“The eye has to travel,” said fashion editor Diana Vreeland. Famous American designer Adele Simpson (1903-1995) did more than that. She traveled around the world herself collecting textiles and accessories that inspired her work.
In 1978, Simpson gave a large collection of her treasures to the Fashion Institute of Technology as a research source for students. The FIT Museum (a hidden treasure in Manhattan) put on an exhibition to mark the donation. Called 1001 Treasures of Design, it displayed a small selection of clothing, textile fragments, hats, and ornaments from around the world, including a Manchu robe (or jifu pao) like the one Simpson wears above. It also showed how Simpson used what she found to inspire her own work. The images below are from the exhibition catalog, which was sadly a budget job.
Above we see how she took an authentic Argentinian gaucho outfit (right) to inspire her own work. It is hardly a copy. The blouse is much different. The vest is shorter, rounder and has a a shiny trim. However, the shape of the pants is largely the same.
In another example, she was inspired by a bamboo vest from China, turning it into luxury evening wear. Again her version has a lot more bling, but the structural inspiration is obvious.
Today many might criticize Simpson for cultural appropriation. In my view, however, the more we look outside our small circles for inspiration the better off we are. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if FIT made the collection available to us all online?
What a treasure!