Monday, November 10, 2008

Halston collection in Nashville



I just found this article. Apparently a large portion of the Halston archives are right here in our fair city!! This makes me so happy because Halston is one of my faves





The Halston collection was donated to Lipscomb’s fashion merchandising department by Georgette Mosbacher, president and CEO of Borghese Cosmetics in New York City. Fashion design majors at Lipscomb study the collection to better understand how fine fashions are conceived, designed on paper, presented on the runway and brought to the fashion market.

The road to Lipscomb’s ownership of the collection began some years ago through an annual fashion merchandising trip for students taken to New York City. The trip is designed to teach students about the fashion business while visiting major design houses and museums. Kathy Bates, professor of fashion merchandising at Lipscomb, leads the trip and often takes the group to the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York. Years ago she discovered that FIT kept a list of universities with fashion merchandising programs that would be interested in receiving vintage clothing and fashion-related items. Bates requested that Lipscomb’s name be placed on the list.

In 2002, Mosbacher, at the time being relatively new to her position, received a large bill for a storage unit and discovered that the company owned a large collection of Halston evening dresses, other garments and documents. As part of her cost-cutting measures at Borghese, Mosbacher offered to give the collection to FIT.

After concluding that there was not a space large enough to house the collection, FIT sent Mosbacher a list of universities who had indicated they would like to receive fashion donations. Mosbacher’s eye was drawn to Lipscomb because her mother Dorothy Shepherd lives in Nashville.

The shipment to Lipscomb comprised more than 80 boxes of clothing and documents. Included in the assortment were over sixty garments including a large selection of evening dresses. Most of the dresses were runway samples, typically worn by models at a New York fashion show and then put away. Other items included blouses, skirts, suits, jackets, sketch books, water colors, press clippings, order forms, patterns, videos, collection presentations, TV spots and interviews with Halston at the height of his popularity.

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