Announcement – Night and Day: 1930s Fashion & Photographs

February 17, 2020 -

This March the American Museum & Gardens is delighted to announce the arrival of its most glamourous exhibition yet, Night and Day: 1930s Fashion & Photographs, organised by the Fashion and Textiles Museum, London. Presented thematically, the exhibition will take visitors on a journey through sumptuous city tableaus featuring a range of glamorous eveningwear. Nightclub, cinema and bustling street scenes are filled with floor-length gowns, created in satins, velvets and crepes and adorned with diamante. Dennis Nothdruft from the Fashion and Textile Museum, London explains:

“We’re so excited to be working with the American Museum & Gardens again. This new show continues the story of the now grown up flapper girl from the 1920s. The new silhouettes of the 1930s played with the hard-edged chic seen in the Art Deco and Moderne styles. Structure can be seen infiltrating the relaxed shapes of the 20s, with the bias cuts and complicated construction, pioneered by Madeleine Vionnet and Elsa Schiaparelli, heralding a new era of sophistication and maturity”.

From couture to classic, there is something for every fashionista. Not only will there be dresses and outfits galore, but also fabulous 1930s photography, which encapsulates the era. The visitor will be taken on a journey through the decade, passing art deco architecture, visiting wild parties and basking in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Chief Curator at the American Museum & Gardens Kate Hebert says:

“Night and Day: 1930s Fashion & Photographs will showcase the most influential day and evening fashions of the decade. With fashion as the lens, this exhibition will bring the period of great social change that was the 1930s into sharper focus. I can’t wait to help transport our visitors back to that glamourous decade”.

Complementing the exhibition, the Museum’s 2020 events programme features fabulous 1930s and fashion-themed activities, including a Hollywood Ball and a lecture from fashion historian Amber Butchart.