New Exhibit At Drexel University Showcases Fashion Through The Centuries
By Hadas Kuznits
PHILADEPHIA (CBS) -- A new Drexel University exhibit showcases fashion through the centuries.
The exhibit is called "Immortal Beauty" and is on display from October 2 through December 12.
Immortal Beauty curator Clare Sauro says the exhibit illustrates the fluctuations of comfort in women's clothing through the years.
"When women start participating in active sports in the 1890's, you see a big push towards simple shirt waists and skirts and simplified hats; and then the trend for sportiness will wane and then it will come back in the 1920's and so we tend to kind of push, recede, and then finally it breaks through," said Sauro.
That breakthrough comes at the dawn of the 1970's.
"That is what Diana Vreeland termed 'the youthquake.' You have this whole generation of young women, basically the Baby Boom. They started buying their clothes 'ready to wear.' They didn't want to go for couture fittings, they wanted freedom and they almost completely toppled the French couture industry," said Sauro.