Dr. Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell
@HottyCouture
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Fashion Historian. @Stanford grad. Tweets at @WornOnThisDay. Words at @TheAtlantic @WSJ @OrnamentMag. Repped by @laurieannfox. Just lurking! Follow me on BSky.
Greater Los Angeles
Joined May 2010
The hair is a dead giveaway. Like so many historically inaccurate films, AI thinks married women wore their hair down.
Very few people can paint like the great Leonardo da Vinci. but can a robot? đ€ . One of these artworks is Leonardoâs very first portrait: âGinevra de'âŻBenci.â The other images were made using A.I. Can you spot the original Leonardo painting? âŻ#ArtOrArtificial
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Glad the Kim K. convo is raising awareness about the ethics of wearing historic fashion. The LA Times asked me if I could think of comparable examples of celebrities wearing iconic museum pieces on the red carpet and I couldnât--can you? Itâs not unprecedented, though. A long đ§”:.
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These are the men who are trying to take away your reproductive rights, your IVF, your birth control, and your vote:.
âIâm a Minneapolis based pilot for Delta airlines.â . âTell me what a typical workweek is like for you as a stewardess.â
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I love @dieworkwear as much as the rest of the world. But one of the reasons there's no female equivalent is that women's sizing and tailoring has NEVER been as precise and inclusive as men's. Even cheap men's shirts, pants, and jackets come in DOZENS of standard sizes, not 4-8.
Check out the fit of these two dress shirts. What do you notice? đ§”
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Loving the crazy (and crazy ACCURATE) 1830 sleeves, hairstyles, and patterns in #ThePaleBlueEye on @netflix.
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PSA: This is what whalebone looks like. It has the flexibility of plastic and the structure of string cheese. Itâs a cross between fingernails and hair. An 18th-century corset would be reinforced with dozens of thin strips sewn in channels. Think underwire bra, not straitjacket.
Nothing tells me you did no research for your 18th century whatever than calling whalebone âbones of whalesâ - my friends, whalebone is BALEEN, and well-fitted stays are supportive and comfortable!!!
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Reminder that the cancan got its scandalous reputation because women's underpants were open at the crotch in the 1820s.
Because we can, can, can! đ. 80 artists from the Moulin Rouge perform the iconic dance that dates back to the 1820s. Their pink costumes have been specifically designed for the #OpeningCeremony. TrĂšs chic. đ. #Paris2024
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@F_Botha_USA Ahem, "Satanic" is trending in the US because people were confused by the blood and headlessness. Also, I got my PhD by writing a dissertation *about Marie-Antoinette.*.
Twitter/X is really showing us toxic dorks who never read a history book today.
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These two are adorable, but the portraits in #QueenCharlotte are KILLING me. NONE of those people were even *born* in 1761!
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This is what women historians are up against every single day and the main reason I don't do a lot of YouTube or TikTok videos is because the harassment level is intolerable.
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First of all, thereâs a fine but distinct line between wearing vintage/archival fashion and actual museum pieces. Once a piece enters a museum collection, it usually doesnât come out, and itâs protected by policies that keep it from being worn or otherwise handled irresponsibly.
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That is QUEEN VICTORIA. Specifically, her coronation portrait by Sir George Hayter. Her coronation was in 1838, 20 years after Charlotte DIED.
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As Iâve pointed out, Ripleyâs--which owns the Monroe gown--is not an accredited museum. Technically, thereâs nothing stopping it from loaning out its collection to private individuals. But itâs still a bad idea, and a ârealâ museum (like, er, The Met) would and could never do it.
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@realgirl_fieri My favorite trick-or-treater was a very tiny, very glam Cruella de Vil accompanied by her parents, both wearing Dalmatian onesies.
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THIS is how you wear a museum piece on the red carpet--get @Dior to make you an updated version of the Junon gown to your measurements.
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SHOULD the Monroe dress be in a ârealâ museum? I think so, for its unique historical importance as well as its artistry. But it was sold at auction to the highest bidder in 2016âfor $4.81 million plus taxes and fees, the highest price ever paid for a dress at the time!.
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Few museums can compete with the deep pockets of wealthy private collectors and âentertainmentâ entities like Ripley's, and the US doesnât have cultural heritage laws in place to prevent these kinds of transactions.
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(I'd argue that wearing something in the controlled environment of a photo shoot is a lot less damaging than wearing it on the red carpet--even for 10 minutes--but that's very debatable, and both scenarios set a really lousy precedent that outweighs any educational or PR value.).
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Anyway, if you're interested in fashion, history, Marilyn Monroe, Kim Kardashian, Jean Louis, naked dresses and body positivity in the fashion industry, this would be a great time for you to pre-order my book Skirts, coming in September from @StMartinsPress. They're all in there!
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My book Skirts traces the evolution of womenâs fashion over the 20th century. But thereâs one dress that never evolvedâand itâs as wearable today as it was when it was first produced in 1909, IF youâre lucky enough to own one: Spanish designer Mariano Fortunyâs Delphos gown. Ađ§”:
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Finally we're seeing some VOLUME and COLOR. I know the silhouettes aren't historically accurate, but the OTT spirit of the Gilded Age has arrived on the red carpet. #MetGala2022
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In 1949, collector Doris Langley Moore enlisted slim British celebrities like actress Vivien Leigh and ballerina Margot Fonteyn to model gowns dating from 1800-1927 for her book "The Woman in Fashion." Her private collection became the foundation of the Fashion Museum in Bath.
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Occasionally, a museum object is âdeaccessionedâ and sold, or donated to another institutionâgenerally because itâs deemed unworthy of preservation, or because the museum acquired a better example of the same thing and canât justify the storage space and other resources it uses.
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Though the illusion was very effective, models can move and pose in ways that mannequins simply canât. As their flesh was made to look flat and inanimate, the garments--all from McQueen's archive--were brought to life, set in motion in ways that are impossible with museum pieces.
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I feel like the subtext of this entire exhibition is "we had nothing to do with that whole Kim Kardashian thing.".
DYK: When garments enter The Met collection, they can no longer be worn on the human body. So how can we understand the movement and energy of these masterpieces of fashion?
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I am begging for more libraries and archives to offer super-short-term research fellowships. As a mom with kids in school, I canât pick up and move cross-country for 3 to 12 months, or even 1 month. But youâd be AMAZED by what I can get done in 1 to 2 weeks with no interruptions.
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And that's BEFORE you multiply by tall/slim/skinny/athletic cuts. Women increasingly have tall/petite/plus options, but only our jeans are sized by waist/inseam measurements (which are useless IMHO, because they assume that your hips align with your waist, as men's hips tend to).
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Iâm looking forward to thisâI *love* a sweeping historical epic and I donât know/care very much about Napoleon, so hopefully I wonât be distracted by the inevitable historical inaccuracies. Costume is not and should not be history, but few things jumped out of me, good and bad:đ§”.
He came from nothing. He conquered everything. From acclaimed director Ridley Scott, #Napoleon is exclusively in movie theaters this Thanksgiving. Watch the official trailer now.
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As recently as 1997, ballerina Darcey Bussel wore Christian Diorâs iconic 1947 Bar Suit on the cover of this catalogue published by Londonâs Imperial War Museum. By this time, though, the practice was generally frowned upon by curators and the public.
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As much as I love this gif, not everything belongs in a museum! It's totally fineâeven responsibleâto wear and alter vintage clothing. Costume curators do it, too! But if itâs rare, iconic, fragile and uniquely historically significantâor if it LIVES IN A MUSEUMâmaybe just donât.
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But this is a long, collaborative process with LOTS of checks and balances. And sometimes pieces CAN'T be deaccessioned because of the legal conditions of the original donation or purchase, even if the curators desperately want them gone.
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Next time you go to Paris, you can take a tour of the Conciergerie and see her dungeon (now a chapel) and some of her last possessions!
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Often, these pieces are altered to fit perfectly in a way Monroeâs iconic gown couldnât be--hence the crash diet and this mess:
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Waaaaay too many people heard this theme and thought: "Vaguely historical metallics. Gotcha." #MetGala2022
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Even The Met did it! In 1966, curator Diana Vreeland invited designers to create modern interpretations of Costume Institute collection pieces, which celebrities and socialites modeled alongside their historical inspirations at the âParty of the Year,â now called the Met Gala.
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The Met set a questionable precedent when it allowed fashion photographer Solve Sundsbo to photograph its 2011 catalogue "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" on live models, which were transformed through makeup, lighting and Photoshop to look like museum mannequins.
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Finally getting around to watching the Beckham documentary. None of you told me he wears a MONOGRAMMED BEEKEEPING SUIT.
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. White, faceless, sometimes headless, and jointed, with lines added at their wrists and shoulders to suggest movable and detachable limbs. Ironically, in traditional catalogue photos, these lines are carefully Photoshopped OUT because they're considered ugly and distracting.
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It wasnât THAT long ago that museums DID let celebrities wear their collections in catalogue photo shoots and fashion shows.
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To be clear, I *loved* all of these shows. Who wouldn't? But I do worry that audiences may not appreciate what a slippery slope it is from "displaying privately-owned contemporary pieces on moving mannequins" to "wearing historically significant museum pieces on the red carpet.".
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No wrong answers here but this will always be my favorite:
what period drama has the best costumes???.
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Tiffany & Co., founded in New York in 1837, is one of America's oldest companies, a pop culture touchstone, and an international success story--exactly what you'd expect the first woman President to wear.
People will vote for the "millionaire" with a gold bathroom because they want to become millionaires, but they won't vote for the lady wearing nice earrings because they don't think she should have nice things. Got it!
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And thatâs her husband, Prince Albert, painted in the robes of the Order of the Garter by Frank Xaver Winterhalter in 1843.
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Letâs dive into the fake Georgian portraits of #Bridgerton ! Right out of the gate, we see this portrait of a young Lady Danbury, based on a 1777-78 portrait of Miss Sarah Campbell by Sir Joshua Reynolds in the @YaleBritishArt collection.
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Pamela Anderson's custom Oscar de la Renta is a ringer for Princess Margaret's 1951 Christian Dior. It's 1951 all over again tonight. #MetGala @MuseumofLondon
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Thereâs a long-ish history of actresses wearing vintage gowns or âarchivalâ pieces (from a designerâs archive, loaned out for the night) on the red carpetâJulia Roberts, Winona Ryder, and Renee Zellweger have worn stunning vintage to the Oscars.
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Marie-Antoinette gets all the attention but this Madame de Pompadour gown is the true workhorse of 18th-century costume drama.
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@courtneyellis She had me at:.
The Oxford Kamalas closed the Senate softball season with a win! So proud of this team, both on and off the field.
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Yet museums have continued to blur the lines between art and commerce by displaying pieces from private collections or designer archives that are not subject to the same restrictions as museum-owned pieces.
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Waist Down, an installation of Prada skirts that toured the brandâs stores, set skirts whirling on rotating poles. (Think ceiling fans.) Again, these were pieces that came out of designersâ archives and went back to them, slightly worse for wear, not museum pieces.
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Kim has been wearing a lot of archival Thierry Mugler lately. Itâs a way to ensure that no one else is wearing the same thing, while showing your appreciation for fashion history as well sustainability. Emma Stone re-wore her 2020 Vuitton wedding reception dress to the Met Gala!
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Displaying garments in motion puts extra strain on them (if not as much as actually wearing them). The Jean-Paul Gaultier retrospective that toured several accredited museums put mannequins on a rotating ârunway.â (Think of an airport luggage carousel).
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Reminder that the Mona Lisaâs hair âŠis not the Mona Lisaâs hair:
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I'm not watching #MarieAntoinettePBS and I wasn't going to nitpick the costumes; I don't think that's very interesting or useful. Historical films are not (nor should they be) documentaries, and I donât want to come across as a cranky pedant or yuck someone elseâs yum. HOWEVERâŠ.
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Found a better picture of this gorgeous green Gucci suit. Why did we ever get rid of vests�
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This is Victoriaâs predecessor Queen Adelaide, wife of William IV, Charlotteâs third son. They married a few months before Charlotteâs death but this wasnât painted until 1836, by Sir Martin Archer. I *hate* portraits from the future.
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She looks just like her action figure! đ
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Did whales die for corsetry? Yes! Lots of them! And their bones did sometimes end up in corsets as busks, sturdy (if often highly decorated) 12"-16" sticks inserted down the front of the corset to keep it flat. But most busks were made of wood, ivory, horn, metal, or even baleen.
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It's rare for off-the-rack clothes to fit perfectly. If you find something that works for your proportions without tailoring, stick with that brand, because it will probably continue to fit! But it's helpful to know what can be fixed easily and on your budget and what can't.
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The V&Aâs long-running âFashion in Motionâ program invites contemporary designers to stage fashion shows within the walls of the museum, giving the general public the opportunity to experience something usually reserved for journalists and elite clients.
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Itâs time for #Bridgerton S3, Part 1! Sure, the frocks are a lot of fun, but there are also paintings! Let's take a look. (Spoilers ahead, obviously.) đ§”
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This? Is a straight up photograph. It doesnât look especially Georgian-it reminds me of a modern photo of the royal family as much as a Georgian portrait.
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The reason people on TV look so good in their clothes is that *everything* is tailored to fit perfectly, if not custom-made. The reason Katherine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich looked great in pants is because they had them custom-made by menswear tailors.
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I've written 5 history books and I'm pretty sure 90% of the copies were purchased by women. Maybe we prefer history that includes, y'know, women?.
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However, some museums have since experimented with showing their permanent collections on mannequins placed on (slowly) rotating platforms.
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Found the perfect outfit to wear to #BarbieTheMovie. Designed by Rahvis of London in 1952. @MuseumofLondon
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Your favorite dry cleaner probably does alterations. Nordstrom does alterations--even on things you didn't buy there, including adding pockets! If you can sew, there's a lot you can do yourself--shortening skirts and pants is pretty easy, even with my 1945 Singer.
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In honor of @FeudFx, which traces Truman Capote's social downfall, let's take a look at the fashion survivals from the night that marked the author's social high point: the Black and White Ball he threw in the Grand Ballroom of New York's Plaza Hotel on November 28, 1966.
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Don't feel bad about your body if you don't get the same effect from something you bought off the rack at Banana Republic in one of 5 available sizes.
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@SDunnHensley Pretty normal for Olympic host countries to celebrate their own culture and history, unrelated to athletics. Was it any weirder than the library ménage a trois, or Danny Boyle's creepy ode to the NHS in London?
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These are a bit more reminiscent of the portraits George III commissioned of his steadily growing family.
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Balenciaga reinterpreted its 1951 gown (photographed by Richard Avedon on Dorian Leigh) for Nicole Kidman. This is how you wear iconic vintage on the red carpet. #SleepingBeauties
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Baleen is basically a controlled substance today, but I managed to obtain a small (3â long) piece that I use for teaching. I have to keep it on a high shelf because it also makes a great cat toyâitâs fluffy, bendy, and has a fishy smell that I canât detect but my cat clearly can.
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Bridgerton/Queen Charlotte is not documentary, or even costume drama. Itâs historical alternative universe, and thatâs really interesting! But an AU will be MORE interesting and convincing if itâs anchored in real history and follows an internal logic, thematically and visually.
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For much more of me ranting on this topic, check out my @StMartinsPress book "Skirts: Fashioning Modern Femininity in the Twentieth Century."
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One of those fascinating designers you will not find a single book about because only Chanel and Dior exist for publishers. đ.
Evening dress by Holly Harp c. 1970s.ââââââââââââââââââ Handkerchief points and swallowtail folds are often best rendered in chiffons, jerseys, or crepe fabrics, which have elastic qualities from high-twist yarns. Learn more about Holly Harp at VFG Label Resource. MET Museum
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@NadineLaDiDa Wow! I had no idea! Like Marilyn's gown, it just doesn't have the same impact on anyone else.
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Repainted hair is a pretty common thing in historical portraiture, and something Iâm completely obsessed with:
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@SenFettermanPA I like Congressmen who block bridges. Would you be cool with blocking a bridge to demand the hostages back?
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FYI, "The Last Supper" was painted in Milan in the late 1400s and in every way resembles an Italian Renaissance Catholic meal rather than the 1st century BC Jewish Passover Seder it purports to depict. Almost as if Leonardo da Vinci updated the scene to speak to his own times.
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Iâm not going to get into the #Bridgerton costumes, but this is the best fake Georgian painting Iâve ever seen onscreen, clearly inspired by Joshua Reynoldsâ 1761-66 portrait of the Hon. Henry Fane, Inigo Jones, and Charles Blair in the @metmuseum:
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Haleyâs RNC dress is getting a lot of praise and a bit of criticismâboth justified, imho! With the caveat that I have no wish to normalize anything that transpired at the Milwaukee Hateapalooza and no aspirations to become the womenâs menswear guy, letâs take a closer look!
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But sheâd never wear them TOGETHER. Itâs as if Rihanna threw on her yellow Guo Pei Met Gala cape over Fenty track pants. Both are distinctly, iconically Rihanna, but they belong to completely different contexts.
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Or you could do very what tall, short, and rich women have been doing for centuries and have your clothes custom-made. This doesn't have to mean couture--you can do it yourself or hire a local seamstress. Still pricey! But it will fit perfectly and be absolutely one-of-a-kind.
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The feminine urge to write a book about the wardrobe of Princess Anne, who's looking especially snazzy today:
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RIP Rosalynn Carter, who brought a sewing machine to the White House and set a sustainable fashion example in the 6-year-old Mary Matise for Jimmae gown she wore to her husband's inaugural ball. @amhistorymuseum
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@ntshuni And so was Bridgerton, but they bent over backwards to get this absolutely right for two seasons (see my pinned Tweet). As a fan AND an 18th-century art historian, Iâm mad that they did Charlotte dirty.
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Love this trompe l'oeil Loewe on Ambika Mod--a 3-D digital print of the 1951 Charles James âPetalâ ballgown. #fashionhistory
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And this is a composite of Allan Ramsayâs coronation portraits of George and Charlotte, though they have been aged dramatically. George has white hair rather than a powdered wig, and Charlotte has giant late 1770s hair (which, in the Bridgerton multiverse, she keeps for decades).
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@summa_nista RightâI donât think itâs fair to put all the blame on Kim because there are others more knowledgeable who could have stepped in and shut this down.
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I know these leotards are a tribute to the Magnificent Seven (the first US team to win the team gold, in 1996) but THOSE were a throwback to the OG "USA Forever" leotard worn by the 1984 team--including Mary Lou Retton, the first American woman to win an individual gold medal. đ§”
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