The Gallery@Spring: NYC Fashion History Through LIFE Archives
06/26/2016
DVS Project Newest Project
New York fashion and history enthusiasts won’t want to miss The Gallery@Spring, an exhibition at Spring Studios featuring more than 50 photographs from the LIFE Photo Archives spanning the 1940s to 1970s.
During World War II, New York City’s Garment District replaced Paris’ shuttered couture houses, producing uniforms for soldiers while simultaneously bursting onto the global fashion scene with new styles–namely sportswear–that Europe had not before seen.
In 1943, New York became the first city to host a fashion week. Originally called “Press Week,” the event was a means of spotlighting American designers in front of storeowners and media who were unable to travel to the French fashion shows because of the war. This not only kept New York on the fashion map, but catalyzed the city’s emergence as the fashion capital it is today.
Original LIFE photographers Margaret Bourke-White, Alfred Eisenstaedt and Peter Stackpole–along with others–captured the era’s fashion icons, including Audrey Hepburn, Eartha Kitt, Jessica Tandy, Marlon Brando, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt and Marilyn Monroe. As LIFE celebrates its 80th anniversary in 2016, Spring Studios was granted the honor of exhibiting their timeless images.
“We want to celebrate fashion in New York, especially from the time when New York started to set the pace for international fashion, through the images of a New York institution such as LIFE,” said Eleonora Flammini, Director of Silverlake Photography, who curated the exhibition alongside New York photographer and editor Javier Sirvent.
Duggal fine art manager Hillary Altman and production coordinator Jonathan Springer consulted with Spring Studios to produce the prints for the show, including scanning from the original negatives, image restoration, framing and printing (both color and black-and-white). We were also privileged to attend the Summer@Spring cocktail party on opening night of The Gallery@Spring.
See the LIFE images here. After the exhibition ends, several prints will be auctioned in a private event benefitting NYC charity Art Start.
