The Unwritten Rules of Men’s Fashion Games
Gatineau, Quebec, April 23, 2003 — From silk top hats to a 1940s tie hand-painted with a topless Hawaiian dancer, men’s fashions have both followed and flouted the rules in centuries past.
The Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC) today opened Clothes Make the MAN, an exhibition from the McCord Museum in Montréal, Quebec that highlights more than two hundred years of men’s fashions, from the eighteenth century to the present.
“This exhibition shows the evolution of men’s clothing styles and tastes over time,” said Dr. Victor Rabinovitch, the Museum’s President and CEO. “Standards of formality, modesty or even sexual display change over time and they give rise to debate about how much of a man’s body should be shown in public. The garments in the exhibition reveal these changes. They have all been made or used in Canada and draw on widely diverse sources, such as items from the elegant wardrobe of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.”
Masculinity, Vanity, Formality and Fraternity — a few of the themes covered in the exhibition — have all influenced men’s clothing choices. The evolution of the trouser fly and the bathing suit are examples that show change and resistance in men’s fashions and cultural norms.
The CMC has added a rural dimension to this exhibition, presenting the clothing created by country people from different regions of Canada. This section highlights the pride they took in creating attractive clothing from scratch. Included are items such as early twentieth-century hand-woven wool garments from an Ontario farmstead and a nineteenth-century homespun suit from rural Quebec.
The exhibition also includes several interactive zones that expand on the exhibition themes. Visitors can learn how to knot a nineteenth-century tie or try on a replica of a padded vest, a popular style in the 1840s.
The McCord Museum was recently awarded the Costume Society of America’s Richard Martin Award for Excellence in the Exhibition of Costume for Clothes Make the MAN. This exhibition was produced with the generous support of the Museums Assistance Program, Canadian Heritage.
Clothes Make the MAN will be on display at the Canadian Museum of Civilization until September 1, 2003.
Media Information:
Media Relations Officer
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Tel.: (819) 776-7169
Chief, Media Relations
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Tel.: (819) 776-7167
Fax: (819) 776-7187
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