Annette Becker, director of the Texas Fashion Collection (TFC) at the University of North Texas College of Visual Arts and Design, recently found photographs of interest within the collections at SMU’s DeGolyer Library. Housed within the library’s abundance of manuscripts, maps, photographs and rare documents are the Stanley Marcus Papers. The collection is comprised of photographs and manuscripts pertaining to the history of Dallas’s Neiman Marcus stores and of Stanley Marcus himself, whose innovative ideas changed the fashion landscape in North Texas and beyond.
During her research using the Stanley Marcus Papers, Becker encountered photographs associated with iconic Japanese fashion designer Hanae Mori, the first Asian woman to be accepted as a member of La Chambre Syndicate de la Couture Parisienne. In 1973, Mori won the Neiman Marcus Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion which was a yearly award created in 1938 by Carrie Marcus Neiman and Stanley Marcus. Recipients of the Neiman Marcus Award included couturiers like Coco Chanel, Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent, designers, journalists, manufacturers, and style icons who had had a significant influence upon the fashion of individuals such as Grace Kelly and Grace Mirabella. In the images below, on the right, Mori is pictured posing in front of one of her designs, while the photo on the left features her fashion show at Neiman Marcus, Dallas.
Above: Hanae Mori Fashion Show, 1974-10-21/1974-11-02, DeGolyer Library; Madame Hanae Mori in front of one of her creations, 1974-10-21/1974-11-02, DeGolyer Library.
The history of the Texas Fashion Collection is deeply intertwined with Neiman Marcus. By 1955, the Marcus brothers had established a collection honoring their aunt which they named the Carrie Neiman Memorial Fashion Collection. By then, other industry professionals had begun a collection of historical garments called the Dallas Museum of Fashion, which merged with the Neiman Marcus Collection. The joint collection grew exponentially; it was transferred to the University of North Texas in 1972, and was renamed the Texas Fashion Collection in 1989.
Becker is currently working on an educational project for the Collection. The research project featuring these materials is co-managed by Meredith Cawley, a lecturer in the UNT College of Visual Arts and Design Foundations program, and is focused around this dress by Mori. Becker’s interest in using photographs from DeGolyer’s collections for the project stems from a desire to supplement the physical fashion items in UNT’s collection with images to “help us tell the stories of who made those designs and how people encountered them in retail environments.” Photos are crucial, Becker stresses, for they aid in providing context for these stories. These photographs will be featured in an educational video and a larger initiative to introduce undergraduate students to the process of archival research. The video will also be available on the UNT College of Visual Arts and Design YouTube channel.
More information about the Texas Fashion Collection, upcoming exhibitions, and the collection’s digital resources can be found on its website. To explore the Stanley Marcus Papers, visit the SMU Digital Collections website for more.
This post was written in collaboration with Fiona Graybill. Fiona is a senior from Dallas, studying English and World Languages, with specializations in Arabic and Russian. On campus, Fiona is a member of the University Honors Program and serves on the Libraries Student Advisory Board. This past summer, she spent two months studying Arabic in Oman through the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center located in Washington, D.C.
Anne Peterson also supported the writing of the post. Anne serves as the Curator of Photographs at DeGolyer Library, and she has worked with the Stanley Marcus Papers for years.
Sources: https://www.hanae-mori.com/history_en; https://www.smu.edu/libraries/digitalcollections/smp; https://tfc.cvad.unt.edu/about/history