The Exhibit: In the Beginning

August 2020

Here I am tacking up the curtains in an attempt to cover up the paneling and create a soft photo background.

The Plan

The first test shots for the exhibit were taken in August of 2020, for what started as simply a documentation of my clothing collection. I’d asked Oakley, upon hearing she was in the area, to come model my clothing pieces for insurance purposes before I packed them away in their respective wardrobe trunks.

It was during this process that Oakley asked what my plans were for all the pieces I didn’t need for the exhibit. My response was I had no idea because at that point, no one was buying vintage clothing or accepting donations due to the COVID shutdown.

She responded by suggesting I sell them online, but I told her, I had no idea how to set that up. She, without missing a beat, said she could help me figure that out. So, we hatched a plan, but a lot needed to be done before we could set the plan in motion. At that point in time, you see, I was already in the process of moving my studio/workshop to the office space next door because my landlord was expanding his office into my space.

The Move

So, after shooting a few test shots, the rest of August was spent setting up a new studio/workshop, complete with a sewing and layout table, storage shelving, clothing racks and floor-to-ceiling photo booth. Once that was done, we moved all the exhibit pieces in, which, along with the wardrobes full of clothing, included six wardrobe steamer trunks and 10 exhibit display windows.

The Test Shots

The 1930s

Getting back to the test shots taken in the old studio, we started with my 1930s collection, working out the perfect travel wardrobe for the fashionable lady of the day. My makeshift photo booth was my old sheer curtains from my dining room tacked to the wall. The soft background worked great but the wrinkles in the curtains, which I could not steam or wash out, drove me crazy. Still, I loved some of those shots. So, I’m sharing a few. Here are what became known to us as the Gloria shots. It seems without realizing it, I had created in my mind a character for each decade. Gloria, named for the actress Gloria Swanson.