Coming up this time on, rocks.

Cutting edge fashions from past and present.

Straight into the spotlight and building a bespoke video game.

There is some sort of self-expression aspect that comes along with interactive media.

These stories up next on, rocks.

West Baton Rouge Museum is proud to provide local support for this program on LPB, offering diverse exhibitions throughout the year and programs that showcase art, history, music, and more.

West Baton Rouge Museum culture cultivated Art rocks is made possible by the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and by viewers like you.

Hello.

Thank you for joining me for some high fashion and a real long swim on this edition of Art rocks.

I'm James Fox Smith from Country Roads magazine.

What you're about to see is some of the most fashionable outfits ever worn by Louisiana women.

They'll include clothing made for wife of one time Louisiana Senator Russell Long, and top of the line designs worn by affluent and influential women around the world.

Here's Michael Mapp, director of LSU's textile and Costume Museum, to introduce the exhibit he's put together and to tell us why he chose to name it.

Color Me Fashion.

Color Me Fashion is inspired by the Hindu festival of Holi, which happens each spring and is related to the universal triumph of good over evil.

Birth and renewal, and color is used in it as a manifestation of that birth and renewal as a way for people to celebrate joy.

And they spend the entire day reveling together in bright, magnificent color, with color and fashion and food and family and music.

Holi is primarily practiced in India, but is also happening in other parts of the world, such as here in the United States.

Color Me Fashion brings together a disparate array of objects, all arranged by color, which span a 100 year time period from about 1890 to 1990.

We begin our introduction to Color Me Fashion with two evening pieces that we're calling color Me Evening, both done in bright, vivid color, but also with beautiful decoration in the form of beading with crystals, and also with other forms of bead work.

The light pale evening ensemble was worn by Catherine Long, who was the wife of long time Louisiana Senator Russell Long, daughter in law of Huey Long, and the multi paneled skirt ensemble was designed by the Italian designer Emilio Pucci for Mrs. Flanagan, who was a personal friend of the Italian designer, and he made this piece especially for her for an event that she was chairing.

This peach colored, voluminous evening gown was designed by Count Ferdinando Sahimi, who was an Italian that gained prominence as a fashion designer following World War Two, first in Italy and then working for Elizabeth Arden as an in-house designer here in the United States.

In the 1960s and 70s, he was a favorite among influential women and celebrities, worn frequently by Patricia Nixon during her husband's presidency.

As I was thinking about this exhibition, I wanted to be able to show the public many different things that we had in our collection and a way to bring those different items across time, space and place together was through the magic of color.

Color and fashion go hand in hand and have been used across time to celebrate some of the most important events of life, from birth to death and everything in between.

So many designers, when working on their collections, begin first with developing a color palette that informs their textile choices and their trim choices as they work to create a fully realized collection.

Color is a major component of their design process.

We begin our exhibition here with a orange and blue color arrangement, which are complementary colors, those which are opposite each other on the color wheel that, when used in tandem, increase the vibrancy and appeal of the colors and allowed us to bring together many different types of fashion pieces spanning a wide time range and styles, and yet creating a very pleasing tableau for the viewer.

This blue evening gown is a treasure of our collection, dating from 1990 and by the famous French couturier Long Van, the House of Long Van, which is still in operation today.

It's a simple silhouette with a fitted bodice and long sleeves, and a somewhat gathered skirt.

But of course, what makes it so dramatic is the use of these beautiful feathers ornamented the neckline in shades of blue, and also the white feather work is a common component of couture.

Couture is a word that is bounced around a lot today, but it is a government regulated process in France that you have to be a member of the syndicate de la couture to be a true couture house, which means that the garment is handmade, made to order, and only a few of them would have been made for very select customers.

So it's very special that we have one of these couture pieces in our collection.

This floral, abstract floral print gown, done in a silk organza combined with chiffon, was worn by a local woman in baton Rouge by the name of Geraldine Schwing, donated by her husband, Charles Schwing, and is an example of Oscar de la Renta.

His work from the late 1970s.

We've paired it with a series of beads and copper and warm orange, and have attempted to accessorize many of the looks that we're showing with accessories in colors that complement the ensemble.

In order to make the color presentation even more vivid, I'll mention while we're talking about this outfit, that the fabric panel, which is behind the outfit, is by the Italian designer Fortuny, who became very famous in the 1920s and 30s for his fashion and textiles.

And we're so grateful to have several Fortuny fabric remnants in our collection that we were able to utilize in the show.

This dress, done also in blue and orange, but in a more vivid tonality of blue and orange with its scoop neckline, is another example of work by Oscar de la Renta.

Spanish designer who would go on to create a French couture business as well, eventually launching a ready to wear line.

And we've paired this de la Renta dress from about 1965 with this beautiful burnt orange alpaca hat, which was from the collection of Audrey Muse.

Orian muse was the original editor of The Register, which was the beginning name of what today we know.

As in Register magazine here in Baton Rouge.

And Miss Muse was known for her hats.

This particular cap worn by Miss Muse is a Christian Dior hat, also from the 1960s.

Starting in postwar era, Dior introduced what would become known as the New Look in 1947.

During wartime, there was a restriction on fabric, and postwar Dior's look exploded with huge, voluminous skirts and dominated fashion.

Throughout the 1950s and into the early 60s.

This quintessential flapper dress from about 1924 is very special, with a hand-painted bodice done in beautiful shades of blue, green and gold, and a velvet skirt that's been gathered into the bodice using a paper bag technique also featuring a high, low hem that's shorter in the front and a bit lower in the back.

This was donated to the collection by Barbara Bako, and is quite special in that it has a tag on the inside identifying it is coming from Franklin and Simon Department Store, which is a very old New York department store established in the 19th century.

This Chinese robe, which is from the late 19th or early 20th century, is really a treasure of the collection.

It is a representation of a type of embroidery known as shoe or sometimes shoe embroidery for short, which is an elaborate form of needlework executed in China for centuries and sometimes referred to as the forbidden stitch, and that it was so prized and done by such expert craftspeople that shoe embroidery was only to be utilized for members of the royal family.

The fasteners for the coat are done in a frog closure style with bronze pieces that and the frog closure.

In order to attach to its corresponding loop.

This was donated by a local woman who had traveled in China and purchased this while abroad, and then donated it to the collection when she returned in the early 1990s.

This section of our exhibition, Color Me Fashion, is an exploration of an analogous color relationship, which are those colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel, these being green, blue and yellow.

Look on the back, which features a swing quilted coat, is very special to us.

It was recently donated to the museum from the North Texas Fashion Collection, who had received this Oscar de la Renta coat from Mercedes Bast, who is a very famous socialite in New York City who donated over 700 pieces of her wardrobe to the North Texas fashion collection.

And we were thrilled to receive some of them.

We've paired it with a blue silk skirt and blouse ensemble from the 1980s by a designer by the name of Mia, also shown with a 1920s cloche hat and this strand of pearls.

This special to the museum was owned by a local woman named Mae Barnard, who was one of our original supporters, and we try to incorporate Mae's pearls into every show that we do.

Mixing of analogous colors allows us to bring together these pieces that span 100 years of history.

One of the older pieces in this grouping is this unbelievable Edwardian bodice from about 1900, made by the French couturier Jackie do say his label is on the inside of the bodice.

The silk bodice isn't hand-embroidered with a wheat pattern, and is further embellished with handmade bobbin lace and silk chiffon.

It was worn by a woman by the name of Emile trop dusky, who was a early feminist and writer who wrote many books, including World's End and The Quick and the dead, and we're very pleased to be able to show this as a part of Color Me Fashion, the couture garment juxtaposed with two examples of American ready to wear from the middle of the 20th century, around 1950 to 60.

The lighter green dress is by an American designer by the name of Anne Fogerty, done in a beautiful green linen.

And then the cotton velvet jacket and skirt to the right is by another woman, American fashion designer Adele Simpson.

In the middle of the 20th century, many new fashion brands developed here in the United States, as fashion shifted from being centered in Paris to New York City.

And many of those early designers were women.

So we've separated two analogous stories on one side green, blue and yellow, and on the other, red blue and purple.

With this presentation of paper dresses in the 1960s, many paper product companies began to manufacture dresses made from paper done in very vibrant, bright colors and prints like the ones that you see here.

The paper was finished in a way that did allow them to be washed a few times, but they're early examples of fast fashion.

These paper dresses are done either in a shift or a silhouette, which were very wearable and were also very affordable for people to add these brightly colored garments to their wardrobe at the time.

We have another example of an analogous color relationship.

This time we're exploring red, blue, and purple in a variety of artifacts spanning from the 1980s all the way back to the 1890s.

The first gown that we have in this tableau is another example of a couture piece in our collection, this time by the French designer Pierre Baumann, which has this wonderful asymmetrical component to it, with the exaggerated cream colored bodice on the top juxtaposed with the more form fitting tubular skirt on the bottom, but separated by this elaborate beadwork, all of which would have been done by hand, we placed it adjacent to this 1920s.

Cloche hat.

Cloche is the French word for bell and hats.

In the 1920s fit very close to a woman's head, therefore they were called closures.

Right behind the hat is an 1890s beautiful velvet coat.

The Gilded Age or the 1890s was an extravagant time for fashion, personified in the voluminous silhouette of these leg of mutton sleeves that are so carefully pleated into the arms I with the fabric then also pleated around the neckline.

To create this dramatic collar, is the transition between our analogous section of red, blue and purple, and going into our last complementary section of purple and yellow, we're featuring this Pucci jumpsuit from the late 1960s.

Because how can you have an exhibit about color and not talk about Emilio Pucci, the famous Italian designer who became known for vivid color, expressive print work done in a variety of forms, including this unbelievable pantsuit that comes to us from one of our original charter members, Mae Barnard, again, one of the original donors to the museum.

We've replicated the geometric print that you see in the Pucci jumpsuit here, which is done entirely in silk in the graphic display that we're doing behind the Pucci jumpsuit.

As a way to further emphasize the graphic nature of Puccini's print designs from the 1960s, we transition from the Poochie piece into our final complementary section, which is very l.s.u inspired, which is our purple and yellow or purple and gold collection of garments that we're presenting for Color Me Fashion.

This section of the exhibition focuses again on a complementary color relationship of purple and yellow.

And one of my favorite pieces in the exhibition is this beautiful Dior day dress from about 1978, worn by a local Baton Rouge woman by the name of Winifred Winfrey.

The dress was donated by her daughter.

It's made from a very delicate silk chiffon that has a silver metallic thread running through the material.

It's a perfect complement because of the yellow components of its print, with the Fortuny fabric again in yellow that's behind it, and we transition from the Dior dress into this 1920s picture hat that's done in a yellow plated sisal with beautiful detail work in the very tiny, beautiful floral components that are done in shades of yellow and purple and green romantically.

And one of the more vibrant purple pieces in this grouping of objects is this quilted ensemble, which is a top and a skirt from the finished brand Marimekko, done in this deep purple, also with floral elements showing in orange and blue.

Marimekko is a brand today that still creates very contemporary, modern, easy to wear designs, and we've paired it with an oversize glass bead necklace done by the famous fashionista Iris Apfel.

The cases in the center of our gallery feature garments that are all pink, exploring monochromatic color as a means of fashion expression and one of the most interesting pieces in this collection of garments is this beautiful Chanel suit, done in shades of pink and white with the a chromatic black paired with a thin Chanel belt and displayed adjacent to these beautiful black patent leather Chanel shoes.

We've topped the whole thing off with a wide hat, again done in plaited sisal not by Chanel, but by another French caterer.

By the name of Yves Saint Laurent.

Exploring color and fashion also allows us to investigate certain themes.

For this section of the gallery installation, we look at sea glass.

Sea glass which washes up on our beaches, is really Mother Nature upcycling.

At the turn of the 20th century, Coca-Cola bottles were a light seafoam green color and our oceans are full of them.

Much of the sea glass that comes up onto our beaches today is in shades of blue and green, and this section of garments is inspired by sea glass, sometimes referred to as Mermaid's Tears.

One of the most special pieces in this section is this Rosalie McCraney gown with this large, exaggerated bow done in silk at the neckline.

Not only is the dress beautiful with its layered tiers of chiffon and the skirt, but it's special to Louisiana history as it was worn by Catherine Long, the wife of Russell Long, long time Senator from Louisiana and son of famed Louisiana Governor Huey Long.

And.

Color me.

Fashion is really an opportunity for us to look at this combination of fabric and silhouette and color as a way to explore joy and to immerse ourselves in the wonder and magic of color and fashion across time.

We've all heard the old phrase.

They don't make them like they used to, but maybe not used to describe video games.

Wisconsin based musician Jordan Davis feels exactly that way, though.

In fact, Davis loved the look, the feel, and the sound of old school video games so much that he decided to design one of his own, then to name it after his very own band spacecraft.

The game stars Davis and his band mates and features notable people and places in the Milwaukee indie rock scene.

Importantly, though, Jordan says that spacecraft replicates the style and the interface of video games of old So Ready Player One.

Right.

Yeah.

Cool.

I started my first band in high school, called Mystery Girls from green Bay.

It was a garage rock band.

Our first record came out when I was 19 or so.

That kind of set me on my way.

So I'm mostly a musician.

That's kind of my main discipline.

When I finally moved to Milwaukee in my 20s, I started a band called Spacecraft.

So spacecraft is a video game.

It's an eight bit NES game about my indie rock band.

And basically it's a kind of adventure where you're following the band around trying to retrieve the stolen master tapes of the new record.

Just because it was my first video game, I decided to stick to what I know.

Basically every stage in the game is a different venue or an establishment here in Milwaukee.

I just want to be a that.

So.

Video games have overtaken every other sort of entertainment media.

It's a it's a form of empowerment.

I think when you're giving the player the tools to accomplish a task and to solve problems, that's something that we can all relate to.

So I think that there is some sort of self-expression aspect that comes along with interactive media, because we all choose to experience it differently.

And I think there's something kind of profound about that.

I felt a little intimidated by the visual aspect of this project.

When I got started.

I hadn't done any visual art outside of random show posters, and probably about 1520 years.

The first thing that I actually ended up drawing was the front steps of the Cactus Club.

I worked at Cactus Club for many years, so it was very much you know, it was it also lived down the street.

So it was part of my neighborhood.

It was I couldn't drive to the freeway without driving past it.

So I was very, very intimate with, the location with tile based eight bit artwork.

Everything is representational.

You know, you're not doing one for one of anything.

You're trying to represent your subject the best way that people interpret it, the way that you want it to.

And I think I got it pretty close.

I think people that are familiar with Cactus Club, that have stood from that side of the street, across the street to look at it, will recognize it.

Our ex bass player, Serena, is a dear friend of mine.

He volunteered to be the villain of the game.

He, volunteered the premise that he would have stolen the master tapes in a fit of jealousy, and that we're basically tracking him down, trying to retrieve the tapes and put the record out.

So that involves, going to shows and cleaning up after our ex bass player.

It's just a lot of antics, I guess.

You call them.

I had very little idea of how much demand there would be for a new cartridge.

It seemed funny to me to make something for outdated hardware, and the more that I kind of researched it, the more I realized that it wasn't irrational.

And there was a lot of people out there that are interested in this stuff.

I just think that, like old technology record players, cassette players, old game consoles, they all have value.

The same way that we would write a piece of music for a piano, which was invented in the 1700s.

I have friends on every corner of the globe that are currently working with the console.

It's really nice to have a sense of community with any creative endeavor that you go into.

And game development can be an incredibly solo pursuit.

You know, it's a lot of time spent alone with headphones on, poring over details that others may not find interesting, but to be able to relate those experiences to a broader community of developers and players and create this feedback loop, it's really satisfying finding connection with people and communicating intentions.

I think that's what art is in general.

Finding that through games is no less fulfilling than it is through painting, or through playing guitar, or through doing anything else that you might fill your days with.

And that is that for this edition of Art rocks.

But never mind, because more editions of the show are always available at lpb.org/art rocks.

And if you love stories like these, consider Country Roads.

The magazine makes a vital guide for learning what's taking shape in Louisiana's cultural life all across the state.

Until next week.

I've been James Fox Smith and thank you for watching.

West Baton Rouge Museum is proud to provide local support for this program on LPB, offering diverse exhibitions throughout the year and programs that showcase art, history, music, and more.

West Baton Rouge Museum culture cultivated Art rocks is made possible by the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and by viewers like you.