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The New York Public Library is proud to host its annual Anti-Prom, our biggest event devoted to the teens of New York City tomorrow, Friday, June 14th at 6:30pm. This year’s Anti-Prom theme is Masquerade! There will be food, live music by DJ Johnny Dynell, entertainment by ChiChi Valenti and the Jackie Factory, a runway show and prizes for the best dressed of the night—all in the name of acceptance and good fun! For more information click here.
On this day in history, blue jeans are born! On May 20, 1873, Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received a a patent to create pants reinforced with metal rivets, thus marking the birth of the popular pant.
The image here depicts the White Oak Cotton Mill in North Carolina, one of the largest denim mills in the world. The GIF was created by the Library’s Stereogranimator using images from the Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views in the Library’s Photography Division.
If you don’t know about Anti-Prom, then you must learn about Anti-Prom. In the meantime, for those in the know, yesterday was an inspiring day for some students from the High School of Fashion Industries. Read all about it below, courtesy of NYPL’s Art & Architecture collection.
Yesterday afternoon students from the High School of Fashion Industries came to the Art & Architecture Collection! They were there to get inspiration from our collection for the designs of their costumes for Prom. The theme this year will be “Commedia del’Arte”, a masked ball of Harlequin and his comrades.
Today they were going shopping for fabric, jewels, lace and materials to create their costumes and masks.
Anti-Prom is June 7th! For more info go to: http://nyplantiprom.tumblr.com/
Join us next week for an evening of conversation with Vanity Fair’s legendary Editor-in-Chief, Graydon Carter and iconic society photographer Jonathan Becker, celebrating of Becker’s 30 years at the magazine.
Date: Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Time: 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Today is National Hat Day and we tip our hat to NYPL’s digital gallery, where you can find all kinds of hats to celebrate this (in our modest opinion) delightful holiday. NYPL’s Arents collection holds an assortment of cigarette cards depicting a bevy of beautiful hats.
Will you be wearing your favorite or most outrageous hat?
When costume designer Eric Daman was tasked with outfitting the titular character in the new show The Carrie Diaries - a prequel to the oh-so-fashionable Sex and the City series set in the ’80s - where did he go for inspiration? The Library! As reported by The Cut:
To achieve an authentic throwback look, Daman dusted off his own high-school yearbook, and pored over hundreds of archived patterns from McCalls and Vogue, to old Sears catalogues and vintage GQ ads at the New York Public Library.
We’re so glad Eric found what he was looking for here at the Library, but as Carrie Bradshaw would say, we couldn’t help but wonder…Did Eric’s romance with research blossom in the DeWitt Wallace Periodical Room as he looked through copies of magazines like Vogue and GQ and archives on microfilm? Or was it the Mid-Manhattan Library’s Picture Collection, filled with advertisements, fashion drawings and more?
Do some fashion research of your own this weekend, and remember the fabulous fashions of the 1980s and the 1880s. Or maybe it’s time to re-watch the Sex and the City movie and see Carrie (almost) walk down the aisle at a very lovely building you might just recognize.
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts‘ Katharine Hepburn: Dressed for Stage and Screen is making a splash across the pond, too. The BBC visited the exhibit - currently on display until January 12 - to take a look at some of the beloved star’s costumes, khakis and archives, and uncover what makes Hepburn an enduring fashion icon around the world. Watch the story here, and click here for more details on Dressed for Stage and Screen.
Rumor has it that more couples get engaged in December than during any other month of the year. Good thing NYPL just started a new Pinterest board all about weddings. So if you’re looking for vintage fashion inspiration, images of historical figures at their weddings, swoon-worthy shots of recent receptions here at the Library, or just want to see some fun illustrations (like the one above) from our Digital Gallery, then follow our new board at http://pinterest.com/nypl/weddings/.
Happy Button Day! According to our sources, November 16th is Button Day, which we support whole-heartedly. We can be very fashionable here at the Library, as was evident in our appearance this summer in the Wall Street Journal, and therefore acknowledge the importance of buttons - whether they are functional, decorative, or declarative.
For today’s flashback friday, we’re going to recommend a visit to the Library’s fashion database, where buttons abound in all forms.
For all you Katharine Hepburn fans out there, please note that The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts has just opened an amazing free exhibition entitled KATHARINE HEPBURN: DRESSED FOR STAGE AND SCREEN which examines the influential fashion style of the iconic actress. Over 40 original Hepburn dresses and costumes are on display including pieces from THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER, ON GOLDEN POND and from the still above WITHOUT LOVE. Check out Cathy Horyn of The New York Times article on the exhibition.
