New Digital Circus Costume Exhibition! ^expired Free

Hello! My name is Jenny Leigh Du Puis, and I am a PhD Candidate at Cornell University. I am excited to announce the launch of a new digital exhibition exploring circus costume and its influence on fashion, developed by myself and my research partner Chi Yamakawa.

"Flights of Fancy: Fashion and Function in Circus Performance” is a new digital exhibition on the @cornell_library platform curated by Jenny Leigh Du Puis PhD ’22 and Chisato (Chi) Yamakawa B.Arch ’21. The curators explore how circus arts, costume, architecture, and design have influenced fashion, and use symbols of the circus as guideposts throughout the exhibit. Thematic topics include: the environment of the tent as a designed space; the history of the leotard and its impact on activewear; function and fashion for aerialist attire; spectacle and storytelling through costume; Pierrot as fashion’s muse; and an important discussion of racism and cultural appropriation in the circus.

https://exhibits.library.cornell.edu/flights-of-fancy

Archival items featured in the exhibition have been sourced from the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art Archives, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection, Human Sexuality Collection and the Circus Publicity Collection in Cornell University Library - Rare and Manuscript Collections.

Videos of recent performances have been generously provided by Kleber C Berto, Veronica Blair, Rena Dimes, Brien McCrea, Sorrell Nielsen, and Izzy Patrowicz.

Some of the items we are including are black and white photos from Cornell's Circus Publicity Collection, and have no identifying name or photographer information in the files. We are including them under fair use as this is an educational exhibit. If anyone has further information about the artists featured in the black and white publicity photos, we would love to hear from you!

#circuscostume #ringlingarchives #circuseverydamnday #fashionexhibition #cornellRAD