Feature: Chicago History Museum Exhibits Highlight Costume Collection and ’60s/’70s Protest Art

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The Chicago History Museum currently features two temporary design exhibits: Dressed in History: A Costume Collection Retrospective and Designing for Change: Chicago Protest Art of the 1960s and '70s.

The costume exhibition is a tight, well-curated collection of clothing from the museum’s over 100-year-old collection, former curators and local donors, with clothing-themed music (like Neil Diamond’s “Forever in Blue Jeans”) and signage in both English and Spanish. Chicago’s place as the center of industrial America is represented, including as the location of the first mail-ordered items from Sears, Montgomery Ward and other retailers. Simplicity and McCall’s patterns are featured, documenting those who created their own apparel.

Esprit ensemble 1986. Photo by Karin McKie.

Iconic luxury streetwear brands, including a 1985 pair of Air Jordan sneakers, and iconic looks from 1986 Esprit sportswear line (a San Francisco brand started in 1968) are shared. Male burlesque fashion from 1971 is also displayed, as is a 1932 blue wool dress for dancer Ruth Page by designer Isamu Noguchi, and a 1917 blue wool bathing suit (a fabric used in early swimwear since its density prevented seeing bodies, but was later changed to less heavy and baggy synthetic fibers).

In 1917, Mrs. Bonnie Rowe wore this wool bathing costume (maker unknown) to the beach with a pair of black stockings and shoes. Photo by Karin McKie.

An array of fin de siècle accessories for wasp-waisted women are displayed together around classic buttonhole boots, such as gloves (and glove stretchers), stockings, a fan and umbrella.

Gianni Versace men's suit, fall/winter 1985-86, cashmere, wool, cotton, silk, leather. Photo by Karin McKie.

Men’s accouterments of the period include a pocket watch, cane, waistcoat (vest) and top hat, the building blocks created around 1800 that are seen in today’s male suiting. There’s also a small collection of historic Erte illustrations and a brief history of the emergence of haute couture, high-end French fashion that began around 1858.

"The U-Haul Man on the Move" ensemble (1985), Joel Klass as Guy Taylor for Atlas Sportswear, synthetic felt, nylon. Photo by Karin McKie.

Italian designer Gianni Versace visited Chicago in 1986 for the opening of his Oak Street boutique, and donated an exquisite, silvery, double-breasted jacket to the museum as part of his homage to artist Gustav Klimt. Performance art pieces are also displayed,, such as Joel Klaff’s 1985 “The U-Haul Man on the Move” ensemble made out of moving blankets.

Poster by Estelle Carol of the Chicago Women's Graphics Collective, 1972. Photo by Karin McKie.

In 2017, at the beginning of this current political protest moment, the Poetry Foundation presented “Signs of Resistance,” a repository of recent activist art. The CHM casts its net back to showcase signage from Vietnam War protests, as well as civil, women’s, and queer rights’ movements, offering a QR code at the entrance so visitors can access a Spotify playlist from these periods.

This robust collection of “artivism” showcases Chicago as a global center for progressive activism, and includes focus on Chicago voting suffragists and on Gary Chichester, founder of Chicago’s Gay Alliance, whose signature (shared in the exhibit) was on the first Pride Parade permit in 1971, to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots on June 27, 1970. The Chicago Seed collective started as a hippie movement but created radicalized art to protest the war in Southeast Asia, shown alongside pieces by the Youth International Party (yippies) and by the Students for a Democratic Society. Audio clips from the leaders of these notable activist organizations are throughout the show.

Mountain Moving Coffee Shop inspiration poem. Photo by Karin McKie.

The quilted banner from the Mountain Moving Coffee House for Womyn and Children is showcased as well, as are materials from the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AfriCOBRA), Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks, Barbara Jones-Hogu and Hoyt Fuller’s Organization of Black American Culture, plus Margaret Taylor Burroughs and her co-founding of the DuSable Black History Museum in 1961. She used representative images to counter racist stereotypes, saying “we cannot expect the Negro child to have positive images to identify with if he is seldom presented with a positive image.”

The Chicago History Museum is located at 1601 N. Clark St., and is open Tuesday-Saturday 9:30am-4:30pm, and Sunday 12-5pm. Closed Mondays, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

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Karin McKie

Karin McKie is a Chicago freelance writer, cultural factotum and activism concierge. She jams econo.