{"id":2261178,"date":"2026-02-01T15:37:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T15:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2261178"},"modified":"2026-02-01T15:37:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T15:37:25","slug":"tulane-special-collections-exhibit-has-nola-fashion-history-entertainment-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/tulane-special-collections-exhibit-has-nola-fashion-history-entertainment-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Tulane Special Collections exhibit has NOLA fashion history | Entertainment\/Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The objects, images and garments on view in the exhibition \u201cCut from a Different Cloth: Fashion Selections from Tulane Special Collections\u201d track the importance of apparel through many levels of the New Orleans community, from grand society dames and Carnival royalty to Black Masking Indians, college students and titans of world couture.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Orleans is not one of the great fashion capitals of the world, like we think of New York or Paris,\u201d said co-curator Faye Daigle. \u201c(But) clothing is still as essential as food, as our culinary culture, as our music.\u201d<\/p>\n

To co-curator Kevin Williams, the exhibit demonstrates that there’s a lot of material in the university’s Special Collections of very varying interests.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIf (researchers are) looking for building plans, if they’re looking for photographs of families, if they’re looking for Carnival original designs, Carnival jewelry\u00a0\u2014 we have things like that here, things that they might not normally think of when they think of archives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams said the holdings of the Special Collections\u00a0\u2014 which entail the Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz, the Louisiana Research Collection, the Southeastern Architectural Archive, University Archives and Rare Books\u00a0\u2014 would stretch, if organized end-to-end, 7.5 linear miles.<\/p>\n

\u2018A lot of opening boxes\u2019<\/h3>\n

On the title wall, text advises that the exhibit \u201cdoes not reflect a comprehensive material history of New Orleans fashion,\u201d but rather that history as reflected in Tulane\u2019s holdings and a few items loaned for the exhibit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Sections are arranged by \u201cSociety and Carnival,\u201d \u201cCampus Style,\u201d \u201cSewing: Dressmaking and Textile Art,\u201d \u201cShopping,\u201d and displays dedicated to drag and LGBT material culture. The narrative begins with silhouette designs by James Rogers Lamantia Jr., an instructor at Tulane\u2019s School of Architecture, created for a Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit \u201cThe Art of Fashion\u201d at the time of the 1967 Met Ball. It concludes with an Italian-made, pink suede jacket worn by Louis Prima.<\/p>\n

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Louis Prima\u2019s Italian-made pink suede jacket from the early 1970s.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n BY DAVE WALKER | Contributing writer<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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About midway around the gallery is a tribute to Samuel Albert Bozeman Jr., who attended Tulane as a pre-med student for a bit in the 1940s. As Geoffrey Beene, he would become one of the most celebrated fashion designers of the late 20th century.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Traversing all of the potential material for the exhibit entailed \u201ca lot of opening boxes,\u201d Daigle said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if you do that two hours a day and find nothing, if you do that five days a week, you’re bound to find something. And certain patterns emerge. You can often find interesting things in the last box of a family\u2019s papers, the \u2018miscellaneous\u2019 boxes, boxes that say \u2018ephemera,\u2019 boxes that are oddly shaped. So, little things like that catch your eye, and it’s a lot of just pulling and looking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams said he and Daigle worked on the exhibit for more than five months, all while maintaining other duties as, respectively, coordinator for exhibits and outreach, and research services library associate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Society & Carnival section of “Cut from a Different Cloth\u201d documents a century of local couture, including designs for Carnival ball gowns.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n BY DAVE WALKER | Contributing writer<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cFaye was phenomenal in the way she was just going through these barely described boxes \u2026 and she found quite a bit of material,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Evolving student fashion<\/h3>\n

The \u201cCampus Style\u201d section is notable for its cheerleading uniforms from 1913 and 1957 (with accompanying photographs of the students who wore them), but also for its chronicling of evolving student fashions, some as recorded in the campus magazine Urchin, produced at mid-century for Tulane and Loyola students. A 1936 cover headline promised readers \u201csports, humor, gossip.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the 30s and even well into the 40s, a lot of students dressed like their parents,\u201d Daigle said. \u201cThere was very little idea of a youth culture and youth dressing. But as soon as you move further into the 50s, you can see the sleeves go up (and) the cardigans come out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Even further into the 60s, the hemlines rise, the hair gets shorter. And, into the 70s, you have more natural hair, you have flared pants. You can see the students start to experiment with their own sense of style, which I think is really special.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A Tulane cheerleading uniform worn by Roberta Carr in 1957.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n BY DAVE WALKER | Contributing writer<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cCut from a Different Cloth\u201d is on view through May 29 at the Tulane University Special Collections second floor gallery in Joseph Merrick Jones Hall on Tulane\u2019s Uptown campus. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Admission is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n

Museum calendar<\/h3>\n