Fashion

FashionSpeak Fridays: Hollywood Before Glamour: Fashion in American Silent Film

Friday, April 8
7:00 PM    

“By the time I was fifteen, my mother had turned me into a real clotheshorse.” - Gloria Swanson
   Prior to the establishment of well-stocked wardrobe departments with in-house costume designers, it was important for budding starlets, who usually wore their own clothing for films, to strike the right balance of fashionability, charisma and potential on-screen presence.
   Step behind the scenes of the silent film era with Michelle Tolini Finamore, author of Hollywood Before Glamour: Fashion in American Silent Film for a fresh perspective on the evolution of Hollywood’s distinctive brand of glamour, followed by a screening of the MGM silent film Our Dancing Daughters, with live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin.
   Michelle Tolini Finamore is Curator of Fashion Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston where she has curated Hollywood Glamour and Think Pink in addition to Cocktail Culture at the Norton Museum of Art, and assisted Hamish Bowles with Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is the co-author of Gaetano Savini: The Man Who Was Brioni and Jewelry by Artists: In the Studio, 1940-2000.
   Donald Sosin has composed chamber, symphonic, theater, dance and television music, and is one of the foremost silent film composers in the world. His commissions include the Chicago Symphony Chorus, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, MoMA, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Silent Film Style is highly encouraged! Books will be available for purchase.