Animating Dress Across Campus

Beyond using the collection as a source of inspiration and information within the classroom, Blackmore recognized that the objects she collected abroad were effectively divorced from their context, namely the original wearer. While we can easily determine how a garment was made as well as what techniques or materials were used in its production by simply looking at a garment, it is much harder to understand how it was worn or used by the original wearer. In this regard, Blackmore explored different strategies in order to animate her collection and indicate how such ensembles were worn by Indigenous communities abroad. This included her development of the fashion showcase “Costumes of Many Lands,” as well as her collection of postcards and other visual materials that demonstrated how certain garments were worn, fashioned, and styled on the body. Certain aspects of Blackmore’s display practices were disrespectful, offensive, and racist (e.g., painting the faces of white-appearing students in black and brownface). At the same time, the intention behind her collecting and display was to educate and foster respect for and acceptance of diverse customs. Her collaborations with several international students in the College of Home Economics empowered them to celebrate and share the dress of their home countries in fashion showcases and exhibitions.

Lalitha Kumarappa Kotwal ‘38 onstage at “Costumes of Many Lands” among other students who wore garments collected by Blackmore in India.

Here, Olivia Wu, Mrs. Tsch Liang Kwan, and Lalitha Kumarappa are shown wearing their own garments for the 1938 installment of “Costume of Many Lands.”

Olivia Pei-Heng Wu ‘39, Mrs. Tsch Liang Kwan, and Lalitha Kumarappa Kotwal ‘38 wearing their own garments for the 1938 installment of “Costume of Many Lands.”

In the showcase “Costumes of Many Lands,” a number of international students, as well as students who were from first- and second-generation immigrant families, modeled pieces from their personal wardrobes and helped dress other students in pieces from the collection. Both Lalitha Kumrappa Kotwal ‘39 and Olivia Pei-Heng Wu ‘39 wore their own outfits in the showcase, broadening the forms of clothing represented from China and India. By using live models, the garments were animated and more dynamic than if they were just displayed on dress forms or mannequins.

Instructions on how to drape an Indian sari, possibly given by Kumarappa ‘38, that Blackmore used to dress students for live fashion showcases and mannequins for static fashion exhibitions.

Sari paired with choli

Unknown designer, India

CFTC #249 and 253

Gift of Professor Beulah Blackmore

While there are several different ways in which a sari may be draped on the body, dressing oneself or another in a sari is a learned skill that requires practice and patience. Therefore, Blackmore relied on Lalitha Kumarappa ‘39, a transfer student from Mumbai, India, to help her dress students for the 1938 installment of “Costumes of Many Lands.” Kumarappa helped dress another student in the College of Home Economics in this cream silk sari and silver lame choli that was supposed to represent the fashions of upper-class women living in Mumbai, India. As a result, Kumarappa had extensive knowledge of how this garment would have been worn in its original context and thus contributed to the representation of her country’s dress practices within the showcase.

Qipao

Peony Brand, China

CFTC # 1997.13.019

Gift of Dr. Norman S. Moore

This qipao was designed and produced by the brand, Peony, in Shanghai, China for the tourist market. According to the New York Times, Peony made the finest examples of Mandarin-collared jackets and qipaos sold in department stores that provided tourists with a cultural shopping experience. Like that donated by Olivia Wu ’39, this qipao features side seams that open at the knee. However, this qipao was made out of rayon rather than silk. Set-in sleeves and a zipper were also added to this particular iteration. In this regard, Peony used Western construction techniques to replicate and reproduce traditional Chinese materials and designs. This garment was selected to stand in for those qipaos that were worn by several Chinese students during the 1938 and 1939 installment of “Costumes of Many Lands;” unfortunately, the students did not donate their personal qipaos to the collection after the showcase.

Mrs. Shoukat Zafar, right, of Lahore, Pakistan, and Miss Aurora Fronda of Los Banos, P.I., wore their native dresses for a 1958 Farm and Home Week program.

Aurora Eusebio Fronda Simplician ’58 and Mrs. Shoukat Zafar ’58 shown wearing their own garments and exchanging information about the dress practices of their home countries during Farm and Home Week in 1958.

“There is increasing awareness, by the general public, of the role Home Economics plays in a country’s cultural, social, and economic betterment. However, much has yet to be done to improve Home Economics as a field of study and to discard the remaining stereotyped interpretations of the courses as mainly ‘cooking and sewing’.” —Aurora Eusebio Fronda Simpliciano ‘58

Blackmore retired in 1951, and thereafter the ways in which international students displayed the fashions from their home countries during Farm and Home Week began to change. Rather than elaborate live stage displays, international students incorporated fashion into a series of presentations called “Family Life in Other Lands.” Garments were not the focus of these presentations, but part of an overall representation of home life. In 1958, for example, several graduate students chose to wear dress- and textile-related objects from their home countries to help create a more immersive experience during their presentations.

Terno

Custom-made, Philippines

CFTC # 1997.31.001a

Gift of Kenneth Turk

This terno (one-piece dress) was custom made for Berinice F. Turk in 1955 and resembles the same style of terno worn by Aurora Fronda ‘58, a graduate student from Los Banos, Philippines, for her presentation on family life in the Philippines during Farm and Home Week in 1958. The terno is derived from the baro’t saya, which was initially worn by Filipino women during the pre-colonial era and consisted of a blouse and skirt made out of piña (pineapple fiber). Compared to the baro’t saya Blackmore purchased when she visited the Philippines in 1936, this style of Filipino dress combines western influences with Indigenous design. This is seen through the design and construction of the oversized butterfly sleeves made out of piña that were influenced by the American occupation of the Philippines in the early twentieth century. Like the qipao donated by Olivia Wu ‘39, the terno offers a transcultural perspective of Filipino dress and how international dress practices are shaped by imperialism, settler colonialism, and U.S. intervention.

Sources

Camay, A. (2020, November 28). Terno. The Fashion and Race Database. https://fashionandrace.org/database/terno/

Entwistle, J. (2000). The fashioned body: Fashion, dress and social theory. Polity Press.

McMurry, E. F. (1975). The Cornell costume collection: Its nature, uses, and needs. New York State College of Human Ecology.

Mida, I. (2015). Animating the body in museum exhibitions of fashion and dress. Dress, 41(1), 37–51.

Miss Lalita Kumarappa informs India about excellence of Cornell training. (1942, April 7). Cornell Daily Sun 62(149), 6.

Press release for “Costumes of Many Lands,” 1938, February 14. Documentation and Review of Ethnic Collection, Folder 29, Box 11, Cornell University Department of Textiles and Apparel Records #23-19-2807, Cornell Rare and Manuscript Collection, Ithaca, New York.

Schwalbe, W. (1985, October 27). China’s shop window in Hong Kong. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/27/travel/china-s-shop-window-in-hong-kong.html