From VogueEditor-in-Chief Anna Wintour’s signature sunglasses to Facebook CEO MarkZuckerberg’s humble hoodies, what an individual opts to wear makes a crucial statementabout their personality and identity.
“There are many different ways that clothing signals one’s identity or group they want to be a part of,” says Joanna Church, director of collections and exhibits at the Jewish Museum of Maryland. “Our fashion exhibits will make people think about how all different types of clothing and accessories — whether couture or casual –make a statement, and what that statement says when a person puts on particular pieces from their wardrobe.”
On April 7, the JMM, at 15 Lloyd St. in East Baltimore,launched a pair of exhibits fashioned around, well, fashion.
The museum’s original exhibit, titled “Fashion Statement,” runsalongside “Stitching History,” which displays dress designs created by HedwigStrnad, a Czech Jewish tailor and apparel designer who perished in theHolocaust.
“We are a museum of everyday people. Hedy and her husband,Paul, exemplify that,” says Tracie Guy-Decker, the JMM’s deputy director. “By goingthrough their story and their loss of life, we are able to see the loss ofHedy’s potential contributions to the world. This feels particularly poignantat this moment in history as more refugees around the world are finding doorsclosed to them.”
Making a ‘Statement’
“Fashion Statement” consists of approximately 75 articles ofclothing and accessories from the JMM’s collection of textiles and garments thatwere donated or loaned to the museum over the years by Jewish Marylanders.
“We have been talking a lot at the museum about identity andbelonging to a community,” says Church. “This exhibit uses culture and fashionto investigate those notions.”
While there are some high-brow couture items in the exhibit like tuxedoes, sequined gowns and fur coats, many of the other featured pieces could be worn by everyday people.
“There is this wonderful, well-loved blue work skirt from the early 200th century that belonged to a woman who wore it on the ship while she emigrated from Russia to Baltimore,” Church says. “This exhibit gives us the opportunity to display some of the lesser known pieces from our collection that you wouldn’t necessarily put together.”
When assembling the exhibit, Church says she wanted toensure that all groups within the larger Jewish community were represented. Theexhibit includes garments from members of the Orthodox community, Reform andReconstructionist Jews, and the LGBTQ community, just to name a few.
In addition, visitors will be able to learn more about somefamous Jewish Marylanders and their signature sartorial styles. For example, ondisplay will be the trademark pork pie hat belonging to the late author and Jewishcommunity chronicler Gilbert Sandler, as well as signature scarves owned andworn by Shoshana S. Cardin, the Baltimore-based international Jewish leader whopassed away in May of 2018.
“These were iconic accessories specific to theseindividuals,” says Church. “This is a way to talk about local celebrities andwhat happens when you become so well-known you can express your identitythrough a single article of clothing.”
There will also be interactive components to “FashionStatement” created through a partnership with students from StevensonUniversity and Custom Ink, an apparel and accessories company based in Fairfax,Va.
Visitors will be able to dress up “paper dolls” in drawings of different garments on display, as well as check out an area where they can create T-shirts using icons that best express their identities.
“The name ‘Fashion Statement’is a play on words, with the statement part being just as important as the fashion part,” Church says of the exhibit, which will run through Sept. 15.
A ‘Stitch’ in Time
(Photo courtesy of Jewish Museum Milwaukee)
On loan from the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, “StitchingHistory” depicts the moving story of the Strnads, and shows how Hedwig tried touse her skills as a well-known fashion designer to come to the United States andflee persecution in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia.
“We are committed to Holocaust education,” Guy-Decker says ofthe exhibit, which will run through Aug. 4. “What made this Holocaust exhibitparticularly interesting is it’s a different twist.”
In the winter of 1939, Paul Strnad sent Hedwig’s dress sketchesto his cousin, Alvin Strnad, living in Milwaukee, with the hope ofdemonstrating that he and his wife could be financially self-sufficient if theyrelocated in America.
Despite Alvin’s best attempts, the Strnads’ request for avisa was turned down, most likely due to strict quotas enforced by the U.S.government, and the couple were eventually transported to Theresienstadt andthen to the Warsaw Ghetto. They either died in the ghetto or in Treblinka.
Nearly 50 years later, Alvin’s son, Burton, discovered Paul’sletters and Hedwig’s designs in his mother’s basement and donated them to theMilwaukee Jewish Historical Society. Hedy’s designs were eventually brought tolife, and transformed into dresses and accessories.
“Showing ‘Fashion Statements’ in tandem with ‘StitchingHistory’ further bolsters what we lost when we lost Hedy, and that her designswere important,” says Guy-Decker. “’Fashion Statements’ reinforces the ideathat the choices we make in clothing aren’t trivial or a throwaway. It’s animportant language we use to talk to one another. We are fashioning ouridentity based on what we choose to wear or not wear.”
For information, visit jewishmuseummd.org.
Aliza Friedlander is aBaltimore-based freelance writer.
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