Mint Museum celebrates centuries of fashion, from 1700s suits to Armani and hippie chic

The Mint Museum didn’t have far to go when curating pieces for its new exhibition that surveys fashion history from the past several centuries: All of the items are from its own, expansive collection.

The Mint Museum Uptown showcases the best fashion in its collection through the past ages in its new exhibition that includes a designer spotlighted in the blockbuster Marvel movie “The Black Panther.”

Fashion Reimagined: Themes and Variations, 1760-NOW opened Dec. 10 at Mint Museum Uptown, and runs through July 2. The exhibition displays the best 50 examples of men’s and women’s fashion through four centuries, highlighting minimalism, pattern and decoration, and body shape.

“Fashion appeals to everyone because we all wear clothes,” Annie Carlano, senior curator of craft, design and fashion at The Mint Museum told The Charlotte Observer. “Fashion is all about invention and reinvention and reinterpreting the past even in small ways.

“I think it will surprise people, seeing rare historic fashions, and outstanding examples of modernism, and have a little fun,” she said.

Among the modern clothing designs visitors may recognize is Walé Oyéjidé of Ikiré Jones fashion house. Chadwick Boseman wore one of his scarves in the title role of Marvel’s “The Black Panther.”

“That’s a stage that you just can’t buy. I think less about the actual clothes and more about the people and the stories I’m trying to convey,” Oyéjidé told the Observer Friday during an exhibit preview. “In general, my work centers around the issues of migration and immigration.”

Oyéjidé, a Nigerian native living in West Philadelphia, said fashion can be an icebreaker for cultural acceptance and inclusivity.

“The clothing themselves really are a tool to get us to look at each other on a layer that’s a bit deeper,” he said.

In the Mint exhibit, Oyéjidé said his pants, coat and scarf men’s wear mixes patterns and fabrics with influences from Africa, Europe and America.

“It’s a smorgasbord, a confluence of these different cultural things,” he said. “It’s a metaphor for what America is. It’s a mix of the best of many of us from many different places.”

What you’ll see at Fashion Reimagined

The exhibit opens with fashions in motion, including the delicate cotton fabric and ornate embroidery of a 19th century morning dress by unknown makers.

Off the entry are 14 minimal pieces from designers like Coco Channel and Pierre Cardin lined in straight galley style, seven to a side. Two other areas showcase examples in clusters that fit the themes of pattern and decoration, and the body reimagined.

You can see pieces from the Mint’s permanent collection by contemporary designers like Giorgio Armani, Romeo Gigli, Zandra Rhodes, Anna Sui, Yohji Yamamoto, Anamika Khanna and Iris van Herpen.

For an older piece, a circa 1884 silk satin and lace wedding dress by L.P. Hollander & Co. was recently on loan to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example.

“We have an outstanding fashion collection, on par with many larger museums,” Carlano said. “More than many art forms, fashion is very alluring because there’s a lot of texture, a lot of surface ornamentation. And maybe the exhibition will inspire people to go into this field of design.”

Carlano expects people might even have emotional responses to seeing formal wear from the 1930s, and think about their grandfather, perhaps, or clothes from the 1970s and ‘80s and think about their childhood.

Fashion ensembles range from court suits to streetwear, including:

▪ An English 18th-century sack back gown.

▪ Two rare 18th-century English men’s suits.

▪ Wedding dresses from the mid- and last-quarter of the 19th century.

▪ A rare 1928 wedding ensemble by Roman fashion artist Maria Monaci Gallenga.

▪ A rare early 20th-century Ispahan mantle, a cloak worn over clothing, by Paul Poiret.

▪ An unusual mid-20th-century Black Narcissus dress by American designer James Galanos.

▪ Examples of 1960s and ’70s mod and hippie chic style.

“It’s a real treat for people to be able to see all of these different time periods and silhouettes in one space,” said exhibit conservator Tae Smith, who has worked with museums around the world. “It’s a great overview of fashion history.”

About the Mint’s fashion collection

Fashion Reimagined marks the 50th anniversary of the Mint’s fashion collection, which was founded by the Mint Museum Auxiliary in 1972. It has more than 10,000 pieces, from shoes and bags to hats and lace shawls to dresses and suits.

“We’re actively collecting,” Carlano said. “We’re very focused on makers who are underrepresented in the fashion collection.”

The museum hired architecture firm DLR Group to build the exhibition with swooping arches and translucent tapestries to elevate the fashions. “The presentation of the fashions in the galleries is quite dramatic and adds an emotional layer to the experience,” Carlano said.

The exhibit is presented by Wells Fargo Wealth & Investment Management and the Mint’s auxiliary, with support from Bank OZK.

Want to go?

Fashion Reimagined is at Mint Museum Uptown, Levine Center for the Arts, 500 S. Tryon St.

The exhibit is on view through July 2. Admission costs $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and college students, and $6 for ages 5-17. There is no admission charge on Wednesdays from 5-9 p.m.

Looking for the same scarf seen in “The Black Panther”? It’s available in the Mint’s gift shop, for $380.

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This story was originally published December 12, 2022 at 5:50 AM with the headline "Mint Museum celebrates centuries of fashion, from 1700s suits to Armani and hippie chic."