Fashion Week
Before Barbie, who could become anything from a dedicated nurse to a Malibu socialite with the change of an outfit and a thousand accessories, there were the elegant and fragile “fashion dolls” bestowed upon wealthy little girls in the 1860s and 1870s.
Patents by female inventors from the 1890s reveal the creative ways women made their body mobile through clothing
The high-end dolls and their accessories in this exhibition offer a glimpse at the standards looked for in the perfectly constructed female of the later 19th century.
It was a performance of contrasts. Head held high, hand on the railing, Stowe artist and educator Polly Motley surveyed the marble staircase, reached for...