A towering Mardi Gras costume of velvet, sequins, and feathers. A gypsy robe from Broadway. The Academy Award winner for best costuming from 1962. Joan Crawford’s dress from The Bride Wore Red. USO performers’ ensembles from World War II. Elaborate headdresses worn in Chinese opera. A racy red cabaret costume from 1930s Berlin. Costume creates an effect that is larger-than-life, holding us spellbound. Often made to rigorous couturier standards to withstand many performances, costumes nonetheless do wear out, and historically many have not survived. Today there is a growing movement to preserve performance costumes and to appreciate the effort, skill, and painstaking attention to detail that go into their creation. Our unique book-on-the-wall format gives you historical information about the featured historic fashions and sixty-plus images from twelve collections. Costume in Performance showcases a wide, wild range of garments for your enjoyment throughout 2007. Sally Queen, a specialist in eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century costume and reproduction, began publishing historical fashion calendars in 1998. She is the publisher of Textiles for Colonial Clothing, Textiles for Clothing in the Early Republic: 1800–1850, and Textiles for Early Victorian Clothing: 1850–1880. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art Louisiana State Museum National Museum of Roller Skating Woodbury University Fashion Study Collection National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution San Diego Historical Society Elizabeth Sage Historic Costume Collection, Indiana University University Museum, University of New Hampshire Cosprop Exhibitions Theodore Theodous Private Collection Fashion Institute of Technology Historic Costume and Textiles Collection, The Ohio State University
