Exhibits open on textile treasures and meaning of dress

Two exhibitions have opened in the galleries of the Department of Textile and Apparel at Cornell and will be on view through Aug. 25.

One exhibit, "Textile Treasures from the Cornell Costume and Textile Collection," is in the new Costume and Textile Gallery on the third floor of Martha Van Rensselaer Hall (MVR). The other, "Ancestry and Invention: Connecting Identity with Style and Tradition," is an exhibition of dress in Room 317, also on the third floor of MVR.

"Textile Treasures" includes rare examples of the textile arts gathered at Cornell from around the world, many of which have not been exhibited for years. A 17th-century painted panel from India of a type known as a "Palampore" is among the rarest items. These textiles were first brought to Europe from India at the beginning of the mercantile relationship between India and the West.

The exhibition also includes a fine group of early Javanese batiks. These batiks were collected by Cornell Professor Beulah Blackmore, founder of the Cornell Costume Collection and the first chair of textile and apparel, during a round-the-world tour in 1936, but were purchased then as antiques. Seventeenth and 18th-century European silks and laces and a group of Peruvian weavings are also in the exhibit.

The dress exhibition, "Ancestry and Invention: Connecting Identity with Style and Tradition," will explore the relationship of dress to human values and behavior across time and between cultures. The exhibition is designed by the students in the Cornell textile and apparel course Aesthetics and Meaning in World Dress.

"It is based on their own research and examines a range of topics that all in some way compare dress and behavior between different historic periods and places," said Charlotte Jirousek, curator of the Cornell Costume Collection.

Examples include: the borrowing of African aesthetics in European couture; a look at street style as epitomized by the British mod style of the 1960s and its later revivals, and speculation on current street style trends, including the idea of men in skirts; how Hollywood
films influence popular style and how popular style alters the presentation of historic themes and dress; and a dress worn by the first professor and guiding force in Cornell's early Department of Home Economics, Martha Van Rensselaer, when she was presented to the Queen of Belgium in 1924.

The exhibitions are open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. The "Ancestry and Invention" exhibition is in a locked space for reasons of security. To have the exhibit opened, visitors should stop at the Department of Textiles and Apparel office in 208 MVR. For further information, call 255-3151.