Fabrication: Telling Stories Through Clothing

Museum Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 11am – 4pm

Clothing is much more intertwined with culture and communication than it may seem. The Jacquard machine, a loom invented in 1804 in order to speed up the process of producing complex textiles, became the foundation for modern day computers. The colloquialism “weaving a tale” is used when someone tells a long and intricate story. The act of creating textiles is both a metaphor for and an example of language. Clothing – a composition made of textiles – is therefore a type of communication. In Fabrication: Telling Stories Through Clothing, apparel items are presented with stories of their existence, and as stories themselves. What do these clothes have to say?

Encompassing several sections, the exhibition includes many types of clothing: wedding dresses, uniforms, and everyday fashions. Each of these types of clothing would have communicated its purpose to any viewer during the time period in which it was worn. Some of these objects still communicate their meanings to today’s audiences – most of the wedding dresses on display easily suggest the act of marriage, and clothing labels tell exactly where a garment was made. But there are also many things historic dress can convey to a contemporary audience about the past. Fashion is much more than a trivial matter, and clothing from the past can function as historic artifacts.

Support for this program is provided by the Fred M. Everett and Ora H. Everett Charitable Trust, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee, the Nelson B. Delavan Foundation, Part A, Tompkins Community Bank, and the Cayuga Museum Exhibitor Sponsors