Dress for Excess

Fashion collides with high art at the Peabody Essex Museum.

American Dream, by Sarah Thomas

Courtesy of World of WearableArt Limited

Lady of the Wood, by David Walker

Courtesy of World of WearableArt Limited

Peabody Essex Museum
www.pem.org

Lady of the Wood, by Alaskan carpenter David Walker, is just that: a mannequin sporting an eighteenth-century ball gown crafted entirely of mahogany, maple, cedar, and lacewood. Walker steamed, bent, and polished timber to form a hooped skirt and “puffy” sleeves cuffed by fine-grained lacewood that matches a dainty bodice. Some 32 such ingenious ensembles—selected from winning entries in New Zealand’s annual design competition WOW® World of WearableArtTM—appear at the Peabody Essex Museum through June 11. For 25 years, the popular competition has drawn a diverse set of artists who vie to merge fashion and high art. New Zealand jeweler Sarah Thomas, inspired by the shiny, sleek lines of vintage cars, created her own spunky, don-able version, American Dream, from papier-mâché, builder’s foam, and vinyl. It lacks an engine, but who wouldn’t want to cruise through a party dressed in the ’57 Chevy Bel Air classic?

Read more articles by Nell Porter-Brown

You might also like

Rendering Dreams in Art

South Korean artist’s socially themed photographs at the Peabody Essex Museum

Faith through Film

The “Accidental Talmudist” on making Jewish movies

Flocking Together

A former educator takes on one last big project: sheep farming

Most popular

The Professor Who Quantified Democracy

Erica Chenoweth’s data shows how—and when—authoritarians fall.

The Juggler’s Tale

A Dumbarton Oaks exhibition connects “an enchanted past” to the human condition.

“Do You Find That Reasonable?” Harvard Undergraduates Discuss a Changing University

A student panel grapples—civilly—with shifting policies and differing opinions.

Explore More From Current Issue

Matt Levine in a dark blazer and glasses stands smiling with arms crossed in front of a large window in a city building.

Matt Levine’s spunky Bloomberg column

group of students perform on a stage in front of a crowd

In comedy groups, students find ways to be absurd, present, and a little less self-conscious.

Colorful glass bottles and nautical trinkets line a window shelf, with a ship in a bottle as the centerpiece.

I Spy Creator Walter Wick at the Norman Rockwell Museum