Garment Labels: The Fine Print of Dress(ing)

"Have you ever consciously thrown your coat over a chair so that the fashionable label may be in evidence?" (Vogue 1932, 41)

From their earliest iteration, garment labels conveyed more than straightforward facts; they were (and are) avenues to express social identities. However, their reliable presence, (generally) interior placement, and typically small size obscure the complicated history of the label and the emergence of its increasingly strategic role in the production and purchase of clothing. The exhibition “Garment Labels: The Fine Print of Dress(ing)” follows the evolution of garment labels, exploring both their practical uses for industry and their tacit implications for those wearing the garments