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FASHIONING HISTORY T he Meadows Museum's exhibition "Canvas & Silk: Historic Fashion from Madrid's Museo del Traje" marks t h e f i r s t m a j o r collaboration between Madrid's Museo del Traje, Centro de Investigación del Patrimonio Etnológico (the Spanish National Museum for Fashion) and an American museum, as well as the first time its collection of historic Spanish garments and accessories has been exhibited in the United States. Rather than curating a standalone exhibition — something the Meadows By Lisa Collins Shaddock often does (notably, its 2007 "Balenciaga and His Legacy: Haute Couture from the Texas Fashion Collection") — curator Amanda W. Dotseth saw the partnership as an opportunity to bring the figures portrayed in the works of the Meadows' permanent collection to life. "I was really interested in trying to say something new about the permanent collection — about the works that our visitors already know and love," she says. Then the games began. Dotseth and her co-curator, the Museo del Traje's Elvira González, compared notes. "It was really fun, because I would throw up an image, for example, of our painting by Ignacio Zuloaga [The Bullfighter "El Segovianito," 1912], and she would say, 'We have a traje de luces' — what the traditional bullfighting costumes are called — 'and it's even the same color as the one in the painting.'" Suddenly the garments themselves — as well as the historical context of how they were made, the origins of the materials, and how they represented class distinctions — added new meaning to the works. "Paintings that are often in storage or aren't normally displayed in the galleries with the Velázquezes are getting their moment because they reveal something interesting about the history of fashion," Dotseth says. "Canvas & Silk" is divided into themes, including "Stepping Out," which Dotseth calls "the classic trope of the Flâneur — strolling the street to see who is out there and, also, to be seen. It's not only about dressing a certain way but having the right accessories. The hat. The gloves. They all convey information about you. Your wealth, your social standing. Not only those things but also your marital status … I was careful to include not just garments but accessories, because I am making an argument that they are often as key to accommodating social norms as the garments themselves." It seems some things truly never change. CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: COLLECTION AND © MUSEO DEL TRAJE, CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIÓN DEL PATRIMONIO ETNOLÓGICO, MADRID, PHOTO BY LUCÍA YBARRA ZUBIAGA; COLLECTION MEAD- OWS MUSEUM, SMU, © SUCCESSIÓ MIRÓ / ARS, NYC / ADAGP, PARIS, 2021, PHOTO BY MICHAEL BODYCOMB; COLLECTION AND © MUSEO DEL TRAJE, CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIÓN DEL PATRIMONIO ET- NOLÓGICO, MADRID, PHOTO BY JESÚS MADRIÑÁN; COLLECTION MEADOWS MUSEUM, SMU, PHOTO BY KEVIN TODORA. "Canvas & Silk: Historic Fashion from Madrid's Museo del Traje" and "Image & Identity: Mexican Fashion in the Modern Period," both on view at the Meadows Museum through January 9, 2022; meadowsmuseumdallas.org. TWO EXHIBITIONS AT THE MEADOWS MUSEUM BRING THE ART OF FASHION TO LIFE. Clockwise from above left: Manuel Piña [designer] and Alex Serna's [painter] Vestido (Dress), 1991. Joan Miró's Queen Louise of Prussia, 1929. Traje de luces, (chaquetilla, chaleco, calzón) [Bullfighter's Costume], 1876–1900. Ignacio Zuloaga's The Bullfighter "El Segovianito," 1912. 38