Past Exhibitions
After Dark: 100 Years of the Evening Dress
“Be a caterpillar by day and a butterfly by night,” advised the legendary designer Coco Chanel. The evening dress is perhaps the most imaginative and transformative of all fashion items. From turn of the century floral velvets to elaborately embroidered silk couture gowns of the mid-century, this exhibition chronicles the last hundred years of glamorous evening attire. Featuring over 25 exquisite gowns drawn from the Museum permanent collection of Chanel, Balenciaga, Christian Dior, Mainbocher, Charles James and others, this exhibition is a celebration of the elegant dress, the women who wore them and grand social occasions to which they wore them. The exhibition is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and sponsored by Linda M. Herold. It is the inaugural exhibition in the Fashion Design Gallery's new location on the Mezzanine Level of the South Wing.
Dress, Mainbocher, 1955. Silk faille. Phoenix Art Museum Collection.