‘Fashion in Residence’ at NorthPark Exhibit

One might argue that fashion is always in residence at NorthPark Center, but an exhibit on view until June 6 looks at how we dress when we’re at home.

The exhibit, Fashion in Residence, looks at design innovations and cultural changes associated with what we wear at home.

“From transforming homes into venues for entertaining during Prohibition in the 1920s to the COVID-19 pandemic reshaping our living spaces into primary sites for leisure, our wardrobes have long responded to the changing demands of our times,” the mall said in a press release.

“From a design perspective, at-home contexts have inspired styles previously unconsidered by Euro-American fashion consumers. While American designers turned to the Middle East and Asia to expand their design vocabularies, this cultural curiosity also resulted in the appropriation and the exotification of traditional forms of non-Western dress,” the release said. “The remnants of that humanistic yet problematic inspiration seeking remain today in the form of caftans, wide-legged trousers, and kimono-inspired leisurewear.”

At-home dress has also changed with the times, too — at one point, women wearing pants was not widely accepted, but some hostess ensembles even in the 1920s had some kind of “pantslike” garments.

“When televisions flooded American homes in the 1950s, designer Claire McCardell designed the first ‘television suit,’ an ensemble somewhere between a house dress and nighttime pajamas,” the release said. More recently, 2020’s “Nap Dress,” a lightweight cotton garment created by Hill House Home founder Nell Diamond, became popular as an entire country began spending a lot more time at home.

Part of the College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas and housed at the Denton campus, the Texas Fashion Collection is a unique repository that collects and documents historic dress and high fashion from past centuries through the present. The Texas Fashion Collection was created by a variety of notable groups and individuals whose vision and style continue to inspire students, researchers, and visitors. 

The exhibit is located on Level One between Neiman Marcus and Dillard’s.