Senior Women Web

Author: SeniorWomenWeb

  • Wanted: Celebrity Parents

    by Rose Madeline Mula

    I’m really lucky. I was a huge winner in the parent lottery. No one could have asked for a better Mom and Dad than mine. Loving, caring, and incredibly supportive, they were my most enthusiastic cheerleaders, inordinately proud of my every achievement — no matter how small. (“Oh, look! See how cleverly she inhales and exhales!”)

    However, they did fail me in one respect: They were not famous. Consequently, instead of being able to share their unrealistically high opinion of my talents with the world at large, they had to settle for bragging only to their relatively small circle of friends and relatives, none of whom were prominent or influential either, unfortunately. Therefore, I never became famous myself — at least not yet.

    In an effort to correct that state, since my beloved parents long ago went to their well-deserved reward, I am seeking a new mother or father — preferably one who hosts a popular TV show (think Oprah … any of the ladies on The View … Regis  before he leaves) on which he or she can plug my newest book. You know what I mean.

    All of these personalities have a highly visible platform which they use to shamelessly publicize themselves. Have you ever seen even one airing of  The View when they’re not hyping Barbara’s book or TV specials, Whoopie’s, Joy’s or Sherri’s other TV shows and appearances, or Elisabeth’s fashion line?

    And when celebrities aren’t promoting their own projects, they’re plugging those of their progeny. Take Regis Philbin, for example. On one show, he and wife Joy enthused about how proud they are of their daughter Joanna who had written a children’s book. They casually mentioned that she would be signing same at a Manhattan book store the next evening, hinting that they might be there, too, to offer their support. How many people do you suppose went to Joanna’s book signing? I’m guessing several hundred more than the five who showed up for mine last week at my local Barnes & Noble — and those five were all friends whom I had to beg, bribe, or bully into coming.

    So I wrote to Regis and Joy and pleaded with them to adopt me. I know, I know. I’m older than them. So what? The important thing is that I’m an orphan and available. I told them I can’t wait to call them Mommy and Daddy figuring that would tug at their heartstrings for sure. But I’m still waiting to hear back from them. I don’t understand why. I even told them I’d happily sign a pre-adoption agreement disclaiming rights to any part of their fortune if I should survive them. I don’t want their money. I just want to exploit their celebrity. I’m willing to let my books soar or plummet on their own merits once they’ve been exposed to huge audiences. But how do I get that exposure now that Regis and Joy have rejected me?

    I can’t tell you how many well-meaning friends have seriously suggested over the years, “You should go on Oprah.” Of course! I’m sure she would have been thrilled if I called and told her I was available! (“I can make it next Tuesday, Oprah; but then I don’t have an available date until the following Thursday…”) Right. These friends don’t realize that for many moons, I unsuccessfully pitched ideas to Oprah’s producers for shows featuring accomplishments of senior citizens. I would have even been willing to share the cameras with other geezers whose talents are unrecognized (as long as they didn’t try to upstage me). Unfortunately, it’s too late now that Oprah is taking her show off the air. But I’m sure she’ll be back in another format, so I may still have a chance.

  • YouTube for How To’s: Just-In-Time Learning

    by Marilynne Rudick

    My husband was standing on my desk, replacing the dead ceiling light fixture in my office. He’d taken down the old fixture, and two frayed wires were sticking out. The new fixture had a third wire — the ground.

    “What do I do with the ground?” he asked.

    With electricity, there’s a potentially high price for getting it wrong. He’d already nixed the “call an electrician” option. I was sitting in front of my computer, so I immediately went to YouTube and searched for “installing a ceiling fixture.” The search turned up 44 how-to videos. We quickly chose from a variety of videos by home fix-it gurus and learned what to do with the ground wire.

    Even if you’ve never posted a video on YouTube, someone’s probably forwarded you a link to a cat video, Christian The Lion, a political ad, or a video of a new grandchild. But my favorite YouTube app is just-in-time learning. There’s a how-to for just about anything you’d like to learn. Even better, it’s available 24/7.

    Learn Anything 24/7

    I’m a novice knitter. Every time I start a new project, there’s something new that I have to learn (most recently how to use double-pointed needles). I have a lot of how-to-knit books, but I find the pictures in the books hard to follow. So, when I have to learn a new skill, I do a YouTube search on that topic. I can sit there, knitting needles in hand, and follow the video, pausing and replaying something that I didn’t get. I don’t have to put my knitting aside and wait until I can find a more experienced knitter to show me how.

    I recently had a work project that involved using an Excel spreadsheet for a database. My Excel skills are rudimentary.  So, I searched “Excel+how tos.” Near the top of the 8700 results was an entire Excel course (59 videos) by Highline. Class 14 was How to Setup Data in Excel.

    YouTube videos are short (mostly under 10 minutes). Therefore, learning is presented in short bites. That means you don’t have to go through a complete course in electrical wiring to find out what to do with the ground wire, or view an entire how-to-knit video to see a demo of knitting with double pointed needles.

    With YouTube you learn whatever and whenever you choose. And it’s free.

    ©Marilynne Rudick for SeniorWomen.com

    Editor’s Note: Marilynne Rudick begins a series of her columns that we felt were both fun and instructive. By explaining technology techniques and subjects in an easy-to-read manner, we hope to remove some the mystery surrounding  an ever-changing Web world.

    Like Marilynne, I’m a knitter (since age 7) and had forgotten a technique that never seemed to be easy to acquire in a two-dimensional book approach. So, a daughter, after hearing my complaint, sent me the YouTube video. Problem solved.

  • The Diary: Three Centuries of Private Lives at the Morgan Library

    Thoreau's diaries

    Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855) relied on her diary to escape stifling work as a schoolteacher; Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) confided his loneliness and self-doubt; John Steinbeck (1902–1968) struggled to compose The Grapes of Wrath, and Bob Dylan (b. 1941) sketched his way through a concert tour.

    For centuries, people have turned to private journals to document their days, sort out creative problems, help them through crises, comfort them in solitude or pain, or preserve their stories for the future. As more and more diarists turn away from the traditional notebook and seek a broader audience through web journals, blogs, and social media, a new exhibition at The Morgan Library & Museum explores how and why we document our everyday lives. Drawn from the Morgan’s own extraordinary holdings, The Diary: Three Centuries of Privates Lives is on view from January 21 through May 22, 2011.

    The exhibition raises questions about this pervasive practice: what is a diary? Must it be a private document?  The diaries on view allow us to observe the birth of such great works of art as Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter and Gilbert & Sullivan’s opera The Pirates of  Penzance. Momentous public events, from the Boston Tea Party to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, are marked by individual witnesses. Many diarists, such as Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) and John Newton (1725–1807), former slave trafficker and author of the hymn “Amazing Grace,” look inward, striving to live with integrity. Three great artists in their twenties, all on the brink of fame — Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), Charlotte Brontë, and Kingsley Amis (1922–1995) — hone their  talents in their private writings. And century after century, many individuals — from the diarist Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) to Abstract Impressionist painter Charles Seliger (1926–2009) — capture memory and mark time by keeping a daily record of the substance of everyday life.

    “The museum is noted for its holdings of manuscripts, sketches, letters, drawings, and other items that speak to the creative mind at work,” said William M. Griswold, director of the Morgan. “Diaries are particularly useful and revealing. They offer a real-time glimpse of the ways individuals of various eras and backgrounds have chosen to document their lives, thoughts, and personal struggles.”

    Exhibition Highlights

    The centerpiece of the exhibition is the seminal journal of Henry David Thoreau, whose dozens of marbled-papercovered notebooks record his well-examined life. Like many diarists writing over many centuries in a variety of forms, Thoreau sought “to meet the facts of life — the vital facts — face to face.” Thoreau’s monumental journal stands alongside the beautifully printed first editions of the confessions of St. Augustine (354–430) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), both transformative figures in the history of self-examination and self-revelation.

    The exhibition illustrates that  many writers envisioned (or invited) an audience. The marriage notebooks of American author Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) and his wife, Sophia (1809–1871), for example, were interactive documents. The newlyweds made entries in tandem, reading each other’s contributions and building a joint narrative of their daily lives, from Nathaniel’s first contribution — “I do verily believe there is no sunshine in this world, except what beams from my wife’s eyes” — to Sophia’s breathless declaration “I feel new as the earth which is just born again.”  Later, their young children added naïve drawings to the pages of their parents’ notebooks, transforming the marriage diary into a family affair.

    Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) — one of the twentieth century’s most prolific diarists — made a thick copy of her astonishingly intimate personal account, presenting to a friend “this uncut version of the Diary in memory of our uncut uncensored confidences and faith.” Nin is one of several featured examples of diarists who sought a wide audience through traditional publication before the advent of the web. William S. Burroughs (1914 – 1997), a prolific diarist, published one of his journals during his lifetime — The Retreat Diaries (1976), a dream log he kept during a two-week Buddhist retreat in Vermont. Even Queen Victoria (1819–1901) released a volume of excerpts from her journals; a signed copy of her 1868 bestseller Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands is on view.

  • The Function of Laughter at the US Supreme Court

    “People Did Sometimes Stick Things in my Underwear”

    by Ryan A. Malphurs, Ph.D.

    Abstract

    Five years have passed since The New York Times covered Professor Jay Wexler’s study of laughter in the Supreme Court. Professor Wexler’s study provided a simple tabulation of laughter notations in Supreme Court oral argument transcripts and was the first of its kind to systematically examine laughter at the Supreme Court.  This article expands on Professor Wexler’s topic by exploring the communicative function of laughter in Supreme Court oral arguments. Using first hand observations during nine weeks of Supreme Court oral arguments, audio files of 71 oral argument cases, and transcripts from 2006-2007 Supreme Court oral arguments, I argue that laughter plays an important social and communicative function in Supreme Court oral arguments that enables advocates and justices to negotiate the complex institutional, social, and intellectual barriers to obtain brief moments of equality within the Courtroom.

    The architecture of the Supreme Court building conveys the serious task with which the justices are charged. The Supreme Court building in all its majesty and power most closely resembles a church, and yet the diverse legal symbolism depicted through statues of Chinese, Greek, Roman, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish figures reminds visitors that the only religion worshipped here is one of Law and Justice (Maroon and Maroon 1996).  The Courtroom’s velvet red curtains, aisles of wooden pews, and Italian marble columns, compounds visitors’ sense of  reverence, so it may seem out of place to hear a justice offering remarks about his underwear.

    Justice Breyer: In my experience when I was 8 or 10 or 12 years old, you know, we did take our clothes off once a day, we changed for gym, okay? And in my experience, too, people did sometimes stick things in my underwear —

    (Laughter.)

    Justice Breyer: Or not my underwear. Whatever.  Whatever.  I was the one who did it? I don’t know.

    Indeed, Justice Breyer’s description of the teasing he received as a boy drew raucous laughter and howls at the justice’s irreverent comment, subsequently embarrassing the justice (Safford Unified School District v. Redding, 56: ln1-5).

    Justice Breyer’s laughter generating comment prompts laughter because of its highly personal, unexpected, and indecorous nature.  During oral arguments, to have a Supreme Court justice reveal their personal experience with objects in their underwear is wholly unexpected and shocking in its impact.  However, other justices have had their own moments of humor, albeit without embarrassing themselves to such an extent.  In Chief Justice Robert’s first term on Halloween, a light bulb exploded during the oral arguments for Central Virginia Community College v. Katz.

  • NIH Research Matters Newsletters

    At SeniorWomen.com, we’re great believers in medical newsletters. Two that we subscribe to, the Harvard Women’s and Men’s Health Watch, does charge  for the subscription. However, the National Institutes of Health Research Matters newsletter, a weekly e-newsletter, does not. http://www.nih.gov/researchmatters/index.htm

    A monthly newsletter from the NIH (part of the US Department of Health and Human Services) is another that can be subscribed to, with such pertinent subjects as Your Aging Eyes and Biological Blueprints. In addition  the  newsletters and feeds one can subscribe to at NIH includes the NCI Cancer Bulletin, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases newsletters and Update, a succinct, categorized newsletter of the newest government resources for the mental health and substance abuse fields delivered via e-mail twice a month from the National Institute of Mental Health.

    Here are some recent topics at Research Matters: January 10, 2011

    Photo of a boy eating fast food.Research Matters 2010 Recap
    NIH-funded scientists made important discoveries toward understanding kids and empty calories, Alzheimer’s disease, HIV, migraines, metabolic syndrome, personalized medicine and more. 
    More…
    December 20, 2010
    Photo of an elderly man.Alzheimer’s Disease May Stem from Protein Clearance Problem
    Researchers have discovered that a key protein implicated in Alzheimer’s disease is produced in the brain at a normal rate but is not removed efficiently. The finding may lead to improved tests for early diagnosis and new approaches for treating this devastating disorder. 
    More…
    Photo of a newborn's fingertips held by an adult's hand.Treatment for Addicted Moms Has Better Outcomes for Babies
    Buprenorphine, a promising treatment for opioid-addicted pregnant women, reduces withdrawal-related symptoms to their newborns better than standard methadone therapy, a new clinical trial shows. 
    More…
    Microscope image of clumps of spherical bacteria.Preventing Bacterial Infections from Medical Devices
    New research has identified a protein that helps bacteria break away from medical devices like catheters and spread throughout the body. The finding gives insight into how bacterial communities called biofilms cause disease and provides a potential target for future treatments. 
    More…

    December 13, 2010

    Photo of a woman standing in shallow water with a specimen jar.Bacteria Can Grow Using Arsenic

    Researchers have isolated a bacterium that can use arsenic instead of phosphorus to sustain its growth. The discovery could fundamentally affect how we define life. 
    More…

  • The Web Collaboration Project at the Center for the Historical Study of Women and Gender

    In July 2001, as part of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Center for the Historical Study of Women and Gender collaborated with Women’s History faculty from twelve institutions across the country: Brandeis, New York University, Rutgers, Swarthmore, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Tennessee Technological University, Oberlin, Grinnell, St. Louis University, University of Northern Colorado, University of Arizona, and the University of California, Davis. The faculty offered at their home institutions courses that gave students the opportunity to do research on women in social movements in the United States using primary documents to create editorial projects for mounting on the worldwide web.

    Participants with dates that they taught web courses to create projects:

    Karen Anderson, University of Arizona (Fall 2001)

    We have published two projects that originated in Karen Anderson’s class, “How Did The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Campaign Against Chemical Warfare, 1915-1930?” and “How Did Black Women in the NAACP Promote the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, 1918-1923?“

    Joyce Antler, Brandeis University (Fall 2002)

    In 2005 we published one student project, “How Did the First Jewish Women’s Movement Draw on Progressive Women’s Activism and Jewish Traditions, 1893-1920?“

    Victoria Brown, Grinnell College (Spring 2002)

    Three student projects from Grinnell have been published on the Women and Social Movements website: “How Did Iowa Women Activists Lobby for the Passage of the Juvenile Court Law in 1904?“, “Why Did the Iowa League of Women Voters Oppose the Equal Rights Amendment during the 1940s and 1950s?“, and “How Did Iowa Coalitions Campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment in 1980 and 1992?“.

    Hasia Diner, New York University (Fall 2001)

    “How Did Women Shape the Discourse and Further Interracial Cooperation in the Worldwide Mass Movement to Free the Scottsboro Boys?,” a project completed by an NYU graduate student in Hasia Diner’s course, has been published in Women and Social Movements.

    Jennifer Frost, University of Northern Colorado (Summer 2001)

    Take a look at the project, “Why Did Colorado Suffragists Fail to Win the Right to Vote in 1877, but Succeed in 1893?”, completed in the summer and fall of 2001.

  • Searching JFK’s Digital Archive

    Update: The History Channel has decided not to air the television series, The Kennedys:

    The groundbreaking initiative we are announcing today is the first of its kind in the nation…Because of this historical initiative, millions of documents, miles of film, and hundreds of thousands of photographs from President Kennedy’s administration will be scanned, digitized, indexed and permanently preserved. More importantly, they will be available to all citizens of the world – not just the scholars and researchers who make the journey to Boston.

    — Senator Edward M. Kennedy, June 9, 2006

    The John F. Kennedy Library unveiled its digital archive that includes over 200,000 pages, 300 reels of audio tape containing over 1,245 individual recordings of telephone conversations, speeches and meetings, 300 museum artifacts, 72 reels of moving images and 1,500 photos that have been digitized, described and loaded electronically.

    Selection

    The JFK Library digitiziation initiative focuses on large scale digitization.  We digitize entire collections from start to finish rather than choosing only the portions that we judge to be the most interesting or important. Selection, therefore, occurs at the collection level. Though our long term goal is to digitize all of the Library’s holdings, we are starting with the collections that are most central to the mission of our institution.  These are also the collections that are the most heavily used by researchers.

    We have digitized a number of collections in their entirety: the President’s Office Files, the White House Central Chronological Files, the John F. Kennedy Personal Papers, and the White House Audio Collection. We have also digitized portions of the White House Central Subject Files, White House Photographs, White House Films, the Television Network National Broadcasting Collection, films from United States Government Agencies, and Gifts from Heads of State, a collection of museum artifacts . As of January 2011 the Digital Archives contain over 200,000 pages of textual documents, 1,500 photographs, 1,240 audio files, 80 moving image files, and almost 300 museum artifacts.

    One section that will immediately appeal is that of White House photographs: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKWHP.aspx

    Abstract:
    Still photographs by White House and National Park Service staff photographers documenting the President’s activities at the White House, his offical trips, and other events; informal photographs of the President and his family at the White House, at other residences, on vacations, and at other non-official times; photographs of Administration officials and members of the Congress; photographs of White House staff and visitors to the White House; photographs of White House rooms and grounds.
    Extent:Approximately 46,500 images in b/w and color.

    Some sections that undoubtedly will draw the interest of the public are:
    Life of John F. Kennedy
    Life of Jacqueline B. Kennedy
    J.F.K. Media Gallery
    The Kennedy Family
    and such interactive exhibits as The White House Diary

    “My parents believed that history is one of our greatest teachers,” said Caroline Kennedy, President of the Kennedy Library Foundation. “As young people increasingly rely on the internet as their primary source for information, it is our hope that the Library’s online archive will allow a new generation to learn about this important chapter in American history. And as they discover the heroes of the civil rights movement, the pioneers of outer space, and the first Peace Corps volunteers, we hope they too are inspired to ask what they can do for their country.”

  • Worn and Wrong Parts; A Tale of Black Ice, ‘Possessed’ Water Closets and Bird Seed

    by Roberta McReynolds

    My husband got out of bed and headed to the bathroom sometime in the ‘wee hours’ of the morning (a reference that takes on a fresh new meaning as we age). Since I had already made a recent trip, I just rolled over and slipped back into a light slumber, until that unmistakable sound broke through my dream state. I heard the toilet handle being jiggled to stop water from running into the tank. My hearing is no longer sharp enough to hear the faint water flow, so the problem might have gone totally undetected for days if it weren’t for Mike’s keen ears.

    It seems we aren’t the only ones in the house getting older. The toilet is 20 years old and its parts are wearing out, too. Mike hates to work on anything involving plumbing, but I suppose the thought of hiring an expensive professional to fix something ‘simple’ is even more detestable. So in the morning (past the wee hours and now into actual daylight) we drove to the hardware store for parts.

    I patiently stood aside while Mike surveyed the wall of parts, combinations of parts, and ‘helpful’ signs suggesting parts. He selected what he needed and we endured the happy cashier who sincerely seemed to want us to, “Have a good day.” Really? We’re holding a bag full of parts to repair a leaky toilet; how happy did she think our day had been so far?

    Well, after much male grumbling, the float valve assembly parts didn’t completely solve the dilemma and we had to make an additional trip to the store for a tank gasket. This fixed the problem … except for a slow dripping onto the linoleum. Fortunately, that resolved on its own after several hours. I laundered towels used to mop up leaks, cleaned the bathroom and we were now set to continue our ‘happy’ day.

    Less than two weeks had passed before we awoke to discover the toilet surrounded by a shallow pool of water. The flexible tubing underneath the tank was now leaking. Quick! More towels!

    Rather than stand by helplessly, and in the way, I made a hasty retreat as soon as I was dressed. I busied myself with my normal morning routines, which includes taking birdseed out to the feeder in the backyard. Mike landscaped a dry creek bed filled with large river rock (dry until it rains, then the sloped yard channels water into the ‘creek’ which drains through an underground PVC pipe to the front yard and out to the street). He also built a bridge from the edge of the patio across the creek bed to the rest of the yard.

    This particular morning was wet and foggy, but it was also cold enough to freeze the water in the birdbath; I noticed it just as I reached the bridge, but the implications didn’t fully register. I got halfway across and hit an icy patch (imagine ‘black ice’ on a highway) … proceeded to slip and slide, valiantly struggling to regain balance … unsuccessfully. I twisted one knee in the effort, but still cart-wheeled off the bridge and pitched into the rocks. The bird seed I was carrying rained down all over the surface of the bridge. The front of one leg hit the edge of the bridge and the palm of one hand slammed hard as I tried to catch myself. I don’t know how or when I flipped over, but I ended up sprawled on my back across the rocks, which were also slippery and wet.

    I remained still for a couple minutes, trying to decide if I’d broken anything besides my sense of dignity. The following several minutes were spent trying to turn over and stand up. I must have been a real sight floundering around out there. My feet kept slipping on the rocks and my knee hurt too much to kneel on it. I needed something to pull myself up, but the bridge was too slippery. I finally managed to scoot over to the bird bath and use that for leverage.

    I hobbled into the house and told Mike what happened, commenting that the birds could just eat their breakfast on the bridge this morning. Mike gallantly said he’d take care of it. I cautioned, “Be careful.” He wasn’t overly appreciative of me stating the obvious. In fact, he met my gaze and replied, “Well, duh!“

    He got a broom from the garage, refilled the containers of birdseed and headed out. I stood at the backdoor to witness what came next, because I knew (and you know) he had tempted fate with his smarty-mouth remark. Sure enough, as soon as he got both feet on the bridge – bang! Down he went. Birdseed fell from the sky like confetti. I rushed out and determined he wasn’t seriously hurt. He scraped an elbow up and crashed one knee pretty hard; a knee that has already been giving him trouble. (At least his ‘good’ knee was still good, right?)

    Then I looked at him and said, “Forgive me, but I have to get this out of my system …‘Well, DUH!’”

  • Views of Gun Control – A Detailed Demographic Breakdown

    Where Does the Public Stand? The Pew Research Center has re-released statistics from a a September poll:

    Opinion about gun control has been split since April 2009 — a substantial change from previous years in which majorities consistently prioritized gun control over gun rights. See a detailed breakdown of American opinion about legal limits on guns.

    In the wake of last weekend’s shootings in Tucson, Ariz., the issue of gun control and gun rights has returned to national prominence.

    The Pew Research Center has tracked attitudes about this issue since 1993. In September, public opinion was divided: 50% said it was more important to control gun ownership while 46% said it was more important to protect the rights of Americans to own guns.

    Opinion about gun control has been split since April 2009, but this marked a substantial change in attitudes from previous years. From 1993 through 2008, majorities of Americans consistently prioritized gun control over gun rights, with a particular uptick in support for gun control following the Columbine High School shooting in 1999 (a few months after that incident 62% said controlling gun ownership was more important than protecting gun rights). More recently, just a few days after the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech, 60% said gun control was more important.

    There are substantial demographic differences of opinion on this issue, including by gender, race, party and geography. Click here to see a breakdown of opinion about gun control across the following categories:

    • Sex
    • Age
    • Race
    • Education
    • Income
    • Marital status
    • Party
    • Party and Ideology
    • Religious Preference
    • Region
    • Detailed Region
    • Urbanicity
    • Tea Party support

  • Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915

    The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915, featuring selections from the museum’s recently acquired major collection  of European men’s, women’s, and children’s dress and accessories. On view through March 27th, the exhibition includes nearly 160 examples of fashionable dress, undergarments, and accessories, many on view for the first time. Curated by Sharon S. Takeda, department head and senior curator, and Kaye D. Spilker, curator of costume and textiles at LACMA, the exhibition tells the story of fashion’s aesthetic and technical  development from the Age of Enlightenment to World War I.LACMA

    “After seeing these rare objects,” said Michael Govan, “It was clear that we should bring the collection to Los Angeles. This acquisition has catapulted the museum’s holdings of European costume to the highest category of quality.”

    “The addition of this extraordinary collection is a coup simply for its breadth and depth,” said Takeda. “But even more significantly for its overall quality and number of extremely rare pieces — shown widely in this exhibition.”

    Organized in four thematic sections — Timeline, Textiles, Tailoring, and Trim — the exhibition examines the sweeping changes that occurred in fashionable dress from 1700 to 1915, providing an in-depth look at the details of luxurious textiles, exacting tailoring techniques, and lush trimmings.

    Timeline

    As the first of the four sections, this portion offers a chronological panorama of both female and male fashions. The women’s visual timeline is illustrated with dresses in various shades of white in order to focus attention on the evolving fashionable silhouette — how each successive era changed waistlines and hemlines and emphasized a different part of the human anatomy. By contrast, the men’s timeline begins with colorful examples that showcase how eighteenth-century aristocratic men rivaled their female counterparts in the desire to impress with dress, and concludes with a subdued 1911 pinstripe suit, a harbinger of the business suit that has remained relatively unchanged for a century.

    Textiles

    The fashioning of fashion begins with the choice of fabric by medium, weight, color, and occasionally pattern. An assortment of textiles — from silk to cotton, gauze to velvet, plain to printed — is highlighted in the Textiles section. Throughout the eighteenth century, new designs for dress fabrics emerged with each change of season. The fabrication of lavish textiles by hand on drawlooms was labor-intensive and therefore expensive, as seen with the circa 1715 bizarre silk man’s waistcoat. Even with technical innovations such as the perfection of the Jacquard loom attachment in 1801 (which allowed for increasingly complex patterns to be woven semi-mechanically) fabric often remained the costliest feature of high fashion.