lines the skirt. A Balmain/Paris label is sewn to the inside lining at the left back neckline. The dress measures 19 1/8" at the center back of the top, 43 1/4" at the center back of the skirt, and 26" at the waistline of the skirt.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 2002
- costumenmah
- National Museum of American History. Division of Social History
- designer
- de la Renta, Oscar
- used by
- Radziwill, Lee
- maker
- Balmain, Pierre
- ID Number
- 2003.0274.002
- accession number
- 2003.0274
- catalog number
- 2003.0274.002
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Levi's Brown Duck Trousers
- Description
- Levi's Brown Duck Trousers
- 1873-1896
- The brown cotton trousers shown here were made by Levi Strauss & Co. of San Francisco, California sometime during the two decades after the company's founding in 1873. Levi Strauss was a 24-year old, newly minted American citizen from Bavaria when he set sail for San Francisco in 1853 to open a branch of his brother's New York City dry-goods business. He prospered by supplying blankets, handkerchiefs, and clothing to merchants in the West for the next two decades. In 1872, he received a business proposition from Jacob Davis, a Latvian-born tailor in Reno, Nevada. Davis had invented a way to strengthen trousers by reinforcing their pocket openings with copper rivets in order to help a customer who complained about his constantly torn pockets. He asked Levi Strauss to join him in patenting the process; then they would go into business together to sell their patented riveted pants.
- Patent number 139,121 was granted on 20 May 1873, and production began immediately. The printed leather label at the center back waistband of these "waist overalls," as they were known in the late nineteenth century, suggests that the product was instantly popular with hard-working men who needed indestructible trousers. The label proclaims "Levi Strauss & Co." of "14 & 16 Battery Street SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. " to be the "Sole Proprietors and Manufacturers" of "PATENT RIVETED DUCK & DENIM CLOTHING. . . EVERY PAIR GUARANTEED. None Genuine Unless Bearing This Label. Any infringement on this Patent will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. LABEL COPYRIGHTED."
- The company's patent expired in 1890, but the popularity of their riveted trousers became an American legend. Iron-clad cotton "duck" canvas (mentioned on the label, and seen in this pair of pants) was gradually phased out in favor of flexible cotton denim, a fabric that was much like the twilled cotton "jean" that had long been used for men's work clothes. By 1960, Levi's had come to be called "jeans" in both corporate advertising and the public's imagination.
- Made of a heavy cotton canvas known as "duck," the pants feature a pair of short tapered belts with a buckle to cinch the back waist yoke, and white top-stitching everywhere except along the outside leg seams below the two front pockets. A small watch pocket is set inside the right front pocket, and a single back patch pocket with Levi's now-famous double arcuate stitching is placed on the right hip. A printed leather label is centered on the back waistband.
- The patented copper rivets that reinforced the upper corners of each pocket and the base of the fly set these trousers apart from all other work clothing of their day. Each rivet is inscribed "L. S. & CO. S. F. PAT. MAY 1873." The pants were fastened and supported by four-hole metal buttons; the two buttons hidden in the concealed fly are unmarked, but the rims of the one at the front waist, and the six suspender buttons around the waistband, are marked "LEVI STRAUSS & CO. S. F. CAL."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1873 - 1896
- maker
- Levi Strauss and Company
- ID Number
- CS*256979.002
- catalog number
- 256979.002
- accession number
- 256979
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Woman's Dress, 1936
- Description
- Mrs. Bertrand Cohn purchased this "Delphos" dress in Paris in 1936. When she returned to New York, she wore it to the Metropolitan Opera with silver shoes and a diamond necklace. She later donated the dress to the Smithsonian.
- The designer, Mariano Fortuny, was born in Granada, Spain, in 1871 to a family of artists. After his father’s death in 1874, the Fortunys lived in Paris and Spain and eventually settled in Venice, Italy. Inspired by his surroundings and encouraged by his family, Mariano became a painter. Fortuny's artistic interest covered a range of creative endeavors, from sculpture, photography, and interior design to stage and set design and stage lighting. His interest in dyes and chemistry led him to textile and costume design, for which he is best known today.
- Influenced by Orientalism and neoclassicism, Fortuny created lush and decorative fabrics. Using a mixture of hand and screen printing to decorate the fabrics allowed him the freedom to experiment and design. His most famous design was the "Delphos," a classic pleated tea gown he began making around 1907 and continued until his death. Named after a Greek classical sculpture, the Delphos dress was a simple column of vertical pleats permanently set in silk by a process never successfully duplicated. Fortuny considered his dress concepts to be inventions, and in 1909 he patented the pleating process and the machine he invented and copy-righted the design of the dress. These dresses were meant to be stored by rolling them lengthwise, twisting them into a ball and placing them in an oval miniature hat box (we have the one that came with this dress), thus preserving the pleats and keeping the shape of the dress.
- Avant-garde American dancers Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis wore Fortunys because of their interest in the body and movement. Originally made to be worn as teas gowns for entertaining at home, the gowns were seen outside the home by the 1930s.
- This two-piece tubular cut tea gown is constructed of a finely pleated rose-colored silk. It is full length with openings at the side seams to form armholes. The wide scoop neckline has a drawstring encased along the inside edge, and there are two rows of stitching on either side of the shoulder seams. Silk cording evenly threaded with yellow glass beads with black and red stripes is stitched along the side seams and the armhole edges. The separate belt is made of rose-colored silk painted with a silver metallic pattern of trailing oak leaves and dots.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1936
- user
- Mrs. Bertrand W. Cohn
- designer
- Fortuny, Mariano
- ID Number
- CS*322625.002
- catalog number
- 322625.002
- accession number
- 322625
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1900 - 1910 Chinese American Woman's Blouse
- Description (Brief)
- In America, Mrs. Lee wore this tunic-length satin blouse with side buttons made from 1890 Hong Kong coins. The generously cut blouse or sam, often reaching the calf, was worn over trousers.
- Mrs. Lee wore traditional Chinese clothes when she occasionally accompanied her children to the local movie houses. According to her daughter Grace, since she did not understand English she made up her own storyline to accompany the films’ images.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1905
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1992.0620.08
- catalog number
- 1992.0620.08
- accession number
- 1992.0620
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1915 - 1925 Chinese American Girl's Trousers
- Description (Brief)
- One of the Lee daughters wore this casual Chinese-style outfit on special occasions, for none of the children wore Chinese dress for every day wear. The trouser band or fu tau , translated as the “head of the trousers,” was folded over and secured with a belt or cord and covered by the vest.
- Lee B. Lok, his wife Ng Shee, and their seven children lived above the Quong Yuen Shing & Co. store in New York City's Chinatown. Though the children wore Western clothes and participated in the local Scout troop and other clubs, their parents required them to attend Chinese school each day, from 4-7 PM.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1920
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1992.0620.10
- catalog number
- 1992.0620.10
- accession number
- 1992.0620
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1915 - 1925 Chinese American Girl's Vest
- Description (Brief)
- One of the Lee daughters wore this casual Chinese-style outfit on special occasions, for none of the children wore Chinese dress for every day wear. The trouser band or fu tau , translated as the “head of the trousers,” was folded over and secured with a belt or cord and covered by the vest.
- Lee B. Lok, his wife Ng Shee, and their seven children lived above the Quong Yuen Shing & Co. store in New York City's Chinatown. Though the children wore Western clothes and participated in the local Scout troop and other clubs, their parents required them to attend Chinese school each day, from 4-7 PM.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1920
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1992.0620.11
- catalog number
- 1992.0620.11
- accession number
- 1992.0620
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Circa 1930 Women's Gown (cheong sam)
- Description
- The donor, Virginia Lee, posed in a similar cheong sam for a US World War II poster and for the "Miss China" contest in New York. Also known as a qu pao, the Chinese traditional loose dress shape was modified by Western designers in the 1920's to be more close-fitting to accentuate a woman's figure. The altered dress form became broadly popular in the United States as evening wear in the late 1950's and 1960's.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1930
- user
- Mead, Virginia Lee
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1992.0620.16
- catalog number
- 1992.0620.16
- accession number
- 1992.0620
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1895 - 1905 Chinese American Woman's Skirt
- Description (Brief)
- Ng Shee (1874 - ?) had this two paneled skirt as well as trousers made in Hong Kong at the time of her marriage to Mr. Lee B. Lok in China around 1900. After the marriage Ng Shee lived with her mother in law in China until she joined Mr. Lee in New York City in 1906.
- The pleated skirt was often worn with a rectangular apron or wei chu’u over a pair of matching trousers.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1900
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1992.0620.20
- accession number
- 1992.0620
- catalog number
- 1992.0620.20
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1895 - 1905 Chinese American Woman's Trousers
- Description (Brief)
- Ng Shee (1874 - ?) had this two paneled skirt as well as trousers made in Hong Kong at the time of her marriage to Mr. Lee B. Lok in China around 1900. After the marriage Ng Shee lived with her mother in law in China until she joined Mr. Lee in New York City in 1906.
- The pair of matching trousers was often worn under the pleated skirt with a rectangular apron or wei chu’u.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1900
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1992.0620.21
- catalog number
- 1992.0620.21
- accession number
- 1992.0620
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1925 - 1930 Chinese American Woman's Skirt
- Description (Brief)
- Mrs. Lee ordered this skirt from China to wear on formal occasions, such as weddings. The waistband, of a different fabric, was covered by a blouse.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1930
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2000.0274.02
- accession number
- 2000.0274
- catalog number
- 2000.0274.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center