|
Boynton Beach, FL
- - - Fashions from the late 1800s to 1960s are
represented in the most current exhibit at the Museum of
Lifestyle & Fashion History. The exhibit is entitled:
Fashion Treasures from the Museum’s Permanent
Artifact & Fashion Collection.
This fashion
exhibit first premiered in year 2005 at the Museum of
Lifestyle & Fashion History’s former location in the
Pineapple Grove Arts District located in Downtown Delray
Beach, Florida. From years 2003-2005 the Museum was
located in a rent-free donated 8,000 square feet
facility in the Pineapple Groves Plaza owned by A.M.
Davis Mercantile. The owner sold that plaza in Summer
2005 and the new owner demolished it for redevelopment
therefore the Museum had to move and had been homeless
until Fall 2009.
After four years
of homelessness, the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion
History re-opened in a donated 8,000 square feet
facility located inside the Boynton Beach Mall at 801 N.
Congress Avenue, #483, in Boynton Beach, Florida.
Thanks to various donations including in-kind donations
of labor and supplies, the facility was renovated to
include three gallery spaces to host exhibitions as well
as an education room for school field trips and children
programming. Some of the major sponsors of the
renovations, include, but not limited to,
City of Boynton Beach
Vice Mayor Woodrow Hay; the Patricia Ann Ravo Fund, the
Boris & Edith Rueger Fund, Mr. & Mrs. n’Gurumo d’Ntenga,
Mrs. Herme de Wyman Miro of The International Society of
Palm Beach (donation was made in honor of
Iris Apfel), Mrs. Beverly Oren, Mr. & Mrs. Dave
Randolph, Elizabeth Schmier, Delores Silver,
Dr. Lawrence Davenport, Huntington Lakes Tennis Club,
Boynton Beach Mall-Simon Malls, Home Depot-Boynton
Beach, Sears-Boynton Beach and US 1 A/C Self Storage
of Boynton Beach.
The 2010 Fashion
Treasures exhibit has been modified and enhanced. The
exhibit was developed based on items from the Museum’s
permanent artifact, archival and fashion collections.
Fashion Treasures was curated by Lori J. Durante who
serves at the Executive Director/Chief Curator of the
Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History.
Fashion
Treasures is a chronological exhibit displayed in a
decade by decade sequence from the late 1800s to 1960s.
Through this exhibit, visitors will have an opportunity
to learn how lifestyles, status or wealth, the economy
and war influenced extreme changes in clothes design
from one decade to the next. The exhibit is also
recommended for students who are doing research for
school projects about history, social studies,
anthropology, fashion and/or textiles.
Although the
Fashion Treasures exhibit is permanent and on-going, the
items, clothes, accessories and artifacts are presented
in the exhibit on a rotating schedule and will be
changed or modified seasonally.
During the Spring
and Summer 2010 seasons, nearly 40 items selected from
the museum’s permanent archival, artifact and fashion
collection are featured in the exhibit, such as a black
1890 silk bustle skirt and black whale-boned bodice
(top) which are both fine examples of the S-bend
silhouette that was popular during this period. These
items were donated to the Museum by Marion Cone of Lake
Worth, Florida. Another item on display is a circa
1920s men’s Stetson hat that was donated to the Museum
from Chris Fraser of Delray Beach, Florida. The Stetson
hat once belonged to her late grandfather August Henning
Youngren who was born in 1869 and was from Galesburg,
Illinois. Other fashions showcased represent the 1920s,
1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. The fashions of the
1920s represent women’s styles that were free of the
corsets and bustles and offered straight, knee length
silhouettes with frilly designs. The 1930s clothes had
the bland simplicity that was influenced by the great
financial depression of that decade. A 1938 fancy dress
worn, by Kathleen Van Hoose Snow of Shreveport,
Louisiana, to a wedding is among the rare and more
stylish dresses from the Great Depression period that is
displayed. The 1940s fashions reveal shorter hemlines
and fewer decorations due to the government imposed
fabric rationing because of World War II.
The 1950s
introduced a return to high-glamour – a celebratory
period because the war had ended. Nancy Fisher Alley of
Boca Raton, Florida donated to the Museum her mother’s
1949 Maytag Dutch Gas Stove which is displayed in this
exhibit. There is also a black Chanel handbag from
Geraldine Roberts-Lebowitz of Boca Raton featured in the
exhibit component about Chanel’s famous 2.55 (February
1955) bag that was inspired by military bags used by
soldiers during during WWII.
Also featured in
the exhibit representing the 1950s is a Hattie Carnegie
Fruit & Flower Pixie Hat that was donated to the Museum
from Janet Friedman of Boca Raton, Florida
The 1960s era
fashions were influenced by the counterculture movement
of that decade. A mid-1960s orange A-line evening dress
by Chester Weinberg is featured. The dress is silk with
metallic thread and plastic rhinestones. Chester
Weinberg’s fashion collection premiered in 1966 and
catapulted his design career. His signature style was
the use of massive prints in daring bright colors. The
Chester Weinberg dress was a gift to the Museum from
Ruth McGoldrick of Boca Raton, Florida
The exhibit also
includes a display of hats representing various cultures
and religions from Tibet to Catholicism that were
donated to the Museum by Gene Hacker of Delray Beach,
Florida.
Countess de
Hoernle of Boca Raton, Florida donated a number of
fashion accessories to the Museum in 2002 and her 1950s
green silk Chinese purse is displayed in the exhibit
also.
And, Military and
ROTC hats of Dave Randolph, former Vice Mayor of Delray
Beach, are shown. As well as, his wife, Mary
Randoph's,1960s graduation Nurse's cap is displayed.
To date, the
Fashion Treasures exhibit is sponsored by the Patricia
Ann Ravo Fund, the Boris & Edith Rueger Fund, Boynton
Beach Mall-Simon Malls,
US 1 A/C Self Storage of Boynton Beach. The Mannequins
were donated by
Saks Fifth Avenue of Palm Beach, Florida.
Other Exhibitions on
Display:
Also on exhibit at
the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History is
Barbie:History, Fashions & More which features hundreds
of dolls, clothes and accessories representing various
careers and cultures. The exhibition is organized in a
decade by decade sequence chronicling the evolution of
the Barbie doll and its impact on popular culture and
the toy industry. Other upcoming exhibitions at the
Museum include LILLY which is exhibition profiling the
Lilly Pulitzer fashions opening on August 3, 2010 thru
May 31, 2011; and SCAASI featuring couture gowns by Palm
Beach resident Arnold Scaasi that have been donated to
the Museum premieres on September 25, 2010 thru June 19,
2011.
Hours, Admission
Fees, Location:
The Museum of
Lifestyle & Fashion History is located inside the
Boynton Beach Mall at 801 N. Congress Avenue, Suite 483,
Boynton Beach, FL. Hours are Tuesday thru Saturday,
10:30am until 5pm; Sunday 1-5pm. The admission fees are
$5.00 per person for adults, senior citizens and
children age 12 over;
$1.00 per person for children ages 2 to 11; free for
children under age 2.
Phone: 561-243-2662. Visit the website at MLFHMUSEUM.org.
Group tours and school field trips are available.
About Museum of Lifestyle &
Fashion History
The Museum of Lifestyle &
Fashion History (MLFH) is a non-profit 501(c) 3 history
museum that was established in 1999. MLFH is the only
fashion history museum of its kind in the State of
Florida. The inspiration for the Museum of Lifestyle &
Fashion History of Delray Beach was the phenomenally
successful popular culture & retrospective exhibit "40
Years of the Barbie® Doll" in celebration of Women's
History Month which was on display from March 1999 thru
September 2000 in Delray Beach, Florida. Mattel, Inc,
loaned from their archives to Durante nearly 80 Barbie®
dolls for display in the exhibit. More than 20,000
visitors from around the world attended this exhibit
which made it the #1 attended exhibit in the history of
Delray Beach and one of the most memorable Museum
exhibits in all of Palm Beach County. The Barbie® Doll
exhibit was conceived and curated by Lori J. Durante who
is the Executive Director/Chief Curator of the Museum of
Lifestyle & Fashion History.
The Museum of Lifestyle &
Fashion History (MLFH) has been raising monies to
acquire property for a proposed museum permanent
facility for the purpose of presenting permanent and
traveling exhibits. The Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion
History has been the only museum in Palm Beach County
approved to host traveling exhibits from the Smithsonian
Institution. When the Museum was located in the
donated space in a shopping center in downtown Delray
Beach a number of exhibits from the Smithsonian were
hosted. That shopping center has been sold and
demolished for redevelopment. A permanent building is
very much needed by the Museum to once again bring
exhibitions to this area from the Smithsonian as well as
artifacts from around the world. For the permanent
building for the Museum, there are many naming
opportunities available as well as other donation and
sponsorship categories.
In 2009, MLFH opened in a
temporary donated 8,000 square feet facility at the
Boynton Beach Mall in Boynton Beach, FL. MLFH will be
at this location for at least three years while
fundraising efforts still continue for the permanent
building.
www.MLFHMUSEUM.org
|