Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Tuesday, March 19, 2024

'Hollywood Glamour' submerges viewers in the elegance of past era

a1027hollywood1
"Hollywood Glamour" is sponsored by Neil Lane Jewelry with support from the David and Roberta Logie Fund for Textile and Fashion Arts Exhibition Fund.

Walking into “Hollywood Glamour: Fashion and Jewelry from the Silver Screen” feels as simple and immediate as slipping into nostalgia. The small yet comfortable space of the gallery and the careful arrangement of beautiful pieces of fashion and jewelry, combined with the quiet flickering of films -- including “Desire”(1936), “Inspiration” (1930) and “This Modern Age” (1931) -- projected onto the back wall of the exhibit, work effectively to create an air of pleasant detachment from reality. When walking into the exhibit, the transition from the present day to classic 1940s Hollywood is abrupt and then smooth; the experience of entering the space is similar to that of viewing one of the dresses -- surprising and then spectacular. "Hollywood Glamour"itself is small, only consisting of one relatively small, all-black room. Yet this space perfectly emphasizes the glamour of the garments, allowing all of their brightness and brilliance to shine incomparably in a space comparable to a dark movie house, or even the classical theatrical “black box.”

The exhibit is a multimedia compilation of the art of the 1920s-1940s era. It is a cross-sectional representation of all that made Hollywood beautiful during the Golden Age of cinema. On one wall, there is a series of photographs of Hollywood stars: “Greta Garbo, in Hollwood” (1928), “Joan Crawford, in Hollywood” (1927), “Merle Oberon, in Hollywood” (1935). The photographs are exquisite in black and white -- silver gelatin prints, taken by famous Golden Age photographer Edward Steichen and printed by George Tice.

The exhibition subtly attempts to answer the question, “Where does the woman end and her dress begin?” Dresses this beautiful were not just costume pieces but chrysalises for their actresses, transforming them from precocious ingenues into strong leading ladies with personalities as sparkling, and confidence as impenetrable, as a diamond.

Mannequins stand on raised platforms of increasing heights, draped with the exquisite dresses of famed costume designers of the period, visionaries of the era who revolutionized the way women dressed. According to the exhibit’s didactic material, a shift in costume moved from the actresses bringing and making their own clothes to entire departments within film studios crafting dresses and outfits specifically for the stars. During the national shift from vast wealth to vast turbulence, Hollywood was as much of an outlet of escapism for Americans then as it continues to be today. Designers played up this theatricality with the dresses on display. No measure of excess was spared; silk, taffeta, gold, jewels and other embellishments adorn the dresses, transforming them from mere costumes for the characters in film to works of art that elevated the performances of the actresses who donned them. These dresses are relics of an age where craftsmanship was valued over quantity and ease of replication.

Pieces such as “Evening Gown” (1935) by Travis Banton blend the melange of artistic influences that were pouring into America during the era of great immigration at the turn at the century. Also according to the didactic material, Banton included “a subtle nod to the Chinese embroidery with the multicolored flowers at the shoulders.” The simple beauty of the long black dress with the pop of color is stunning. Since many of the costumers became designers in the years following their work in the costume design industry, their influence on the works of dramatic designers like Oscar de la Renta, Alexander McQueen and Coco Chanel is clear.

Along one wall is a display case of jewelry worn by the stars of the era. Necklaces, bracelets and earrings donned by queens of the screen like Joan Crawford sparkle like tiny stars in the inset glass case. In the jewels themselves there is a charming gaudiness, a slight degree of excess and a complexity of pattern that were markers of the Art Nouveau period that directly preceded this era.

The exhibition is not monumental in its impact, but given its size, that shouldn’t be expected. However, it is charming and nostalgic. "Hollywood Glamour" pulls no punches and doesn’t try to trick the viewers. Instead, it achieves what art so often forgets to do in the process of driving in deeper messages: pure beauty.

“Hollywood Glamour: Fashion and Jewelry from the Silver Screen” is on display at the MFA through March 8, 2015. It is located in the Loring Gallery of Textiles (Gallery 276). Admission to the exhibit and the museum is free with a valid Tufts ID.