Haute Couture in New England: Status Survivors

Garments made in the Parisian haute couture system are world-renowned. During couture’s heyday in the late-nineteenth century, women whose families could afford to do so made the trip to the City of Lights to be fitted for at least one garment, sometimes several. While wealthy American clients from metropolitan areas like New York City, Boston, and Chicago are often cited, haute couture patrons came from other areas including the Berkshires and Hartford, Connecticut.   

In this talk, Ned Lazaro, Associate Curator of Costume and Textile at The Wadsworth, seeks to nuance the story of haute couture through the analysis of patronage in lesser-known examples, including surviving examples in the collections of  The Wadsworth in Hartford and the Berkshire County Historical Society. While wealth is a common denominator in all couture purchases, examples from these two institutions highlight the specifics of buying a treasured Paris-made gow

Tickets are $10 for BCHS members, $15 for non-members, and can be purchased by using the BOOK NOW button.

This event is sponsored by Massachusetts Cultural Council and Greylock Federal Credit Union. 

David E. (Ned) Lazaro is the Associate Curator of Costume and Textiles at The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut. He holds a master’s degree in fashion and textile history from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Ned has researched, lectured, published, and taught on various aspects of Western clothing and textiles from the 17th through 20th centuries. His general interests focus on design history, the aesthetics of fashion, and identity formation. Specific publications include seventeenth- and eighteenth-century textiles, nineteenth-century undergarments, the tailoring and dressmaking trades, the influence of Dior’s 1947 New Look, and the 1950s sack dress.

Images:
Wedding dress (detail and overall)
House of Worth (c.1858-1952)
1897
Off-white, figured silk; imitation pearls
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Archer Hamilton, 1976.27
Collection of The Wadsworth