The Phoenix Art Museum’s Fashion Design Department has created an exhibition called “Fashioned in America,” aimed at highlighting the value of supporting U.S. design and manufacturing.
Featuring more than 40 ensembles and accessories, “Fashioned in America” features work by designers such as Ralph Rucci, J. Mendel, Lisa Perry, Anna Sui and Nanette Lepore.
The exhibit, which opened on Thursday, runs through March 15. It’s organized by the Phoenix Art Museum and draws from its extensive fashion design archive, and from design houses and private collections. It will also feature a visual history of the garment industry and interviews with key manufacturers, designers and influencers working in fashion today.
“American fashion today is thriving under the direction of many talented high-end designers who are part of a culturewide groundswell of interest in where and how things are made,” said exhibition curator Dennita Sewell. “This exhibition gives a snapshot of the diversity of high-quality design being produced in the United States and the impact of American production in our society.”
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“Fashioned in America” is presented in tandem with the release of “Make it in America: Empowering Global Fashion (2014),” a new documentary directed by filmmaker James Belzer with Loews Hotels & Resorts as the executive producer. The film explores the reinvigoration of domestic apparel production highlighted by interviews with Lepore, Sui, Rucci and Martha Stewart, as well as factory workers, academics and prominent individuals in the industry.
Founded in 1966, the Phoenix Art Museum’s Fashion Design collection is comprised of more than 5,000 objects of American and European men’s, women’s and children’s clothes and accessories dating from the 18th century to the present. The Museum organizes two exhibitions a year in the Ellman Fashion Design Gallery.