Costume, Culture, and Just a Hint of Drama: Art of Fashion @ the Timken Museum
Article by Celia Gold
Art and fashion have a long history as a pair, like Dolce & Gabbana, Vincent and Theo, or coffee and another cup of coffee. Last Saturday, the Timken Museum of Art decided to celebrate this pair (the first one) with Art of Fashion: their third annual event and award ceremony in partnership with the UCLA David C. Copley Center for the Study of Costume Design. The evening featured theatrical costumes designed by Kumie Asai, Chanèle Casaubon, Ruoxuan Li, Gabrielle Levion, James Maloof, and Charlotte Ballard (whose design won last year). Judging from the exhibited work and the short bios provided, the passion these designers have for their craft is clear.
Just through the doors to the Timken, flanking the entrance, stood two young women in floor length, one-shoulder black dresses offering champagne to guests as they made their way in. The room was elegant; Spanish guitar lilted in the background as visitors remarked about centuries old paintings and the future of design over catering by Urban Kitchen and signature cocktails. One quick glance around the room and it struck me: I was underdressed.
Fortunately for me, my outfit was not the one being judged that night. The MFA candidates created costumes inspired by the 14th century painting Madonna and Child by Niccolò di Buonaccorso (a mouthful for guests even before the champagne set in). The garments were on display at the Timken from April 16th through May 7th, during which time patrons received the opportunity to view and vote for the designs they liked best.
Deborah Nadoolman Landis, Ph.D. and Founding Director and Chair of UCLA’s David C. Copley Center, wasn’t wrong when she introduced the six talented graduate students who participated: their thoughtfulness and technical skill was apparent. Before the winner was announced, each student (with the exception of Chanèle who couldn’t be there) gave a brief speech outlining their sources of inspiration and the motivation behind some of their design choices—information that’s nice to have and not always accessible to a viewer. This year’s winning design belonged to Ruoxuan Li, whose pale-blue tunic and woven interpretation of a halo successfully conveyed Li’s interest in “storytelling with costume.”
It’s always nice to see budding artists supported by their predecessors, whether immediate (in the case of Landis and other faculty) or tangential (in the case of the Timken). In fact, Landis’ vested interest in her students is unambiguous to an almost startling degree. “My students are the Oscar, Emmy, and Tony winners to come,” she announced mid-intro. I’m not going to lie to you: if the table at which I was sitting stood any higher off the ground my jaw would have hit it. I’m not sure what caught me off guard more: the assured prognostication or the fact that she may very well be right (or the concept of a pipeline that leads directly from graduate school to almost certain career success…I’d heard of those before but had never actually seen one up close). It’s a tall order, to be sure, but coming from the woman who designed Michael Jackson’s iconic Thriller jacket, it somehow seems doable.
No pressure, designers. That said, if this is the kind of pressure that leads to a Tony, maybe just work through it.
