|
50 Years of fashion
A show to remember
By Nan Napier
I had the most delightful experience recently, and the good news is that you can experience a part of this, too.
Obviously, in my field, I go to a lot of fashion shows, but I’ve never seen a show quite like what I – and a couple hundred others – saw at the El Paso Museum of History on July 15.
The event was well supported by the fashion community, and it was refreshing to attend such a great show here in El Paso.
The museum’s fashion show, a prelude to the opening of the “50 Years of Fashion” exhibit that runs through Sept. 16, was whimsical, nostalgic, beautiful and well done.
Featuring vintage designer apparel from the 1950s through the 1990s, the show told more than just the history of the clothes.
The models from Bazaar Models also wore fabulous hairstyles and make-up appropriate to each decade, thanks to a half-dozen Barragan’s stylists, as they sashayed down the runway to five decades worth of music, thanks to Ricardo Valencia.
What was particularly special about this show was that all of the outfits came from El Paso women’s closets and nearly all of them were purchased from local shops and family-run department stores.
The fashion show and clothing exhibit, along with a section on representative local retailers in business during the featured decades, was conceived by a former model and retailer herself, Joann Wardy.
Both she and her brother, Amen Wardy, owned popular women’s stores in El Paso in the 1970s and 80s.
Last year, Joann approached El Paso Museum of History director Julia Bussinger, and curator Barbara Angus to explore displaying designer classics from the last half of the 20th century. The exhibit and fashion show are the results of those brainstorming sessions.
It was great to see such classics as Jean Schoeder’s poodle skirt and Andy Sherrill’s psychedelic embroidered and fur-trimmed floor-length denim coat.
The fashion show was strong on drop-dead-gorgeous evening wear, such as Mary Jo Melby’s lovely cocktail dresses (including one designed by Effie Day at The Popular), Jan Holderman’s halter dresses from the 60s, and Jackie Guido’s white-on-white evening coatdress from Galanos.
The audience was dazzled by Judy Rothbart’s crystal-encrusted gold and silver dress and coat, the late Bettye Kohlhagen’s shimmering orange, pink and gold brocade outfit, and Joann Wardy’s own gold and white mesh halter top and skirt from the disco era.
Joann and her committee, including co-chairs Veronica Dayoub, Allison and Blanca Armendariz, and Cindy Graff Cohen, as well as Trish Winstead, head of El Paso Community College’s Fashion Technology program, have put together a fascinating look at fashion – I urge you to visit the El Paso Museum of History at 510 N. Santa Fe soon.
Nan Napier, owner of Tres Mariposas, can be reached at Nan@TresMariposas.com.
|