TROY — The Troy-Hayner Cultural Center presents the Flower Power: Flora in Fashion exhibit curated by Gayle Strege in partnership with the Historic Costume and Textiles Collection at The Ohio State University. The exhibit opened Friday, May 24 and will be on display through June 30. This beautiful exhibit showcases humankind’s relationship with our natural environment in an exhibition of historic flower-patterned clothing.
Explore humankind’s relationship with nature through the clothes we wear. Historic dresses, jewelry, shoes, and hats are displayed on the first and second floors of the Hayner. It’s complemented by Botany in Buttons, a display of collectibles from the comprehensive Ann W. Rudolph Button Collection in the second floor grand hallway. All of the items in the exhibition feature flower-inspired designs or plant-based materials and highlight the age-old connection between plants and clothing.
“The natural world has been an inspiration for clothing and textile designs since humans started decorating textiles and wearing clothes across cultures and geographies,” said Exhibition Curator Gayle Strege, who also serves as curator of the Historic Costumes and Textiles Collection at the Ohio State University. “Floral designs are timeless and universal, and plant materials play a large role in our production and ornamentation of cloth and clothing.”
The exhibition features fashion designs across the range of 20th-century art movements, including naturalism, modernism, abstract art, and pop art. The garments and accessories also display a range of the era’s textile techniques, notably supplemental warp, woven warp print, and embroidery. In addition to featuring floral patterns, the items in Flower Power are made of cotton, linen, hemp, jute, pineapple, raffia, palm leaves, tree bark, and other botanicals.
Among the garments in Flower Power: Flora in Fashion is a white floral lace dress worn by Ladybird Johnson, wife of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, in 1971 at her birthday party at the Argyle Club in San Antonio, Texas, a Yves St Laurent dress worn by Terre Blair Hamlisch, a native Ohioan and wife of composer Marvin Hamlisch, a pillbox-style hat worn in the 1960s by Annie Glenn, wife of Ohio senator John Glenn, and a 1920’s hat by Hermann Patrick Tappe who was originally from Sidney, Ohio and was famous for his millinery designs and described as the “Poiret of New York” in a 1930 shopping guide to the city. Also in the exhibition are two lavishly beaded 1930s-era purses.
Running concurrently with Flower Power is Botany in Buttons. The exhibition features hundreds of items from the Ann W. Rudolph Button Collection, a comprehensive collection of historic buttons and related artifacts within the Ohio State University Historic Costumes and Textiles Collection. Visitors can enjoy the floral designs of hundreds of buttons made of glass, metal, ceramic, bamboo, vegetable ivory (tagua nut), and other media. Also included are ceramic buttons made in Satsuma, Japan, a city known for its fine ceramics, and some with Royal Copenhagen and Crown Staffordshire maker’s marks.
To compliment the featured exhibit, the Hayner is hosting A Garden Party on Wednesday afternoon, June 5th from 1:00-3:00 PM. This event will feature a free jewelry making workshop by Hayner instructor Connie Galey, in which participants will receive all the supplies needed to make a beautiful piece of jewelry. Bonnie Harris Frey, owner of Harris Jewelers in Troy will have vintage and antique jewelry for sale as well as offer free jewelry evaluations for anyone curious about the value of their own jewelry. Bonnie is the only Certified Gemologist Appraiser in the greater Dayton Area and is therefore the foremost authority on jewelry appraisals in the Miami Valley. Refreshments will be served in the beautiful Hayner Courtyard where guests can relax and enjoy the gardens.
The Exhibit and Garden Party Event are free and open to the public.
The Troy-Hayner Cultural Center is proudly supported by the citizens of the Troy City School District through a local tax levy and generous gifts to the Friends of Hayner. Troy-Hayner Cultural Center is located at 301 West Main Street, Troy, OH 45373. Hours of operation are Monday 7–9 p.m., Tuesday – Thursday 9 a.m. – 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 9 a.m.–5 p.m., and Sunday 1–5 p.m. The Hayner Center is closed on holidays.
