By Alexandra Baddour
If you happen to be in Cleveland between now and January 14th, I suggest stopping by the Cleveland Museum of Art's exhibit "The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s." Some of the designers featured might still be familiar today, whether just through fame, or because the fashion houses they founded still exist.
The pale green evening dress pictured above is believed to have been designed by Paul Poiret.
The two darker dresses were the highlight of the for me. They are both by Mariano Fortuny, who became famous for the pleating technique he used in his designs that gave the dress texture and allowed it to stretch. To this day, no one has been able to recreate his technique.
The bright yellow and orange embroidered dress is the first dress you see on display. It is attributed to the Callot Soeurs, the Callot Sisters.
While the exhibit is not strictly about fashion, it does have about a dozen dresses and capes, a swimsuit, and a beautiful collection of jewelry and other accessories. All of the dresses on display came from either the Western Reserve Historical Society or the Kent State Fashion Museum, which are also both wonderful places to visit if you're interested in historical fashion.
