SCAD FASH’s ‘Entering Modernity’ showcases a changing world through 1920s fashion

The “Roaring Twenties,” also known as the “Jazz Age,” ushered in an adventurous new world of fashion, the focus of a new exhibition at SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion and Film. “Entering Modernity: 1920s Fashion from the Parodi Collection” invites us to tour the fashion of a changing world of emboldened and evolving femininity, the sumptuous embrace of expressive new art styles, and cultures interconnected by global trade.

SCAD FASH director of fashion exhibits Rafael Gomes and Parodi Costume Collection curator Gonzalo Parodi joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes to share some insight into the exhibition.

According to Parodi, the collection “spans close to 150 years of the history of fashion design. It starts with the work of Charles Frederick Worth in the mid-19th century and includes work all the way to the present.”

The bulk of the collection comprises nearly 12,000 garments, accessories, and ephemera. The exhibition starts with the work of Mariano Fortuny, a Spanish polymath and designer whose work helped define fashion conventions of the 20s because they wanted to “explore modernity in the context or in the definition of fluidity and practicality,” says Parodi.

The exhibition highlights the transitional period that women in the upper echelons of society were experiencing, moving from more conservative and traditional roles into a sudden period of liberalization across multiple fronts.

The collection is on view at SCAD FASH through Aug. 25.