tove

About

I am an eccentric New Yorker who formally studied English, Costume Design, and Art History, but I continue my education and fuel my love of Costume History by reading voraciously, attending lectures, exhibits, galleries, and films. Though I have many loves (color theory, burlesque, yarn crafts, and bookbinding among them), fashion remains a filter that I use to read and interpret politics, social and class struggles, gender and sexual identity themes, and more. For someone who has struggled with retaining numbers and dates, fashion studies offered me concrete visual accompaniment to historical events, and continues to be a benchmark of more "serious" subjects. Until recently, I worked for the Whitney Museum (which most unfortunately has no costume collection, if you were wondering). I am a regular Style blogger for the Huffington Post, the Editor of the Costume Society of America E-Newsletter, and I'm finalizing my first printed article for Worn magazine. I love to hear from readers and potential collaborators, so drop me a line with questions, comments, ideas and suggestions! ~Tove ThreadForThought@gmail.com

Articles by tove

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Poverty and Power: Secondhand Clothes as Protest

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

Later this week I will be giving an extended lecture on the secondhand fashion market and countercultures that adopted thrifted clothes as political statements — focusing on Yippies, but touching upon the Beats — at this year’s Pop Culture Association symposium in Boston, MA. My panel will be on Thursday at 4:45pm, and there will [...]

The Authentic Artist Myth

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

My Godmother sent me this brief article on David Hockney’s withering opinion on artists such as Damien Hirst who rely upon assistants to “do the work” — Hirst has only painted five of the 14,00 “spot paintings” in existence, and he was quoted as saying that many of his spot paintings are produced by [...]

APEC “Silly Shirts” – Inappropriate or Awesome?

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

I read with some interest the Times article Obama Says Forum’s Costume Photo Is Unnecessary. This refers to the tradition of the 21 members of the annual APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) forum participating in what has unfortunately been dubbed “the silly shirts photo.” Past photo-ops “have included ponchos and what looked like gowns for [...]

Detectives and Gumshoes

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

Even with all the terrific, stylish, contemporary dramas out there, sometimes you just need to pick up an old favorite (there’s a metaphor for a comfy pair of beat up jeans somewhere in there). To wit, I’ve recently revived my Columbo viewing.
Peter Falk as Columbo (1971 – 78; 1989 – 2003) is always deliberately disheveled, [...]

Steal this Style: Yippies and Political Fashions!

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

I assume readers will agree that apparel can be a powerful tool of political and social dissent, such as the Communist / anarchistic subtext of Surreal fashions (see my earlier post). Costume has likewise been leveraged in political upheavals many times; for example Caroline Weber recently illuminated fashion politics in the 18th century with her [...]

The Vulnerable Neck

Monday, September 12th, 2011

In trolling through all the mountains of Fashion Week photos several seasons ago now, I stumbled upon Todd Lynn’s Spring and Fall ready-to-wear collections for 2011. They caught my attention because, unlike the standard erogenous zones, these focused on the neck — that is, the neck was almost always covered or partially obscured. Stiff collars [...]

Collecting Clothes with a Conscience

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

Earlier this summer I watched the tremendous documentary Herb & Dorothy (2008) which follows a ridiculously adorable, now elderly, couple (Herb and Dorothy Vogel) who started collecting art in the ’60s and amassed one of the finest and most extensive of modern and contemporary art in the world. The twist here is this: Dorothy was [...]

Lucille Ball, Style Icon… In Spite of Herself

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

This recent August 6 would have been Lucille Ball’s 100th birthday (1911 – 1989), and crowds of impersonators showed up to celebrate in her hometown, Buffalo, NY. There were polka dot dresses, garish red curly wigs, and red lipsticked lips galore in attempts to emulate the comedienne:
Though this ensemble became iconic for the woman (even [...]

Codes of Dress: Inclusionary or Exclusionary?

Monday, August 1st, 2011

As most fashion historians (and, I would wager, even most non-fashion historians) accept, clothing is a clear way of identifying oneself as part of a culture, a sub-culture, a tribe. Most of the time, we think of these tribes as unifying, identifying people who listen to similar music, hang out in similar venues, perhaps come [...]

Hair Textiles and Gaga

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

We all know Gaga loves her wigs, but she also dabbles with clothes that resemble wigs, as with this LaVer dress she recently wore to a taping of The View:

Gaga on The View, May 2011

LaVer couture hair dress, 2010 collection

Since medieval times, locks of hair have been given to lovers as amulets, and [...]

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