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Following the rainbowMuseum exhibit examines the use of color in fashionBy SAMANTHA CRITCHELLAP Fashion WriterNEW YORK — Fashion rules are never written in black or white, and an exhibit at Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum examines how color is represented in what we wear and how emotion is represented in color.Fashion in Colors has a black room, a blue room, a red room, a yellow room, a white room and a rainbow room — with both the clothes and the walls dedicated to the same color.By having at) one color in one room, the color fades and the details pop,” says Barbara Bloemink, Ccjoper-Hewitt’s curatorial director. The alternative would be to focus so much on color that you’d see how details change color perception and therefore call attention to them. “Color is an elimination of every object the human eyes sees.It is THE differentiator.”HOWEVER, SHE SAYS, what wethink of color doesn’t really exist. Our interpretation is based on how light waves reflect off our eyes. Black, for example, appears when primary color pigments are blended: if no pigments are present, the result looks white. Everything in between creates the visible spectrum of colors.“Fashion in Colors” opens with black, ranging from an early 19th-century riding habit to a giant ribbon dress from Viktor Rolf's spring 2005 collection,Blacks significance in fashion has changed drastically over time, observes Bloemink. In the 1800s, men wore black to show their conservatism and reliability, a reversal from being “peacocks of color” in the 17th and 18th centuries.In the second half of the 20th century, it came to symbolize society’s rebels: beatniks, punks and ( ioths. Also during the 1900s — through today — black has been the color of elegance. Bloemink credits (ioco Chanel, Cristobal Balenciaga and Christian Dior for persuading fashion's biggest fans to embrace black as their signature shade.“Chanel wanted that same seriousness so she could stand next to men, and then because it was Chanel, black became instantly chic. And she new the advantages of black: that it highlights the face, makes you look thinner and it s a great backdrop for jewels.M the exhibit stand on iheir own without bits of text to support what visitors are seeing. Instead, there is a comprehensive paper pamphlet with descriptions of each garment and an audio guide to provide historical detail. “We wanted you to look at the clothes, absorb what's here. We don't want you to read the text and just scan the work,” Bloemink says.Pop art became fashion back in the 1960s when Yves Saint laurent madt* a psychedelic paisley dress. A196H dress featured almost asmany colors as it does celebrities ofBARBARA BLOEMINK... curatorial directorthe era, with Elizabeth Taylor's facefront and center. The Technicolor minidresses of that era might have been a reaction to the cacophony of cultural elements crowding the minds of the public.BUIE, ON THE other hand, has always been a calming color. It’s why blue or green are the predominant colors in hospitals, Bloemink notes. The blue dresses' edginess comes with their proportions. A 1959 Balenciaga silk taffeta bubble dress has three tiers — and three hems of fringe — and a 1956 strapless, tiered cocktail dress by Diorlooks to be a close cousin of a French evening dress in brocade silk taffeta from 1853,A dress that incorporated more than one shade of a single color was seen as a sign of wealth in the 19th century because it meant the wearers could afford something with multiple dyes, as seen in a French day dress with an eggplant-colored top and bustle and a brighter purple bottom.Blue, at one time, was a hard color to achieve through dyes and required a complex production process, which is why it was mostly reserved for royalty through the 17th century.Red was a color worn by women in l,atin America centuries ago, when the pigment for the dye came from the crushed bodies of female insects, Bloemink explains, and it was used in Aboriginal paintings in Australia because the sap of the eucalyptus tree also is red.White also means different things in different places: it’s the color of mourning in the East and the color of chastity, purity and innocence in the West.Bloemink thinks current tastemakers are in the middle of a brightly colored cycle, noting the success of Kate Spade and (ioach accessories, colored iPods, the MINI (hooper and primary-color KitchenAid appliances.With the Internet and Photoshop. people are getting used to coloring things by themselves. It’s a way to make things customized and personalized,* she says.
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