See more than 100 years of fashion unveiled through twenty-six unique garments dating from 1880 to 1991. From stunning haute couture evening gowns to everyday wear, this amazing collection of women’s clothing was purchased and worn by six generations of the Roddis family of Marshfield, Wisconsin. It is both a time capsule of American fashion and a remarkable story about individual expression and taste set against a backdrop of small town Wisconsin.
Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.
Whether or not you go, American Style and Spirit: The Fashions and Lives of the Roddis Family, 1850-1995 is a beautifully designed must-have for every fashion enthusiast. Brought to life for the first time outside the attic in which they were stored for generations, here are more than 300 garments and accessories, beautifully preserved and complemented by archival objects, family photographs, and letters, as well as evocative descriptions of whom the garments belonged to, when they were made or bought, and even where they were worn—all by members of the Roddis family of Marshfield, Wisconsin. Author Jane Bradbury describes the joy of discovering the clothes when her aunt, Augusta Denton Roddis, showed her the astonishing collection. A remarkable resource, the book presents the garments and their designers in the context of the various eras in which they were created, from the turn of the 20th century through the 1920s and the Depression to the mid-1990s.
Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.
American Style and Spirit: The Fashions and Lives of the Roddis Family, 1850-1995
