slides: Italian Style: Fashion Since 1945 at Portland Art Museum

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Saturday, February 07, 2015

Kemea Smith, GoLocalPDX Contributor

Valentino, Gucci, Dolce, Pucci, and more than 100 ensembles come together at the Portland Art Museum celebrating Italian fashion in the alluring exhibit, Italian Style: Fashion Since 1945. 

This significant collection of high quality Italian womens and menswear fashion, explores the key individuals and organizations that have aided to Italy’s prestigious techniques and quality from the end of the Second World War to the present day.  

PAM is the only west coast venue hosting this thorough collection. This is your time to stare for minutes on end, at a authentic printed silk and Swarovski crystal Dolce & Gabbana work of wearable art. Or be an inch away from a sexy form fitting peek-a-boo evening dress by Tom Ford. 

Viewers are first placed in the present day when entering Italian Style, surrounded by evening dresses and suits by Antonio Marras, Valentino, and Tom Ford (to name a few.) A long vertical projector showcasing a montage of models and close ups of fabrics and textures provides a mysterious artsy film theme to the overall section.     

After walking up the stairs passing the vibrant window tribute to Florentine fashion designer Emilio Pucci, viewers are placed in postwar times. Cotton Shantung wartime day suits are juxtaposed with fashions from the first internationally attended fashion show, Sala Bianca. There, a multilayered velvet billowing cocktail dress with oversized velvet cape by Roberto Capucci stands in a room of Pucci, Marucelli, and Simonetti garments.

The Hollywood on Tiber section has the only piece of jewelry featured in the exhibit, a gorgeous Bulgari brooch with three yellow diamonds surrounded by colorless diamonds given to Elizabeth Taylor from Eddie Fisher. Other garments include the Gattinoni empire waist War and Peace dress worn by Audrey Hepburn, and the Mila Schon sequined evening dress and silk coat worn and given by Princess Stanislaus Radziwill. 

The exhibit ends by showing the shift from couture to a focus on high quality factory manufacturing with sections on Textiles Foundation and Italian Ready to Wear. A small section highlighting Portland designers like Sonia Kasparian, Adam Arnold, and Nike’s Charlie Holmes, brings the exhibit full circle answering the question "how is Portland inspired by Italian fashion makers?" 

Chicago architectural firm Vinci Hamp, who worked with PAM’s The Body Beautiful exhibit in 2012, helped with the installation creating a wonderful layout that flows and “lets the objects breath,” said PAM Director Brian Ferriso. The gorgeously crafted designs really breath deep and exhale creative and awe inspiring energy.
    
PAM will be hosting lectures, conversation, and a film series in honor of Italian Style. Enjoy a afternoon visiting Portland’s fashion and apparel studios and workshops during the Portland Style Tour. Or watch iconic Italian cinema classics from the 1950s and 60s, during the Italian Style Film Series. 

Portland Art Museum Italian Style: Fashion Since 1945, 1219 SW Park Avenue, February 7 to May 3, $15 for Adults. For more information click HERE.

Homepage Photo Credit: Dolce & Gabana

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