Reimagining textile production

Reimagining textile production

Cotton fabric is natural, renewable, biodegradable and at least theoretically sustainable. With her patented RECLEM process, WashU fashion associate professor Mary Ruppert-Stroescu hopes to revolutionize how recycled fabrics are processed and used to create new garments.
From gowns and grotesques to the little black dress

From gowns and grotesques to the little black dress

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will present its 87th annual Fashion Design Show April 24 at the Missouri History Museum. The show will feature dozens of models wearing scores of outfits by more than 20 sophomore, junior and senior fashion design students.

Bodies at Play: Japan Embodied seminars resume Sept. 23

Japanese body art, elaborate tattoos, fashion and pre-modern pornography are among topics to be explored as the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis opens its fall seminar series. The Japan Embodied: New Approaches to Japanese Studies seminar series opens at 4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23, in Room 18, Busch Hall, on the Danforth Campus with a free, public program on body ornamentation in Japanese culture.

Exhibition to investigate the blonde in contemporary art

This month, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present “Beauty and the Blonde: An Exploration of American Art and Popular Culture,” the first museum show to investigate the strategic use of the blonde in contemporary art. The show starts Nov. 16 and runs through Jan. 28, 2008.

Beauty and the Blonde: An Exploration of American Art and Popular Culture at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum Nov. 16 to Jan. 28

Mildred Lane Kemper Art MuseumRoy Lichtenstein,*Crying Girl,* 1963.The blonde has been an iconic and highly influential ideal of feminine beauty in American culture since the mid-20th century. Yet beginning with American Pop Art in the early 1960s, the blonde has also become a touchstone for artistic representation and critical inquiry. In November, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will present Beauty and the Blonde: An Exploration of American Art and Popular Culture, the first museum show to investigate the strategic use of the blonde in contemporary art. Organized by Catharina Manchanda, Ph.D., curator of the Kemper Art Museum, the exhibition will survey how artists have interpreted the blonde in a wide range of visual media, from prints, painting and sculpture to collage, film, video, photography and interactive web projects. Also featured will be a selection of advertisements, magazines, cartoons, film posters, album covers, Barbie imagery and other materials — mainly from the 1950s and 60s — that have helped to shape popular notions about the blonde.

74th annual School of Art Fashion Show May 4

Photo by Joe AngelesFashion Show May 4Art in Motion, the 74th annual School of Art Fashion Show, will take to the catwalk at 8 p.m. Sunday, May 4, at Saint Louis Galleria. The fully choreographed, Paris-style extravaganza features dozens of professional and volunteer models wearing more than 100 outfits created by the School of Art’s 11 senior and nine junior fashion design majors.