Jan Glier Reeder

Tell Us Everything, "American High Style" Curator Jan Glier Reeder

Filed under: Apparel, Events, Art, Tell Us Everything

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's already-incredible Costume Institute just got 23,500 objects better. The Brooklyn Museum's Costume Collection, the oldest and greatest collection of fashion from the 18th to 20th century was recently transferred to the Met for safe keeping and preservation in the Met's incredible facility, which will be getting a state-of-the-art upgrade in the near future. To celebrate this new partnership between the two museums, they're running concurrent fashion exhibits celebrating American style. Although the exhibits include works by European designers, all the garments were worn by stylish American women such as Millicent Rogers and Austine Hearst, great patrons of the Brooklyn Museum.

My colleague, Bobbie Leigh, recently wrote about The Met's exhibit, "American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity." The Brooklyn Museum exhibit "American High Style" takes visitors through the last century in fashion with focus on the French couture designers who influenced American fashion, early American women designers of the mid-century and certain important designers such as Elsa Schiaparelli, shoe designer Steven Arpad and others.

We sat down with curator Jan Glier Reeder and asked her to Tell Us Everything. Reeder spent the last three years assessing the collection, mounting the exhibit and putting together its weighty book.

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